₦airaland Forum

Sisi, na you i see so. Im delighted to see you on the judges panel.

Out of all the judges on that panel you are the only one I can truly say has good head on their shoulder.....the rest are scandalous, but we will manage them. If any debater give you palava let me know dear.

Desola, my eyez....

Oni yeye, lol. Dont let Gbawe find out o

Paul, im confused, what points are you making here with your post?

OAM4J: Sorry guys been away for a while. Now back.

So far...

JUDGING CRITERIA:

1, Presentation(opening, flow, closing) - 4 marks
2, Logic of arguments - 4 marks
3, Strength of facts & examples - 4 marks
4, Persuasiveness - 4 marks
5, Demonstration of knowledge/understanding of the subject - 4 marks

Total score from a judge = 20, from 5 judges = 100

TOPIC FOR OCTOBER
FIRST ROUND - 1914 AMALGAMATION - A HISTORICAL MISTAKE?
FINAL ROUND - SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE - ULTIMATE PANACEA TO NIGERIA'S PROBLEMS?

DATE:
First round: Saturday, October 27, 2012
Final round: Sunday, October 28, 2012

... more volunteers for the debate please

OAM,

I dont know anybody that will say the 1914 amalgamation is a blessing. So why is it even a topic of debate? It will be nice to have contestans open on that historical note....but anyone presenting it as a blessing is doomed to lose.

(continuation of series)

IT is easy to understand that when a person is unemployed or underemployed, it simply means that in the case of a worker there is either no job opportunity at all, or not enough job opportunity for him. If he is a self-employed person, it means that either people don't want his goods and services at all, or do not want enough of them to keep him fully employed. In other words, unemployment or under-employment simply means non-utilisation or under- utilisation of human resources, as well as under-utilisation or  misutilisation of natural resources. 

In a mature economy suffering from  incipient or secular stagnation, some unemployment may be excusable. There, all the natural and material resources, which are not economically redundant, are already being  fully utilised, and the additional employment of a single  manpower calls for technological and managerial feat of a surpassing character. But in a virile and growing economy such as ours - with super-abundant resources only the  fringes of which are only so far being tapped - to talk of impracticability of full employment is a confession of our utter impotence or reprehensible unwillingness  to mobilise and deploy our resources to provide, in Beveridge's words, 'more vacant jobs than unemployed men.' 

In this book, I have indicated five courses of action, which must be pursued for the attainment of full employment. I will only call attention briefly to  two of them, which are more crucial than the others.The first obvious step towards full employment is to ascertain the number and geographical distribution of the unemployed and under-employed persons in Nigeria. Once this  is done, the second step will be to observe, and strictly  adher  to the first of what Beveridge, in his famous book, FULL EMPLOYMENT IN A FREE SOCIETY, describes as 'three rules of finance', which enjoins  that 'total outlay (that  is investment) at all times  must be sufficient for full employment'. 

With regard to this first rule Beveridge declares: This is a categorical imperative taking precedence over all other rules and overriding them if they are in conflict with  it'. In other words, Beveridge regards his first rule of finance   as  absolute; and goes  further to affirm Keynes's view that ‘in a community suffering from deficient demand' (that is from unemployment and under-employment), it is better to employ people on useless projects, like 'PYRAMID BUILDING, OR DIGGING HOLES AND FILLING THEM UP AGAIN, THAN NOT TO EMPLOY THEM AT ALL. IN DEFAULT OF A BETTER POLICY DIRECTED TO THE PRODUCTION OF USEFUL THINGS', Beveridge continues, 'ANY OF THESE MAY BE BETTER THAN DOING NOTHING AT ALL. THOSE WHO ARE TAKEN INTO USELESS  EMPLOYMENT WILL, BY WHAT THEY EARN AND SPEND, GIVE USEFUL EMPLOYMENT TO OTHERS. IT IS BETTER TO EMPLOY PEOPLE, HOWEVER THE MONEY FOR PAYING THEIR WAGES IS OBTAINED, THAN NOT TO EMPLOY THEM AT ALL: ENFORCED  IDLENESS   IS A WASTE OF  REAL RESOURCES AND WASTE OF LIVES WHICH CAN NEVER BE MADE GOOD, AND WHICH CANNOT BE DEFENDED ON ANY FINANCIAL GROUND'.

