The People’s Republic: How they rule

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

4. The Government of each Region was headed by a Premier who was empowered to assemble and apportion portfolios among his team of Ministers.

5. The House of Representatives and the Council of Ministers no longer had official members as before, but continued to have three ex officio members as follows:

The Chief Secretary.

The Financial Secretary.

The Attorney-General.

The Governor, who now became Governor-General, continued to preside over the Council of Ministers.

6. With the exception of the Northern Region, the seats of all ex officio and official members in the Regional legislatures and Executive Councils were abolished. The Western Legislature was free to elect its own President (styled Speaker in the Western House of Assembly). The Governor (formerly Lieutenant-Governor) himself presided over the meetings of the Northern House of Chiefs; but the President of the Northern House of Assembly was appointed by the Governor acting in his discretion. In more or less the same fashion, the Speaker of the Eastern House of Assembly was appointed by the Governor acting in his discretion after consultation with the Leaders of the majority and Opposition parties.

7. The Governor of a Region (formerly Lieutenant-Governor) continued to preside over its Executive Council as before.

8. Under the Macpherson Constitution the Minister administered the Department (not Ministry) under his charge in association with the Official Head of the Department. What this meant in practice was that the Minister had no decisive say on any issue relating to his Department. If the Minister failed to carry the Official Head of the Department along on any subject, then the matter would have to fall into abeyance. This was one of the defects of the Macpherson Constitution. Accordingly, the new constitution conferred upon Ministers both at the Federal and Regional levels general direction and control of, and individual responsibility for, the Departments within their portfolios. Departments now became Ministries, and Official Heads of Departments became Permanent Secretaries of the Ministries.

9. Each Region had complete control of the personnel of the various sectors of its public service. But the appointment, promotion and discipline of Judges and Civil Servants remained vested in the Governor advised by a Public Service Commission.

10. Lagos was severed from the Western Region and declared a Federal Territory subject only to the authority of the Federal Government.

11. With regard to the demand for self-government in 1956, Her Majesty’s Government decided that it was not prepared to fix a definite date for self-government for Nigeria as a whole. However, it accepted a declaration of policy that it was prepared to grant, in 1956, ‘to those Regions which desired it, full self-government in respect of all matters within the competence of the Regional. Governments, with the proviso that there should be safeguards to ensure that the Regional Governments did not act so as to impede or prejudice the exercise by the Federal Government of the functions assigned to it now, or as amended by agreement in the future, or in any way make the continuance of the federation impossible. ‘5

12. The 1953/54 Conference agreed that another Conference should be convened not later than 31 August 1956, for the purpose of reviewing the new constitution, and examining the question of self-government. The last four words were later interpreted to mean the demand for a target date for self-government for the whole of Nigeria, as well as the detailed provisions for self-government by any Region which desired it. Her Majesty’s Government felt that it needed the long adjournment for three years to enable it to judge the capability of Nigerian leaders for additional political responsibility.

For reasons with which we do not need to concern ourselves here, the Conference did not reconvene until May 1957. At this Conference, both the East and the West were granted Regional Self-Government with effect from August 1957. It was at the resumed Conference of 1958 that Regional Self-Government was granted to the North with effect from March 1959. As a result of agreement reached at this Conference, a Nigerian Federal Head of Government, designated Prime Minister to distinguish him from Regional Premiers, was appointed in 1957.

A comprehensive review of the 1954 constitution which was initiated in 1957 was concluded at the resumed meetings of the Conference in 1958. It was at the close of this Conference that the famous declaration was made that ‘if a resolution is passed by the new Federal Parliament early in 1960 asking for independence, Her Majesty’s Government would agree to that request and would introduce a Bill in Parliament to enable Nigeria to become a fully independent country on the 1st October, 1960.’6 It must be pointed out that the detailed agreements reached at the 1957/58 Conference were embodied in Nigeria’s Independence Constitution of 1960. The legal drafting had taken about two years to accomplish.

It will be seen that it was from the ruins and ashes of the Macpherson Constitution that Nigeria’s swift and far-reaching political advances, beginning with a wide measure of Home Rule in 1954 and culminating in independence in 1960, had, like the mythical phoenix, arisen.

‘Report on the Amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria and Administration, 1912-1919, paragraph 187.

The Nigeria (Legislative Council) Order in Council, 1946.

Proposals for the Revision of the Constitution of Nigeria, CMD 6599, paragraph 8.

Report by the Conference on the Nigerian Constitution, London, August 1953. CM 0 8934.

Ibid paragraph 28.

Report by the Resumed Nigeria Constitutional Conference, London, October

1958, paragraph 84.

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