Guide last updated by Heather Memess, May 2022
This guide was created by Heather Memess, Legal Research Support Librarian at the IALS Library.
Click here for Heather's contact details.
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Nigeria is a Federal Republic in West Africa made up of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja. Nigeria was a British colony from the second half of the nineteenth century with the modern state formed following the merger of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. Nigeria became an independent member of the Commonwealth in 1960. In the following years Nigeria underwent a number of military coups until the 1999 general election restored civilian rule based on a multiparty democracy.
Nigeria has an elected President who acts as head of state and head of the national executive. The power of the President is checked by the bicameral National Assembly which includes a Senate and a House of Representatives. Both houses elect members for four years. Nigeria’s legal system is based on a combination of English common law, statutory law, customary law (particularly relating to family law) and Islamic law in the northern states. While the major languages of Nigeria are Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, English is the official language.
IALS Library holds both primary and secondary legal materials for Nigeria including legislation, law reports, books and journals.
The country classmark for Nigeria in IALS Library is GH4 (or FOL GH4 for oversized items). Researchers are advised to check the Library Catalogue because older materials are kept in the closed reserve collection rather than on the open shelves.
The Constitution is the supreme law in Nigeria. The current version is the 1999 Constitution which restored democratic rule in Nigeria and remains in force today. IALS holds a number of books on the Nigerian Constitution including this one which includes a full text copy of the 1999 Constitution:
Smith I O, The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria annotated (Ecowatch Publications 2005)
There are also books on Nigeria’s constitutional history such as:
Akande J, Introduction to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979 (Sweet & Maxwell 1982) [includes a copy of the 1979 constitution]
Odumosu O I, The Nigerian Constitution (Sweet & Maxwell 1963) [includes a copy of the 1963 constitution]
The Constitution can be accessed online in World Constitutions Illustrated, from HeinOnline. This service provides consolidated and original texts along with amendments and older versions. Full-text links to commentaries and articles about the Nigerian Constitution and a select bibliography of constitutional works are also given.
The library has printed sets of both federal and state legislation for Nigeria. Federal laws, including subsidiary legislation, can be found in the annual bound volumes which are available back to 1914:
Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Lagos: Federal Ministry of Information
There are also volumes of revised laws including the 2011 revision which has all the legislation in force up until 2011, as amended:
Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2011. Durban: LexisNexis
In addition IALS holds earlier revisions for 1990, 1958, 1948 and 1923 along with some revisions for individual states prior to unification in 1914 (check the Library Catalogue for details).
Each state makes its own laws. The library holds printed legislation for most Nigerian states including Lagos, Niger, Rivers, Bornu and Benue states but these sets are not as current as the federal legislation. IALS also holds legislation from earlier organisations of states and regions eg. Eastern Region and Western Region.
Examples of state legislation include:
The laws of Akwa Ibom State: in force on the 31st day of December 2000. Wembley: Millhaus Publishing
The laws of the Plateau State of Nigeria: in force on the 1st day of January 1994. Abingdon: Burgess (authorised by the Government of Plateau State)
The laws of the Kogi State of Nigeria: in force on the first day of January 1997. Abingdon: Burgess (authorised by the Government of Kogi State)
The laws of Lagos State of Nigeria: in force on the 30th day of June 1994. Lagos: Government of Lagos State of Nigeria
IALS also holds books on Nigeria’s laws focusing on specific topics eg.
Asein, J. O, Nigerian copyright law & practice (Books and Gavel 2012)
Smith, I. O., Landlord and tenant law in Nigeria (Ecowatch 2018)
Olokooba, S. M, Nigerian taxation : law, practice and procedures simplified (Springer 2019)
Law reporting in Nigeria is done on a commercial basis and there is no official series. IALS holds over 70 law report series for Nigeria including both federal and state reports. Check the Library Catalogue for full holdings.