I only want to add now that it is my considered opinion that we can, mainly from our own internal resources, and partly from such external resources as we can requite with our exports, provide enough outlay or investment for the attainment of full employment in Nigeria. What we need above all things are scientific planning, efficient organization, honesty, and discipline.I am fully aware, and it is, I think, agreed by common consent that the most controversial topic in this book is FREE EDUCATION AT ALL LEVELS. For this reason, I have devoted considerable space to an extensive and detailed discussion of the subject at page 47-57 and 102-130 of the book.

At pages 47 and 48, I have said as follows:'Only two years ago, the areas of controversy concerning this subject were social desirability, financial practicability, and priority. Today, the first has all but disappeared. But there are still many who genuinely doubt our capability to find the means to introduce and maintain free education at all levels, in the foreseeable future. I have, therefore, decided to consider only the other two aspects of the debate: priority, and financial feasibility'. Since penning these words, and especially within the past few days, the area of controversy has been further narrowed, in responsible and respectable quarters, to financial practicability. If we could find the money, it was said, the scheme could start at once.

I agree that free education at all levels is a very expensive programme. But I most strongly disagree with those who declare that it is beyond the resources of Nigeria to embark on the programme now. Accordingly, I will try to demonstrate presently, as has been carefully done in the book, that the scheme is financially practicable NOW. But before doing so, I would like to express my dismay at the extreme superficiality, and the utter scholastic inadequacy of some of our so-called intellectuals in their approach to this very important subject.

(To be continued)

THIS SPACE IS INTENTIONALLY RESERVED FOR TABLE INSERTION.

[quote author=ndu_chucks]@_Negro, you don come again, lets hope we will gbadun this one as well. Please post the tables referenced in your post ASAP.[/quote]I checked the online repository and could not see the tables but i will continue to search for them. I must continue with the articles but i will reserve spots to insert the tables retroactive.

My aim is to raise the level of our public debate

THE ordinary man in the street, the general run of journalists, as well as non-economists and non- educationists can be excused for saying that free education at all levels is financially impracticable now and in the foreseeable future time. They have neither the academic qualifications and discipline for  doing the necessary search, nor access to research sources and materials to enable them to quantify, in financial terms, the magnitude of such a scheme in relation to the country's identifiable, mobilisable, and calculable resources. But those who profess high academic attainments, and incessantly and for  purposes which are obviously irrelevant to academic pursuits, advertise themselves on the pages of our newspapers and journals  as intellectuals cannot be excused for  falling into the same  methodological deficiency, errors. and lapses as non-academicians.

The duty of any scholar or intellectual who is worthy his salt at all  in dealing with this type of issue, is, first of all, to ascertain, with as much precision as possible, the financial implications of the scheme  to inform himself of our  available resources, and then to demonstrate with facts and figures the impracticability or otherwise of the scheme. But to declare with authoritative finality that a scheme is  impracticable without adopting this procedure  is, to say  the least, either intellectual fraud or political knavery or both.Fortunately, the most vocal among our intellectuals do not represent or reflect the true temper and character of the entire breed.

From my own assessment, the former can be likened to a handful of grasshoppers who make so much noise by their incessant chirping as to mislead one into believing that they are the only occupants of the field. Whereas there is a large herd of cattle in the same field who lay quietly under tree shades, chewing the cud. It is on this latter group - The silent majority', to borrow a popular phrase - that the  country can depend now and in the future for the correct appraisal of, and effective solution to its multifarious and intricate problems.It is from this class of scholars that I have received valuable assistance and suggestions.

