Book Reviews
| Published date | 01 October 1965 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1965.tb00657.x |
| Date | 01 October 1965 |
Book
Reviews
THE
CONSTITUTIONAL
LAW
OF
TilE
NIGERIAN
REPUIlI.IC,
by B. O.
Nwabuez
e,
Butterworth and Co., 1964;
pp.
454; 77s. 6d.
From
time
to time
there
appears
in
the
columns
of
the
national
press some
letter
bewailing
the
fact
that
this or
that
African state,
until
recently amember
of
our
colonial empire, has now forwaken
the
'Westminster
Model'.
This
is
only comprehensible, surely, if
one
completely ignores
the
manner
in
which
we
attained
this model,
and
the
eccentric characteristics
of
the British
people
which
this
model
happens
to suit.
With
little
more
thought
one
may
understand
how
alien
and
how
utterly
unsuitable
this
model
often is in
the
wholly different
circumstances
of
African society
and
African traditions.
It
should
rather
be
a
constant
source
of
wonder
that
so
many
new
members
of
the
Commonwealth
have
seen fit to
adopt,
in its
outward
trappings
at
any
rate,
our
own peculiar
system
of
parliamentary
government.
That
Nigeria is
one
of
those who have
adopted
our
model
in
more
than
its
outward
trappings in
clear
from Mr.
Nwabueze's
new book.
The
author
is a
member
of
the
staff
of
the
University of
Lagos
and
this is his second book on
the
law
of
Nigeria.
In
it
one
finds all
that
'one
would
expect to find in a
standard
work
upon
the subject.
Thus
the
author
examines
the
nature
and
characteristics
of
the
Nigerian constitution,
and
he
takes pains to
point
out
where it is similar
and
where
dissimilar to
the
English
constitutional system.
He
considers in detail
the
various organs
of
Government,
both
Federal
and
Regional. He considers the division
of
powers.
He
traces the
constitutional
and
political history
of
this
great
African
state
from
the
founding
of
the
British Consulate in 1848
until
the
creation
of
the
Republic
in 1963.
It
is
perhaps
pertinent
to observe
that
much
of
this has
been
done
before by
Mr.
Odumusu
whose book on
the
Nigerian
Constitution was
published
in 1963,
The
question
must
always arise, is
another
book on the subject justified,
when
so
many
other
aspects
of
Nigerian
law
have
yet to receive
attention?
This
is a
different
kind
of
book.
It
is
written
from a different angle. Politics
are
of
course
irretrievably
entwined
in
the
subject,
and
it is I
think
a
valid
criticism
of
the
earlier book
that
its
author
wrote
more
from
the
standpoint
of
the
political
historian
than
from
that
of
the
constitutional lawyer.
This
is a lawyer's book.
Mr.
Odumusu
traced
the
constitutional progress
of
his
country
by political
landmarks.
His
landmarks
were
the
attainment
of
independence
and
the
crisis
in
the
Western Region.
These
may
be valid
landmarks
but
they
are
political
ones.
There
has
been
another
since his book
appeared,
namely
the
creation
of
the
Republic
and
Mr.
Nwabueze
in this new book deals
with
this,
and
all
the
aspects
of
Republicanism;
he also deals
with
the
implications
of
membership
of
the
Commonwealth
and
the
subject
of
citizenship,
neither
of
which
subjects
attracted
his predecessor.
Mr.
Nwabueze
sees a
much
more
conspicuous
land-
mark,
and
it's alawyer's
landmark.
Those
of
us
who
stand
outside
the
African
arena
are
able
to
trace
the
gradual
decline
of
our
concept
of
freedom
and
liberty there.
It
is easy for us to
condemn,
for we take
our
own
freedom for
granted.
It
is easy to forget
the
centuries
of
watchfulness
and
strife
which
have
gone
into
securing
the
tolerance
which
is
part
of
our
heritage
today.
Tolerance
is no
part
of
the
African scene -yet. Advice is
not
easily accepted
nor
criticism
tolerated.
The
heady
intoxication
of
freedom has too often led to a
demand
for
281-
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