The defects of the McPherson Constitution and fall out from the Enahoro 1953 motion for Independence resulted in several developments regarding the Nigerian Constitution.
Motion For Nigerian Independence By Chief Anthony Enahoro, 31st March, 1953 – “Mr. President, sir, I rise to move the motion standing in my name, “that this House accepts as a primary political objective the attainment of self-government for Nigeria in 1956”.
Motion For Nigerian Independence By Chief Anthony Enahoro, 31st March, 1953
Mr. President, sir, I rise to move the motion standing in my name, “that this House accepts as a primary political objective the attainment of self-government for Nigeria in 1956”.
The Secretary of State, Oliver Lyttleton presided over the meeting which had four items on the agenda, namely:
Shortcomings of the MacPherson constitution.
Changes required to correct the shortcomings.
Steps to be taken to put these changes into effect.
The issue of self-government in 1956.
The conference which sat between July 30 and August 22, 1953, reached the following agreements.
That a federal system of government should be established.
That the regional Lieutenant-governor of Nigeria be called governors, while the governor of Nigeria should be called Governor-General.
That legislative power should be shared between the federal, state and the federating units.
That Lagos should be separated from the Western region and made a neutral federal territory.
That a conference to be held in Lagos in 1954 should ratify a separate regional administration in the Cameroons if the people of the territory expressed their desires through a referendum.
That her majesty’s government would grant self-government to those regions which desired it in 1956.
Our Founding Fathers gathered in August, 1953 to negotiate,”The Way Forward” Her Beneficiary Sons have gathered in August, 2022 to continue the negotiations of “The Way Further ” 69 years later still in that Strange Land of our Colonial Masters!
“O God of creation,
Direct our noble cause;
Guide our Leaders right:
Help our Youth the truth to know”
To God be the Glory!
