Presentation of a Draft Constitution to Nigeria's Military Ruler | September 14th 1976

Chief Rotimi Williams presents the Head of State, Lt. General Olusegun Obasanjo with a draft constitution; inaugurating the process of the nation's transition from military to civilian rule. The event took place on Tuesday, September 14th 1976 at Dodan Barracks, Lagos. The Drafting Panel of which Williams was the chairman, had been appointed by Obasanjo's predecessor, the late General Murtala Muhammad. The panel had five guidelines: 1. The creation of genuine and truly national political parties 2. Provision of an executive presidential system of Government 3. Provision for an independent judiciary 4. Provision for corrective institutions like the corrupt practices tribunal 5. Provision for a Public Complaints Bureau, and constitutional restriction on the number of states to be created. Transcript: Chief Williams: "Last year, your illustrious predecessor appointed all of us present here and a few others who are unable to be here this morning to prepare a draft constitution for Nigeria. The draft was to be prepared by us for publication to the public so that all Nigerians could express their views on what has been submitted. That will be followed we understand by the Constituent Assembly comprising elected representatives of Nigeria who will then consider the draft constitution in the light of the considerations that have been made by the public and enact the constitution into law. On behalf of members of the constitution drafting committee, I present to your excellency the two volumes of our report." Lt. Gen. Obasanjo: "You were officially selected, picked, for this task. And from the reports we have had we feel we haven't made too serious an error of judgement in our selection. I believe this is not just self praise I think, where on an occasion like this praise should be given, I think it should be given - within the next month or so this report should be made public, it should be made available to every Nigerian and we hope that when this is done, it will be debated." Source: Reuters News.