This is the process that is referred to as domestication.
If the legislative powers of the federation are vested in the NASS…
If the territory of the Federal republic of Nigeria is the combined territories of its constituent units, including the littoral space…
And if a federal law shall prevail over any laws made by the state assemblies that is inconsistent with the federal law…
Then it follows that any law validly made by the NASS assembly is a law valid and enforceable across the entire territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The implication of this, and the only logical conclusion that can be drawn from this is that any Federal Law, or any Law validly made for the Federation of Nigeria, by its NASS is a law valid across all the territory of the federation, and one that requires no domestication.
And this is without prejudice to the power of the State Assemblies to make laws on items on the concurrent legislative list for their respective states.
It only means that states can legislate on any item on the concurrent legislative list irrespective of whether the NASS has already legislated on it; but only subject to the fact that it must not be inconsistent with the Federal legislation.
JUSTICIABILITY OF CHAPTER TWO OF THE CONSTITUTION:
Another of such contrived contentious issues is that with respect to the justiciability or enforceability of the provisions of Chapter Two of the 1999 constitution.
The popular, received and conventional wisdom is that the provisions of this chapter, titled Fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy, unlike those of Chapter Four, titled Fundamental Rights, are not justiciable and enforceable.
However, a careful reading of all the twelve [12] sections of this chapter, from sections 13 through 24, shows that each of these sections is qualified with the verb ‘’shall’’. Each of the sections of this chapter includes the qualifying phrase “The state …….., All organs of government etc ….. Shall …….”.
Shall is an obligatory verb, not a conditional verb. If the drafters of the constitution intended these provisions not to be mandatory, and to be voluntary subject to cherry picking, the operative verb would have been “May”; and the operative phrases would have been “The State …. All organs of government etc… May” ….
The implication of this, and the logical conclusion that can be drawn is that the provisions of Chapter Two of the 1999 constitution are obligatory on the state and citizens; and to that extent are enforceable and justiciable.
DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY:
One of the more popular phrases thrown around like that of restructuring Nigeria is that of Local Government Autonomy.
And because state governments have been encroaching unconstitutionally on the autonomy of Local Governments there have been agitation for Local Government reforms.
It is important to state clearly that there is an urgent necessity for the reform of local government in Nigeria. However the way to do this is to enforce the provisions of the constitution, and include punishments for violating the provisions of the constitution with respect to local governments, by state governments, through necessary amendments to enforce the provisions of the constitution.
The 1999 constitution in Chapter 1, Part I, Section 7 already guarantees a system of democratically elected local government councils.
The implication of the combined reading of all the provisions of section 7 is that only democratically elected local government councils are recognised by the constitution. Therefore caretaker committees, sole administrator-ships are alien to the constitution, and to this extent are therefore unconstitutional.
No reading of the provisions of the constitution however liberal can legitimise the practice of appointing care taker committees and or sole administrators for local government councils.
The functions conferred by law on the Local governments are also clearly set out in the fourth schedule to the constitution; and the combined reading of subsections 5 & 6 of section 7 of the constitution is to the effect that statutory allocations to Local governments are guaranteed, and that these shall be ensured by both the NASS and State Assembly.
In fact subsection 3 of section 7 mandates local government councils to participate in the economic planning and development of the local government area, and further requires that to this end an Economic planning board shall be established by law enacted by the state assembly for the local council area.
It follows that two key things are necessary to be undertaken in the course of local council reform to further guarantee their autonomy.
First the violations of the combined provisions of section 7, Chapter One of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria must be explicitly punished.
Provisions for these needs to be included in any amendment. These provisions may include setting up an ombudsman body to oversight compliance with the constitutional provision.
