Q: Nigeria got independence on October 1, 1960 and became a Republic on October 1 1963. What is the difference?
A: Well, Independence day and Republic day are two very important days in the life of a country, but they are not the same.
Nigeria gained "independence" from Britain and therefore was officially founded in October 1, 1960. However, we were not totally independent! What we gained was a partial independence until 1963 when the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Despite our 1960 independence, the political and constitutional character of Nigeria was not fully decided as the constitution of the free Nigeria was yet to be framed. As a matter of fact, we still followed British constitution and acknowledged British Monarch as the head of the government.
In October 1st 1963, Nigeria became a republic. We got fully separated and were recognized by the comity of nations as a separate country. We then adopted our newly written constitution with the right to choose our government.
In summary, a nation is not truly independent until she becomes a republic.
Thank you very much sir for highlighting the differences between 1960 and 1963 constitution of Nigeria. I also read something similar below:
ReplyDeletehttps://bscholarly.com/differences-between-1960-1963-constitution-nigeria/