Amendment or Alteration

No alterations or amendment of the provision of the constitution can be made, unless the procedure provided for in the constitution itself for such an alteration is complied with. It must be noted that such provisions are indeed cumbersome, very hard to overcome, special, and or they appear to be a syciphean task to overcome. 

For instance, to amend the Switzerland Constitution, a referendum of the electorate has to be done, while in Belgium a prescriptive quorum has to be made. In America, an initiation to amend or alter any part of the constitution must be done by two-thirds of both Houses of Congress and ratified by the Legislature of three-fourths of the states. In the  alternative, an initiation by two thirds of the states has to be done first which has to be ratified by the conventions in three-fourths of the states. Professor DE Smith in his book titled the New Commonwealth and its Constitutions published by Stevens & Sons London had this to say on Jamaica, Malaysia, Nigeria, Trinidad and Uganda-

“Bills for constitutional amendment in Jamaica require the support of an absolute majority of all
members in each House; or, in the case of entrenched and specially entrenched provisions, a two-thirds”

majority of all members in each House, subject to submission to a referendum if the senate does not give the necessary majority. Specially entrenched provisions can not be altered in any event without
recourse to a referendum. The two-thirds’ majority rule is likely to prove a substantial barrier to the
adoption of amendments to which the opposition does not agree; for eight out of twenty-one senators are the nominees of the Leader of the opposition”.

The two-thirds rule appears in one form or another in all the constitutions – in a diluted form in India but reinforced in Malaysia, Nigeria, Trinidad and Uganda by the requirement that the necessary support must be forthcoming at both the second and third readings of the Bill.

However, the position in Nigeria is contained in all the sections of its different constitutions. See S. 4(1) of the 1963 Constitution, section 9 of the 1979 Constitution and section 10 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Promulgation) Decree 1989 which state mutatis mutandi as follows:

1.  The National Assembly may, subject to the provisions of this Constitution alter any of the provisions of this Constitution.
2.  An act of the National Assembly for the alteration of this Constitution, not being an Act to which section 8 of this Constitution applies, shall not be passed in either House of the National Assembly unless the proposal is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of the members of that House and approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of not less than two-thirds of all the States. 
3.  An Act of the National Assembly for the purpose of altering the provisions of this section, section 8 or chapter IV of this Constitution shall not be passed by either House of the National Assembly unless the proposal is approved by the votes of not less than four-fifths majority of all the members of each House, and also approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of not less than two-thirds of all the States. 
4.  For the purposes of section 8 of this constitution and of sub- section (2) and (3) of this section, the number of members of each House of the National Assembly shall, notwithstanding any 

vacancy, be deemed to be the number of members specified in section 44 and 45 of the 1979 Constitution. 

And for clarity of purposes the provisions are as follows:
 (1) An Act of the National Assembly for the purpose of creating a new state shall only be passed if:

(a) a request, supported by at least two-thirds majority of members (representing the area demanding the creation of the new state) in each of the following, namely :

(i) the Senate and the House of Representatives;
(ii) the House of Assembly in respect of the area; and
(iii) the local government councils in respect of the area; is received by the National Assembly;

(b) a proposal for the creation of the state is thereafter approved in a referendum by at least two-thirds majority of the people of the area where the demand for creation of the state originated;
(c) the result of the referendum is then approved by a simple majority of all the states of the Federation supported by a simple majority of members of the Houses of Assembly; and
d) the proposal is approved by a resolution passed by two-thirds majority of members of each house of National Assembly.

(2) An Act of the National Assembly for the purpose of boundary adjustment of any existing State shall only be passed if:
(a) a request of the boundary adjustment, supported by two-thirds majority of members (representing the area demanding the boundary adjustment) in each of the following, namely:
(i) the Senate and the House of Representatives;(ii) the House of Assembly in respect of the area, and
(iii) the local government councils in respect of the area, is received by the National Assembly; and

(b) a proposal for the boundary adjustment is approved by: (i) a simple majority of members of each House of the National Assembly, and (ii) a simple majority of members of the House of Assembly in
respect of the area concerned.