Legal Critique of Instruments of Executive Branch Administration and Modes of Government Policy Implementation in Nigeria

Abstract

Some instruments of executive branch administration have remained controversial in Nigeria. This is especially the case with executive orders which have been perceived as instruments that encroach into the legislative powers and consequently an egregious violation of the sanctity of separation of powers which undergirds the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria1999 (as amended)[CFRN]. Against this background, the paper undertook a legal critique of instruments of executive branxh administration which by extension are the tools of government policy implementation in Nigeria. The doctrinal legal research methodology was used and the sources of data were primary and secondary sources of information. The paper found that the CFRN grants to the president and the governors in Nigeria the power to issue various instruments, such as executive orders in the discharge of their constitutional duties of implementing the CFRN and laws. By way of recommendation, the paper advocated that the CFRN should be amended to incorporate the express power of the President and a Governor to issue executive instruments, particularly executive orders as instruments of government policy implementation and that the courts should rise up to the occasion to invalidate executive branch instruments issued in violation of the CFRN or statutes, among others.