The Nigerian constitution has again been amended

On Friday, the 17th of March, 2023, the president assented to some constitutional amendments passed and transmitted by the National Assembly to the president for his signature in January this year.

Under this amendment, the coverage of the concurrent legislative list was further widened thereby tightening up the exclusive legislative list with the aim of further promoting true federalism in Nigeria.

Exclusive legislative list are those lists/items that only the federal government have the power to legislate on; ie those ambits that are reserved exclusively for the federal government; for example, currency printing, minting and redesign, military mobilization etc while the concurrent list are those lists/items  that both the federal government and the state governments have the power to legislate on for instance; Education etc 

These are five major highlights of the amendments so you can arm yourself with the right and current provisions of the constitution.

1. States governments can now Generate and Distribute Electricity. Previously, the issue of electricity generation and distribution was in the exclusive legislative list thereby reserving anything to have to do with it strictly for the federal government but now states of the federation that are interested in generating and distributing electricity can explore that line now. 
2. Own Railway; before this constitutional amendment, it was only the federal government that had the power and legal rights to build railways and operate the rail transport system, but now states who deem so fit and are capable can build railway networks and operate it within the state. It should be noted that if the railway operates interstate it then falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government but inasmuch as the railway network operates intra-state or within the state, it is still within the jurisdiction of the state government. 
3. The President-elect and Governors-elect henceforth as a matter of constitutional requirement is to appoint its cabinet members not later than 60 days after they are sworn into office. This requirement has placed a clog on the wheel of a president or a governor waiting several months before appointing his or her cabinet members as we experienced with president Buhari’s first tenure. 
4. State assemblies and state judiciaries now have financial autonomy/independence. This implies that they will henceforth receive revenue allocation directly from the federal government allocation account and they are at the liberty to expend their resources on what and however they deem fit; the state judiciaries and the state house of assemblies will no longer be financially dependent on the state governments to function as it has always been the case.
5. Renaming of the Nigeria Prison Service to the Nigeria Correctional Service and Devolution of Powers for Correctional Services. State governments can now establish and operate their own correctional services (formerly known as the Nigerian Prison service) alongside the federal government. This is to say we can now have Lagos state correctional service or Ebonyi state correctional service.