Assistance in my endeavour to quantify the magnitude of the scheme and to  relate results to our mobilisable resources as shown in Table s 1 - 8. And suggestions in the final corrections of the typescript.  As I have stated in the preface. Tables 1-7 are only abstract from 158 Tables with altogether 1.587 columns.Tables 1 and 2 set out the estimated school population at all levels for the Northern and Southern States. from 1970 to 1980. taking into account a compound growth rate of 21/2 % per annum in our population. Tables 3-7 set out the projected recurrent and capital costs of this great scheme for the next 20 years. Appendix I  is  a summary of the methodology and procedure adopted in computing the 158 Tables from which Tables 1-7 have been abstracted.Table 8  on the other hand  contains Nigeria's projected GDP from 1970/71 to 1990/91 at current factor cost  and the estimated Government Revenue for the same period.Appendix II is  an outline of the rationale for this Table. The Tables and Appendices speak for themselves.

All the same. I would like us to do some quick simple  arithmetic from Tables 1 and 2. and 7 and 8.It is my advocacy that free and compulsory primary education should commence by January 1974. In view of the  amount of preparations required, it just CANNOT 'start earlier. On the other hand, if we want to launch such a scheme AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE TIME  and if we fully appreciate the unifying and harmony-promoting influence of such a scheme. then its commencement MUST NOT WAIT TILL lATER THAN 1974.Granting then that God bestows on us the wisdom, vision. and grace to embark on free and  compulsory primary education by January 1974, it is clear from Tables 1 and 2 that we would end  this decade in 1979 with a primary school population of 7 1/2 million pupils in the Northern States as compared and contrasted with 6 million primary school pupils in the Southern States.

By 1980, the Northern States would have 1.17 million general secondary pupils as compared with 1.2 million in the Southern States.Also by 1980. 270.000 students of Northern States origin would be pursuing post -secondary education as contrasted with 262.000 students from the Southern States. By 1985. the process. which would have begun much earlier of each constituent State having at least one University  would be completed.Now that the talk of the next four-year National Reconstruction and Development Plan is so  much in the air, I would like us to see what the arithmetic from Tables 7 and 8 for the next four years looks like.During the next four years - 1970/71 to 1973/74 - the  capital expenditure on education at all levels, if it is free, will approximately be £100.4 million.

I want to declare with every sense of responsibility that  I know that we  can afford to spend much more than this on education, over the next four years. without any detriment whatsoever to expenditure on the other sectors of the economy. On the  other hand, recurrent expenditure for the same period will be of the order of £296.5 million, which is about 18.5% of my projected revenue of £1.596.6 million for the same period in Table 8. I have made  my  projections  of revenue  as conservative as possible; and I am. therefore. certain that we can raise much more recurrent revenue than £1.596.6 million. over the next four years. At the same time, I have pushed my projections of expenditure as high as possible.

(To be continued)

Someone put this together online and I want to share it with you all.

Onlytruth: You may not believe it but I don't support Biafra now. There are still some hay to make in Nigeria.

Whaattt Well, you know Ijaws just declared that they are part of Yoruba commonwealth. So, if biafra is dead then ibos that want to become Yorubas are welcome.

Igbo has failed through many attempts and verious means to draw international inquiry and interest into its past. Acholonu is continuing where Achebe failed.....raising controvertial and impractical theories just to stir up glances from academia and researchers who are nursing ambitions in a new field of work for money, fame and award. She might be lucky and get a bite, I mean......a glance!

Ibo has no world classic past to write about......you coexist with Ife, thanks to Lugard, but you belong in a sub-category far subpar to Imperial Ife.

Onlytruth: @negro,

Believe me the stabbing in the back was done by people in SOUTHERN Nigeria. We Ndigbo fought with Northern Nigeria in a direct war, and they were supported by world powers.
Aboki know us very well. All you need to do is shout Nyamiri in Kano and watch as aboki's heart skips a bit.

Y'all down south are just irritants. Nothing more.
BTW stabbing us in the back will NEVER happen again in Nigeria.

I follow you and hope not. We pray never again to ally with a group that aims to stomp our land with boots and guns.

