Separation of powers: Panacea for good governance in Nigeria

Abstract

Democracy or Representative Government has been treasured world over as the best system as against despotic or autocratic government and indeed any other form of governmental system that allows the fruits of governance to be manifest and to be felt both by the leaders and the led. Thus, good governance which flows from democracy as a system of government cannot be realizable without some principles or doctrines formulated by some political philosophers which today have been recognized and entrenched into various Constitutions as the oil which lubricates the modern democratic government. This paper examined an aspect of so many of these principles which is ‘Separation of Powers’. It views this doctrine ‘Separation of Powers’ as a panacea for Good Governance in Nigeria. The scope of this paper is limited to this concept of Separation of powers in the light of current issues in Nigerian Democracy relating to vetoing Presidential Assent to a Bill, that is overriding the assent of a President to a Bill, Election sequence Bill Vis-à-vis relevant laws on elections and the Executive Orders/Proclamation of the President. The author concludes with proffering some solutions to the apparent crisis between the Executive and Legislative Arms of Government which sometimes overflows into Judiciary.

Keywords: Separation of Powers, Good Governance, Panacea, Nigeria, Constitution