This is a selection of federal law reports:
Nigerian weekly law reports 1985 onwards
Nigerian monthly law reports 1964 - 1985 (incomplete)
All Nigeria law reports 1961 - 1987
Nigerian commercial law reports 1964 - 1979
Judgments of the Supreme Court of Nigeria 1972 - 2000
Reserved judgements of the Supreme Court of Nigeria 1975 - 1980
Nigerian criminal reports 1980 - 1983
Weekly reports of Nigeria 2000 – 2005
Banking and financial law reports 2012 - 2015
Examples of state law reports include:
Abuja law reports 1992 -1993
Delta State law reports 1996
Rivers State law reports 1970 - 1976, 1980
Selected judgments of the High Court of Lagos State 1972 - 1990 (incomplete)
Selected judgements of the Supreme Court of Nigeria are made available online by the International Centre for Nigerian Law
IALS holds a number of digests of Nigerian law to help with identifying cases on specific legal topics. These include:
Cases on Nigerian land law index 1880 - 1975 (2 vols)
Current Supreme Court digest (Feb 1992 - August 1992)
Digest of appeal cases (Supreme Court and Federal Court of Appeal) 1979 -1980
Digest of Supreme Court cases 1956 - 1984 (10 vols)
Index to law reports 1880 - 1990
Nigeria: index to law reports 1880 - 1999 (IALS has 1880-1990)
Nigerian criminal cases index 1880 -1975
IALS has a good collection of Nigerian law books on various topics, with current material on the open shelves and older material kept in the reserve collection. The following list of recent acquisitions has been selected to illustrate briefly the range of subjects and publishers represented in the collection.
Akanle, O and Nkpe, D (eds), Corruption and development in Nigeria (Routledge 2022)
Garba, A, Freedom of religion and its regulation in Nigeria : analysis of preaching board laws in some states of Northern Nigeria (Brill 2018)
Ibidapo-Obe, A and Babatunde A, (eds) Trajectory of Nigerian law ; festschrift for Dean I. O Smith (University of Lagos 2016)
Jack-Osimiri, U, Conveyancing transactions law, practice and procedures. Vol 1. (Chigaung Law Publishers 2019)
Nwabueze, R, (ed), Modern essays on Nigerian law (Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2019) Olokooba, S, Nigerian taxation : law, practice and procedures simplified (Springer 2019)
Smith, I. O, Landlord and tenant law in Nigeria (Ecowatch Publications 2018)
Utuama, A, Critical issues in Nigerian property law (Malthouse Press 2016)
There are also a number of titles which provide useful starting points for researching Nigerian law:
Egwummuo, J, N, Dynamics in Nigerian legal system (Academic Publishing Company 2003)
Mwalimu, C, The Nigerian legal system. Vol 1. Public law (Peter Lang 2005)
Mwalimu, C, The Nigerian legal system. Vol 2. Private law (Peter Lang 2009)
Okonkwo, C O, (ed), Introduction to Nigerian law (Sweet and Maxwell 1980)
Tobi N, Sources of Nigerian law (MIJ Professional 1996)
Search the Library Catalogue for full details of library holdings.
IALS holds a selection of Nigerian law journals. These include:
Nigeria Journal of Contemporary Law 1970 - 1996
The Nigerian Bar Journal 1957 - 1986
Nigerian Current Law Review 1982 - 1996
The Nigerian Law Journal 1964 - 1986 (available up to 2018 on HeineOnline accessed via library catalogue)
The Commonwealth Law Bulletin (1974 - current) and Journal of African Law (1957 - current) also have good coverage of Nigerian law.
Check the Library Catalogue for full details of holdings.
Guide to Nigerian legal information by Yemisi Dina published on Globalex in 2020 provides an outline of the legal system and details of primary and secondary sources of law.
Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre is an independent not-for-profit organisation featuring news, publications and bill tracking.
International Centre for Nigerian Law is a membership organisation providing free access to Nigerian legal resources including judgements of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Eagle-i Internet Portal for Law has access to legal information from around the world. You can browse by jurisdiction and choose Nigeria to display details of 13 primary and secondary resources.
WorldLII: Nigeria has links to sites providing Nigerian legal information from government and other official sites.