Senate to revise 2004 laws of the federation

The Nigerian Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters in partnership with the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation is set to begin the process of revising the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004.

This was sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator Kaka Shehu Lawan (APC, Borno Central) during Tuesday’s plenary.

The Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) is an alphabetical compilation of Nigerian laws which are subject to regular updates in line with current realities.

The compilation of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria is periodically carried out with the authority of the Attorney General of the Federation, subject to the approval of the National Assembly through the instrumentality of an Act of Parliament.

While leading the debate on his motion, Shehu explained that the statutes in the LFN were enacted in different years before and after Nigeria’s independence even though they were all cited as “LFN 2004”.

He said the LFN has remained unrevised for almost two decades, with the implication that the several laws enacted in Nigeria from 1 January 2003 till date remain excluded from the compilation.

The federal lawmaker further said there was an attempt to revise the LFN in 2010, but the effort did not materialisze because there was no legal backing.

He equally expressed concern that the continued non-revision of LFN has not only left numerous statutes out of the compilation but also retained duplicated statutes with all the confusion contained therein.

Senator Shehu further noted that the non-compilation of the several federal statutes leads to a dearth of knowledge of many existing laws on the part of Nigerians, especially students, lecturers, researchers, lawyers, legislators, and judges among others.

He stressed that the revision of LFN was long overdue and as such will be in the interest of democratic governance in Nigeria to commence the revision process without further delay.