OKONKWO, JOHNPAUL CHIDIOMIMI (2026) OVERVIEW OF CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROCEDURE IN NIGERIA. Other thesis, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu.
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Abstract
This study critically analyzes the constitutional amendment process in Nigeria as provided under section 9 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), and pinpoints the legal, political, and institutional challenges that have made meaningful constitutional amendment in Nigeria under the Fourth Republic difficult and unachievable, and makes some practical recommendations for change. Drawing on the colonial constitutional heritage, the study explores how the compounded supermajority threshold requirements of section 9 (two-thirds of both houses of the National Assembly, followed by at least two-thirds of the State Houses of Assembly) came about and how they have been inherited by the military constitutionalism of the past and are being used in practice as a constitutional paralysis device. The doctrinal research method is used, with primary sources such as the 1999 Constitution and amendment acts, judicial decisions, and legislative instruments being consulted, while secondary sources such as textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, and Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre institutional reports are consulted. All of this political fragmentation and inter-party rivalry, gubernatorial control over state legislatures, lack of direct popular participation mechanisms, and the costly time and money of every amendment cycle effectively make the formal amendment process unworkable. The Supreme Court in Attorney General of the Federation v Attorney General of Abia State is the best example of these structural failures that have replaced adaptation to constitutional principles by the judiciary. Comparing the amendment procedures of the United States and the Republic of South Africa provides some lessons for action: graduated amendment thresholds, popular participation mechanisms, and the role of active judicial scrutiny of the validity of amendments. The study calls for the development of a graduated amendment threshold, a mechanism for a constitutional referendum, a standing commission of constitutional review, more robust judicial review, lower amendment costs, institutionalizing party accountability in constitutional amendment, and the long-term establishment of a participatory sovereign national conference to create a constitution that is popularly legitimate.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Other) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | K Law > K Law (General) |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Law |
| Depositing User: | COMFORT AJALA |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Jul 2026 13:31 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Jul 2026 13:31 |
| URI: | http://eprints.gouni.edu.ng/id/eprint/5986 |
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