I hear there is a biafra declaration on Nov 5th. Advise bzm to shelf the idea. There are far too many of you outside alaigbo to make this declaration a success for the land.

Onlytruth: @My Igbo brothers,

This type of thread is why we Ndigbo wanted to organize ourselves here in Nairaland, to basically organize how we project ourselves and our priorities.
This thread is unnecessary and irrelevant because it changes nothing in Nigeria.
However, as we say in Igbo, Uche bu akpa, onye bula nya nke ya -common sense is like a bad, each individual carries his own around.

@Ijaw people here,

I would continue to caution you STRONGLY to cease and desist from your insults of Ndigbo. You cannot do anything to us in CURRENT Nigeria - trust me on that; but we can do A WHOLE LOT to you in Nigeria. You drew the first blood by stabbing us in the back during the civil war. We forgave you and have been trying to treat you like equals and humans.
Evil is very easy to copy. We Ndigbo can copy evil from elsewhere in Nigeria, and if we do, you will know that you cannot stand us in the art of brinkmanship.
Do not wake a sleeping lion.

Nuff said again.

Nna, Yoruba stab you in the back, Ijaw stab you in the back, Ibibio stab you in the back, Tiv stab you in the back..........but Hausaman stab you in the front and you refused to fight, instead you headed West spilling innocent blood and planting biafra flags.

My friend go take ya snuff and go to bed.

@op,

Nice coverage, these are the kind of discussions we need to be having here. This theory has implications in our daily life and view of the world around us.

All early age philosophers belonged in an order, particularly the freemasons which was one of the first in Greece and had been modeled after an Egyptian occult.

This version you gave here is a classroom narration of the principle of 3 which in trigonometry is represented by the triangle.

The order recognized it as an orbital force....recurrent and infinite and thereby elevated it as a divine principle. This is how they got the double 3 they call 33rd degree. In practice and in observance it is actually a 3rd degree.

There are elements of the teachings which you did not cover in your narration and Id like to know if that was deliberately omitted or you just dont have the whole materials on the subject of Thesis-antiThesis-Synthesis to share full coverage.

I am particularly looking for you to share the teaching on the formulation of Thesis itself. Like I said, it is orbital and synthesis does not rest....it recycles back into thesis always forming a dynamic loop and in continuance.

His creek a.s.s is in prison. ....he dey dia dey chop beans.

Onlytruth: I have many more names you Yoruba gave to Jonathan via Nairaland, but there is no need reeling them out.

I have since concluded that you nurture a special anger against Ndigbo because we have not wiped the Ijaw off the map in the East.
Your brother Dudu_negro alludes to that in all his posts.

Even some Ijaw elements have started to think like you, but I'm not worried about them because they will provoke Ndigbo one day, and it will be the day of judgement. Ndigbo are a deeply conscientious people. We can't hate for nothing, that is why people misunderstand us. The only people that understands the Igbo man's true abilities in conflict in Nigeria is the Hausa/Fulani; the people you all hide behind to insult Ndigbo. The rest of you are just irritants and noisemakers, and you NEVER play fair.

Continue to wonder why "Igbo" is this or that.

Ewu ofia.

I was told by grapevine that you mentioned me in a post. I see what you said.

You and your fellow ibos are fools, youve lost your bearing on who you are in the context of national politics. Do you remember my thread named ARO META? If you forgot I did not......I abandoned my conclusion to save you face. Ijaw has toppled your hegemony in the East. You have abandoned home too damn long and a new demography is on the Eastern throne.......and theres nothing anyone can do about it. If igbo say they are 500 million, then so be it thats how much you are and if Ijaw claim they are 30 million then so be that also. Why are ibos having heart attack?

Katsumoto: Negro,

I don't apply the approach of using past actions to analyse. Thank you for the points about Al qaeda but my post had nothing to do with that group. Ghadaffi was involved in blowing up the Pan-am aircraft in lockerbie in 1988 and many terrorist groups operated from inside Libya. That was my reason for linking Ghadaffi with terrorism; regardless of what terrorism is called in different places, blowing up a plane with people in it is terrorism.

