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The New Constitution of Nigeria, 1979: “The Washington Model”?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

James S. Read
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Extract

The end of almost fourteen years of military government, with the restoration of civilian rule in Nigeria on 1st October, 1979, would inevitably have been a landmark of great significance for Africa and the Commonwealth. What has given it quite exceptional importance is the fact that Nigeria, turning its back on Westminster, has chosen to adopt a new constitutional structure which can aptly be regarded as a version of “the Washington model”. This appears as a striking and innovative departure among Commonwealth constitutions which, despite the proliferation of republican systems, including executive presidencies and, in Africa, the spread of one-party models, generally preserve—in theory at least—certain basic features of “the Westminster model”: hence the preference for a parliamentary executive, in many states combined with presidential rule, however unrealistic in practice the notion of ministerial responsibility to parliament may have become. The new Nigerian Constitution has no place for such terms as “parliament”, “cabinet” or “prime minister”, yet the transition from the Westminster to a Washington model is a logical, predictable one likely to prompt imitation elsewhere: indeed, the new Constitution of Ghana, where military government also came to an end in 1979, has taken the same path.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1979 , pp. 131 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1979

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References

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