As a journalist and researcher attempting to document the activities of the Nigerian government, I have come to a disturbing conclusion: we are not being governed by the Constitution, but by witchcraft.
Not the theatrical kind. The administrative kind.
The kind where rules exist—somewhere—but not where citizens can see them.
If you have ever tried to fact-check your Representative, trace a bill, verify a procedural objection in court, or obtain an official rule of practice, you already understand the ritual: you ask for the document, and the document dissolves into mist.
The Secret Society at the National Assembly
Section 60 of the Constitution empowers the legislature to regulate its own procedure. That is orthodox constitutional design. Parliaments everywhere adopt Standing Orders to structure debate, voting, discipline, and committee referrals.
But in Nigeria, accessibility remains the problem.
In 2025, the Senate spokesman suggested that citizens often misunderstand legislative actions because they are unfamiliar with the Standing Orders. Quite so. The public is unfamiliar—because the Standing Orders are not consistently published in a current, authoritative, and easily accessible format on official government platforms.
When procedural rules are difficult to obtain, accountability becomes theoretical. You cannot argue procedural impropriety if you cannot lay your hands on the procedure.
It transforms a public legislature into something resembling a private lodge.
The Phantom Committees
Committees are the engine room of legislation. Bills are shaped, stalled, or quietly neutralised there. Oversight is exercised—or avoided—there.
Yet up-to-date committee membership lists, chairmanship rosters, and structured contact information are not consistently maintained in a centralised, searchable, official repository.
This opacity is not administratively neutral. If citizens cannot identify who oversees petroleum, defence, or education policy, they cannot engage the process meaningfully. Representation without visibility is representation in theory only.
The Courts: Procedure by Oral Tradition
If the legislature is opaque, the judiciary is not immune.
Nigeria’s legal system rests on common law foundations. Precedent binds. Procedure disciplines discretion. The Evidence Act and procedural rules are not optional—they are mandatory guardrails.
Yet a deeper structural problem persists: access to the very rules governing litigation.
In several jurisdictions, obtaining current copies of Civil Procedure Rules, Criminal Procedure Rules, and Practice Directions is an exercise in persistence bordering on pilgrimage. They are not consistently published online in consolidated, up-to-date form. More troubling still, physical copies are not always readily available in court libraries.
Consider the absurdity: a lawyer, litigant, or researcher seeks to verify a filing timeline, service requirement, or evidentiary protocol—and cannot access the governing procedural instrument either digitally or physically at the court premises.
Procedure is the architecture of justice. If the architecture is hidden, then adjudication becomes discretionary.
Add to this instances where judicial reasoning appears to sidestep established procedural preconditions—such as strict evidentiary requirements—and the risk compounds. When precedent is not transparently applied or departures are insufficiently reasoned, predictability erodes.
A justice system where procedural texts are inaccessible and procedural discipline appears elastic ceases to operate as a rules-based order. It begins to operate as personality-driven adjudication.
Law should never feel like folklore.
The Vanishing Law Library
In the United Kingdom, legislation is centrally accessible through The National Archives. Statutes are consolidated. Amendments are integrated. Historical versions are archived.
Nigeria lacks an equivalent, comprehensive, official, consistently updated legislative database consolidating federal statutes in authoritative form.
Civil society organisations such as Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) have attempted to bridge the transparency gap by tracking bills and publishing legislative resources. Their work is commendable.
But when NGOs function as the de facto national law library, something is institutionally inverted.
The state must publish its own law—clearly, freely, and comprehensively. Otherwise, the doctrine that “ignorance of the law is no excuse” begins to sound structurally unfair.
The Silent Phones
Communication is the most basic test of public administration.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) lists contact details. External bodies such as Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) have compiled directories of Nigerian trade-related agencies.
But for many citizens, contacting a specific department remains a frustrating enterprise. Websites are outdated. Email addresses yield no response. Telephone lines ring into oblivion.
The Freedom of Information Act was enacted to dismantle secrecy culture. Its implementation, however, remains uneven.
An unreachable agency is not merely inefficient. It is democratically dormant.
Governance by Incantation
Witchcraft, stripped of superstition, is simply power exercised through secrecy.
When:
- Legislative rules are not easily accessible,
- Committee operations lack transparent publication,
- Civil and Criminal Practice Rules are not consistently available online or in court libraries,
- Judicial departures from precedent appear insufficiently reasoned,
- Statutes are scattered and unconsolidated,
- Agencies cannot be reliably contacted,
we are not confronting isolated inefficiencies. We are confronting systemic opacity.
Democracy requires visibility of rules, accessibility of law, and procedural fidelity.
The remedies are administrative, not mystical:
- Publish and regularly update Standing Orders on official platforms.
- Maintain accessible, current committee rosters.
- Consolidate and publish federal legislation in an authoritative database.
- Ensure Civil and Criminal Procedure Rules and Practice Directions are publicly available online and physically available in court libraries.
- Strengthen judicial adherence to precedent and transparent reasoning.
- Enforce robust compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.
Sunlight is not revolutionary. It is procedural hygiene.
Until the rulebooks are visible, the procedures accessible, and the institutions reachable, governance will continue to feel less like constitutional democracy and more like incantation.
The spell does not require exorcism.
It requires publication.
Centre for Nigeria Progress 