The Nigerian National Assembly by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030119058
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Nigerian House of Representatives in Historical Perspective

The historical emergence of the Nigerian House of Representatives is best discussed under three epochs. The first epoch was during the colonial era when the legislature was created as an avenue to accommodate Africans in the governance process. The history of the Nigerian House of Representatives dates back to January 1, 1947 when the Nigeria (Legislative Council) Order in-Council came into effect. Prior to this period, there were several agitations for increased participation of Africans in the determination of their own affairs which prompted Sir Arthur Frederick Richard to submit constitutional proposal to this effect to the Secretary of State for the colonies in December 1944 (Nwosu et al. 1998, p. 25). The British government approved the proposal which led to the emergence of the Richard constitution. The constitution makes provision for the creation of the Legislative Council made up of 45 members with the governor as its president. The members include 16 official members (13 ex officio and 3 nominated members) and 28 unofficial members (4 directly elected and 24 indirectly elected or nominated). The Legislative Council was inaugurated in 1947 by Sir Arthur Richard and vested with the power to make laws for the whole country (National Assembly 2010). The Legislative Council has Sir Richard as its president, Chief S. Ade Ojo as the clerk, assisted by Mr. B. A. Manuwa, with Mr. E. A. Mensah as the sergeant-at-arms.

The John Stuart Macpherson’s constitution of 1951 retained the structure of the Legislative Council but with expanded membership. However, the Oliver Lyttleton Constitution of 1954 established the Federal House of Representatives with 92 members from the North, 42 from the West, 42 from the East, 6 from Southern Cameroons and 2 from Lagos; all directly elected (Nwosu et al. 1998). The constitution granted “independence” to the legislature by creating the office of the speaker. Premised on this, Sir E. A. Fellows was appointed as the first speaker of the Federal House of Representatives (Nnamani 2006, p. 3).

The second epoch of the development of the Nigerian House of Representatives began when parliamentary system of government was introduced in preparation for political independence. On August 30, 1957, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, a ranking member of the Legislative Council since 1947, was made the prime minister with Sir Fredrick Metcalfe retaining his post as the speaker of the House of Representatives since 1955 till 1960 (National Assembly 2010). Though, the introduction of the Senate Council in 1959 brought about bicameralism in Nigeria but did not take away the power of the House. Immediately after independence, the Nigerian House of Representatives had its first Nigerian speaker, Rt. Hon. Dr. Jaja Amicha Nwachukwu (from Afikpo North constituency of the Eastern region). This parliamentary arrangement was sustained after independence and throughout the first republic until January 15, 1966 when the military struck.

After 13 years of military rule, power was transited to democratic administration in 1979 with the introduction of presidential system of government. This signalled the third epoch in the historical development of the Nigerian House of Representatives.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.