Nigerian Constitution's Conflicting Sovereignty Provisions Raise Questions on National Identity
The Nigerian Constitution, specifically the 1979 and 1999 versions, contains conflicting provisions regarding the locus of sovereignty. The Preamble states that "We the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria... do hereby make, enact and give to ourselves the following Constitution," implying sovereignty resides with the nation (the people). However, Section 2 (1) declares, "Nigeria is one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign state," attributing sovereignty to the state. This creates a constitutional collision where supreme authority is simultaneously ascribed to both the nation and the state, a distinction that the drafters of the constitution, whether by accident or design, collapsed. This ambiguity has led to questions about where true supreme authority lies in Nigeria.
