Posted by Chester Morton / Tuesday, 6 December 2016 / No comments
The features of Nigeria's 1954 Lyttleton Constitution
Introduction
The Lyttleton constitution emerged out of constitutional
conferences held in Lagos and London to discuss improvements on the earlier Macpherson
constitution that preceded the Lyttleton constitution. These constitutional
conferences eventually gave birth to the Lyttleton constitution.
THE FEATURES
Introduction of the federal system
One of the features of the Lyttleton constitution was the
fact that the federal system of government was introduced. This was a clear
indication that the country, Nigeria was going to become a federal country. Under
the new constitution, power was to be shared between the regional units and the
federal government.
Council of Ministers
The constitution further made provision for a Council of
Ministers. The Council was made up of 12 Ministers, three of whom were
appointed by the Governor-General from each of the three regions making up the
federation. The Governor-General himself was the president of the Council
Ministers. The main duty of the Council was to formulate policies and initiate
bills to be introduced in the House of Representatives.
House of Representatives
The constitution made provision for a House of
Representatives. The difference between this new constitution and the previous
one was that this one had a room for a Speaker of the House who presided over
deliberations instead of the Governor in the previous one. There were three
ex-official members, 42 members from both the North and the East and the 92
from the Western regions.
Position of prime Ministers
The constitution also created the position of a Prime
Minister for each the three regions. This was the first time this had happened.
One of the functions of the Premiers was to advise the Governor.
Creation of a federal capital
The constitution made provision for the creation of a federal
capital called Lagos. This new federal capital was created when a piece was
taken off the Western Region and declared the federal capital territory.
