CENTER FOR LAWS OF NIGERIA: FEDERAL LAWS
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PUBLIC HOLIDAYS ACT
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
1. Public Holidays
2. Power to appoint special days to be public holidays
3. Power to alter day appointed to be a public holiday
4. Provisions as to acts on public holidays
5. Days to be kept as public holidays when public holidays fall on Fridays to Mondays
6. Provisions as to Government Departments working on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays
7. Short title, etc
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS ACT
An Act to repeal all the State Laws on public holidays and to make provisions for the whole of the Federation for public holidays and other related matters.
(COMMENCEMENT) (1st January 1979)
(2) Subject to section 1 of this Act and subsection (1) of this section, the Governor of a State may by public notice appoint a special day to be kept as a public holiday in the State concerned or in any part thereof, and any day so appointed shall be kept as a public holiday.
(3) In this section ‘public holiday’ includes part of a day and any day declared as a work-free day.
Provided that where a day declared to be kept as a public holiday for the celebration of a religious festival is found not to be the actual day on which the adherents of the religion concerned perform the religious festival, it shall be lawful for such adherents to take time off work on that actual day for the celebration of such festival.
(a) if two days appointed as public holidays fall successively on a Friday and a Saturday, only the Friday concerned and no additional day in lieu of that Saturday shall be kept as a public holiday.
(b) if any day appointed to be a public holiday falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, only the Saturday or Sunday concerned and no other day in lieu of either of such days shall be kept as a public holiday.
(c) if two days appointed as public holidays fall successively on a Saturday and Sunday, only the Saturday and Sunday concerned and no additional day or days in lieu of the Saturday and Sunday shall be kept as public holidays; and
(d) if two days appointed as public holidays fall successively on a Sunday and a Monday, only the Monday concerned and no additional day in lieu of that Sunday shall be kept as a public holiday.
(2) In this section, the “appropriate authority” means
(a) with respect to any Ministry or Department of the Government of the Federation, the Minister of the Internal Affairs, and
(b) with respect to any Ministry or Department of the Government of a State, the State Commissioner charged with responsibility for matters relating to public holidays.
(3) In this section, references to Department include references to any Court or tribunal set up pursuant to any written law or any other public institution the emoluments of whose employees are paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation or of a State or any other public fund of the Federation or of a state and references to members of the armed forces of the Federation and the Nigeria Police Force.
(2) It is hereby declared that notwithstanding the provisions of any other enactment or law, any day appointed as a public holiday by or on the direction of the Minister, during the period commencing from 1st September, 1976 and ending immediately before the coming into operation of this Act shall be deemed to have been validly so appointed.
SCHEDULE