CONSTITUTIONAL SUPREMACY IN NIGERIA: AN OVERVIEW

Abstract

The practice of constitutional democracy in Nigeria is a mixture of both observance and breach of supremacy of the Constitution. It is so in the sense that the dry letters of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 are sterile, dormant or docile unless activated and brought to life by a judicial pronouncement of a court of law declaring certain executive or legislative acts as unconstitutional and therefore null and void. This means that where there is a breach of the Constitution unless and until an action is taken out challenging it, such breach persists albeit clothed with the toga of ‘constitutionality’ or being ‘constitutional’ and actually in some situations becomes the law until pronounced unconstitutional or inconsistent with the Constitution. This has given rise to a plethora of cases of unchallenged violations of the Constitution resulting to injustice sometimes against the federating States and violations of human and civil rights of the citizens. This surely does not represent the spirit of constitutional supremacy. In addition, it was found that there is a seemingly unending tussle of supremacy between constitutional supremacy and sovereignty of the people, the makers of the Constitution. This conflict is predicated upon where lies the ultimate supremacy. This research adopted the doctrinal methodology using primary and secondary sources of information and takes an examination of the concept of constitutional supremacy from both de jure and de facto perspectives. In the end, it is recommended among others that the Constitution being a legal document should have an auto operating clause that automatically renders unconstitutional, null and void any act that breaches it so as to maintain its supremacy and integrity at all times.