The History of the Constitutional Developments in Nigeria

Nations are governed by laws that the people give unto themselves. It is unimaginable what will become of a nation without laws. To avoid a sure descent into anarchy, people impose on themselves codes of conduct to regulate their various forms of relationships. These codes of conduct come in the form of laws with the ‘chief amongst them being the Constitution which defines the fundamental basis upon which a state is constituted. A Constitution sets out the rights and duties of citizens of a country to which it applies on the one hand and also the duties and responsibilities of the government that the people give unto themselves. Among so many other things, Constitutions determine the relationships amongst the citizens of any given nation and between citizens and the gov eminent.This paper attempts an examination of what a Constitution entails and also considers Nigeria's constitutional development through the three definitive eras of its existence as a nation: colonial, post-colonial civilian dispensation and the post-colonial military dispensation. These eras played significant roles in Nigeria's constitutional history. It is hoped that at the end of the study, the reader will better understand how we got where we are in our constitutional development and make everyone interested and better equipped to make contributions especially in this period of constitutional amendment.