Like I have said previously, the US is not an angel but I do not belong to the school of thought that once a sinner, always the sinner. You may sin throughout your life but that doesn't mean you are guilty of every freaking sin. The authorities find a serial rapist and convict him. He goes to prison, serves his time, and is released afterwards. Does it mean, no one committed rape while he was in prison? Does it mean that all rapes committed after he was released were committed by him? He will always be under suspicion but that doesn't mean he is always guilty. I hope you understand my analogy.

Yes, America was the devil in going to Iraq but that doesn't necessarily mean that America is responsible for the Arab spring. We all witnessed how the arab spring started with Bouaziz's self-imolation in Tunisia and spread to other countries. I suppose the argument from most is that America planted the man in Tunisia and forced him to harm himself. Never mind the human rights violations, poverty, unemployment, extravagance of officials & rulers, global downturn, iranian protests, etc. I guess you can blame all those problems on the US.

The US is guilty of looking after its interests but it isn't guilty of the arab spring. Linking the US to the revolutions in Syria, Libya, Egypt, etc is just plain lazy analyses.

Katz,

In an unrelated post, remarking on the utility of toll gate to generate revenue and relevance, I mentioned that democracy has a shadow. The shadow I meant is capitalism. Capitalism in turn has its own shadow and it is terrorism. You cannot grow and sustain a capitalist economy without some level of cold calculations and ruthlessness that defies the ethos and theos of society. Once that boundary is defined then an ideological divide exists. I shouldn't even be saying this to you because I know you enough that I believe there is nothing in this new to you........but there is need also for clarity, especially if our analysis must address the root of the problem. If Im notorious for revisiting past in my analytical approach its because I adhere strongly to the primary essence of relativity - "cause and effect". .........no root cause analysis of any event can be completed without considering chronological markers (the past, present and future).

Ghaddafi did not just wake up and declared sponsorship for the PanAm hijack. Matter of fact he also played a part in the episode of an hijacked plane that took Israeli hostages in Entebbe, Uganda. In all of these , there are interests and counter interests. The accuser is no less guilty of atrocity and terrorism than the accused. Unfortunately innocent bystanders are collaterals in the ideological wars.

We can bring this home and use the case of Ken Saro Wiwa and the Niger Delta militants to illustrate how global terrorism and global capitalism go together. There is no doubt that foreign oil corporations in the delta have terrorized the land and the people for ages. The people have a right to demand justice and if denied they have right to form a resistance movement. Why was Ken and some other members of his people hanged? It will be naive to say the corporations did not influence that outcome. So who really is a terrorist, the corporations or the people demanding fairness and protection of their land?

In 60s America, Martin Luther King and Malcom X were both declared terrorists by a system that oppressed and preyed on them. Mandela was a terrorist. Yet Bush 43, Rumsfeld, Cheney.......for all their atrocities in Iraq are not labeled terrorists..

I like where you said miltary might and political power is tied to economic muscle. I dont believe we will ever accomplish a balanced distribution of might, power and muscle around the globe. What cannot be denied is justice! For every might, power and muscle that America flexes around the world, there is an opposing response by people and societies who continue to value and uphold their ethos and theos. These responses often is an outburst that flashes into chaos and anti-Americanism. There are societies whose will and consciousness of who they are is long lost and they no longer are living their own philosophies. These societies are already alloyed and less resistant to American ideology. These are the a,b and c societies. Overthrowing their government earns kisses for the Americans. Then there is the x, y and z societies.......overthrowing their governments earns guns and bullets and RPGs for Americans. US has been in this business of democratizing the world very long and know the difference but yet keep daring and provoking sentiments. Theres only explanation for their persistence.........a global domination under one government and economy. To accomplish that they need to do away with competition.

They will not directly attack Russia or China but by acquiring control of resources in certain landmarks on the globe they can successfully weaken and eliminate competition from Russia or China and dominate on them to install a one government. They experimented with that strategy and got a successful outcome in the dissolution of USSR.

