The Federal Government has reviewed 932 federal enactments and 731 subsidiary legislations, identifying 663 for inclusion in the proposed 2025 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), while 269 were classified as obsolete, spent or repealed.

The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja during the presentation of the final report of the Committee on the Review, Update and Consolidation of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

The AGF explained that the review became necessary to ensure that federal laws remained coherent, current, accessible and responsive to the country’s evolving needs.

According to him, the next phase would involve presenting the report to President Bola Tinubu for onward transmission to the National Assembly for the necessary legislative consideration and action.

He called for the cooperation of the National Assembly to facilitate the timely consideration of the proposed legislative measures, while stressing that the exercise should not end with the production of the 2025 edition but should establish a sustainable mechanism for regular reviews and updates of federal laws.

“The gap of more than twenty years between the last consolidation and the present exercise should not be repeated,” he said, emphasising the need to strengthen the capacity to track new enactments, amendments and subsidiary legislation.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Olawale Fapohunda, SAN, described the presentation of the final report as the culmination of a rigorous national exercise and the beginning of a new phase in law reform in Nigeria.

Fapohunda said the committee was mandated to examine federal statutes enacted up to 2025, harmonise related provisions, identify obsolete, redundant, repealed and spent legislation, incorporate laws missing from the 2004 edition and ensure conformity with constitutional developments and relevant judicial decisions.

The committee chairman said 14 working groups and supporting technical teams were established to ensure a systematic review, with particular attention to drafting accuracy, consistency, consolidation of amendments, correction of errors in numbering and cross-references, and standardisation of commencement dates and legislative headings.

He disclosed that the committee examined 932 federal enactments and 731 subsidiary legislations, clearing 664 enactments and their accompanying subsidiary legislation for inclusion in the proposed 2025 edition, while 268 enactments were dropped as obsolete, spent or repealed.

Fapohunda also highlighted some of the challenges identified during the review, including archaic statutory language, complicated cross-references, inconsistent numbering and outdated statutory fines and fees.

He noted that some fines and fees had remained as low as N10 or N50, despite prevailing economic realities, and called for appropriate legislative intervention to address such outdated provisions.

The committee further recommended that the AGF issue an advisory note to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) outlining established procedures for reviewing their enabling laws and subsidiary legislation.

According to Fapohunda, the recommendation became necessary following recurring deficiencies in legal drafting observed in several statutory instruments initiated by MDAs.

He also advocated the establishment of a centralised national repository of federal legislation to improve access to existing laws and facilitate continuous revision.

Fapohunda said the absence of a consolidated and easily accessible platform for sourcing federal statutes had significantly complicated the committee’s work, adding that digital tools, including cloud-based document management systems, shared working platforms and virtual meetings, were deployed to facilitate collaboration

He said consultations with the National Assembly, the Nigerian Law Reform Commission, the National Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, the Lagos State Law Reform Commission, the Law Commission of England and Wales, LexisNexis South Africa and LawPavilion also provided valuable technical and comparative perspectives.

Fapohunda urged the Federal Ministry of Justice to establish a process for receiving and addressing errors or omissions that might subsequently be identified in the publication, stressing that maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the Laws of the Federation would require continuous attention.

The committee, he said, had recommended the institutionalisation of a structured mechanism for continuous law revision to prevent lengthy gaps between consolidation exercises.

He formally presented the committee’s final report, alongside draft copies of the proposed 20-volume Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2025, to the AGF for consideration and further executive action. (Nigerian Tribune)