WHAT IS CONSTITUTION, TYPES AND FEATURES

In every system of government in contemporary societies, every government that is concerned about its legitimacy always looks for a legal instrument that would give a legal backing to its activities and politics. A most acceptable instrument in many countries has been a coordinated body of provisions that are designed to guide the government so that its decisions and practices gain legitimacy.
Such a systematic body of provisions is often called constitution.

WHAT IS A CONSTITUTION

   Ordinarily, the constitution of a thing refers to its make up. In this sense, constitution relates to the word "constitution". But we intend to use the word constitution in larger sense.

   A constitution is the system of law and principles, usually written down, according to which a country or an organization is governed. It is an embodiment of the agreed principles and rules under which a state is governed. "Agreed principles" means that because the provisions of a constitution are normally binding on a number of otherwise different persons or groups of people, the principles embodied in a constitution are normally debated by various interest groups or their representatives who ensure that their group's interests are protected to constitution before they endorse.

         TYPES OF CONSTITUTION

1. WRITTEN CONSTITUTION: A constitution may be written or unwritten. It is written if the rules and regulations, rights and duties of the citizens, the power and limitations of government, and how the country is governed are all, compiled on paper as one single document which can easily be referred to section by section.

2. UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION: It could be the case that the agreed provisions for running a state may be so simple and uncomplicated, and therefore so easy to remember, that citizens of a state may not see any real need to reduce them to a single document. A constitution is therefore unwritten if it's provisions are not found in a single document written at particular time. Such constitutions are usually made up of convention, that is, long established laws declared by judges in special court cases. It is possible that some parts of an unwritten constitution may be found in some document, but the issue is that all the provisions can not be found in a single document at a particular time, e.g the constitution of Great Britain.

3. RIGID CONSTITUTION: This is the type of constitution that cannot be amended by a single law-making process by the legislature. They have a special procedure entrenched in them for the purpose of amendment. Rigid constitution are usually simple documents commonly used in countries like USA and Nigeria, that operates the federal system of government.

4. FLEXIBLE CONSTITUTION: A flexible constitution is one which is can be easily amended by a simple law making process of the legislature. Both written and unwritten constitution can be flexible or rigid, depending on the relative ease or difficulty of the process of amendment. Flexible constitution usually operates in countries with unitary system of government, and are usually most suitable for small countries with less divergent ethics groups.

FEATURES OF A CONSTITUTION
The features of a constitution are as follows :
1. It usually contains a preamble which states its origin

2. It defines the type of government (I.e presidential or parliamentary)

3. It categories the duties of citizens in a state.

4. It states the obligation of the state towards her citizens

5. It specifies the type and function of the institution existing in a state.