So the existence of terrorism the way it is now focused in middle East is a viable tool and resource for future expansion of American might, power and muscle. I do not believe they instigated Arab spring but I believe they reviewed the USSR war in Afghanistan and the aftermath events and identified new roles for fighters like taliban and alqaida.

Think about the Israeli - Palestinian war. If you end that war today then Israel will not be in the news so much, it will not be in our conscience and will slowly go into irrelevance. To remain relevant the war must be kept alive.

Ive talked too much, I will shut up for today.

Preach my Governor, preach!!

Amor4ce,

Im always thankful for your presence and contributions on these subjects.

Yoruba is the specimen......a member tribe of the original uni-tongued population of mankind that witnessed the flood . Isis is what the Egyptian Isese is called by Greek. All our learning today is done usingn Greko-Latin letters so there is no escaping contact with mutated words that are by many degrees spun away from the authentic. Eshu, transformed to Jesus, is another one of such many words. Yoruba itself in the flux of many exchanges brought about by wars, trade and so on....has undergone drastic shift from the Noahdic era and must admit that the Yoruba we speak today is many degrees changed from that spoken say in 1600......much more in the age of Noah. Bearing this in mind, I consciously and consistently refer to it as Old Hebrew whenever I do root translation.

I would love sometime soon to discuss the essence of Eshu, not on this thread. There are two parts to his story. 1, the concept of duality; 2, the 1-2-3 theory of divinity. Both are repeatedly emphasized in Ifa. Ifa is gaining popularity with yhe Europeans and there is still many areas in it they are yet to understand but trust me when thry get a good grasp of the essrnces and its significance it will be snatched from us. They will build temples and give it European names......they will create a different liturgy ana canon for it and we will be paying them to re-teach it to us. They will become the babalawos to the world.

....need some sleep!

Well, the last post finalizes my contribution on the thread. It is open for discussion, thoughts, critique, questions......

I will be on the sideline watching when I have time to log in.

This thread was opened to further the discussion on the history and cultural bearing of the Yoruba race. We see here that at the top of our social and cultural heirarchy we are tied to a past history that need indepth inspection . There is no disputing the fact that Yoruba is Afro Asiatic, but in case the above has not cemented it for you, follow me for few more steps to learn of the mysteries behind some words and cultural markers that you hear or witness often but have no idea why they are exclusively with us and no one else.

I will not burden you with over a thousand words and roots I have built up over the years but I have three very important areas of spiritual beginning I want you to contemplate on.

1. The first one of these is water, the origin of creation and sustainer of life. Science has repeatedly disputed the creation theory and replaced it with the big-bang theory........yet every space mission they ever sent into outer space, manned or robotic, has landed with the mission to find water and life; at very exhorbitant cost. So the relevance of water in the creation of life on earth is afterall valid and important. So then what is water?

In Old Testament which was written in classic Hebrew water is given the root A-M-M. From this root we get the semitic word for mother - Umm or Umma. So like water, the essence of motherhood is tied to the attributes, first , of creating life, and second, of sustaining it. The root for life is H-Y. The proto-semitic word for life is Hay or Chai.

In Yoruba water is Omi, from same root as Umm. Life is Aiye, from same root as Hay. Mother is Iya or Iye, representing her attribute for sustaining and nurturing life. The water essence is represented in Iyemoja.

2. The second one is manifested presence and willpower, represented by the root T-L which in old Hebrew is Atala. It stands for foundation or a new order or beginning. The change agent that brings security and assurance. Its essence is connected to earth and buried treasures.

In Yoruba this is called Atele - like atele owo or atele ese. It is said that the palm of the hand yields secrets about one's life treasures. From it we also get Otele - the act of walking the earth's surface. It is under the influence of Obatala.

3. The third one addresses not just those who say Yoruba is native to its present land but as well to persuade those who say the commonality of culture and language between Yoruba and say Arab or any other proto-semitic group is due to word donations resulting from religious contact and Islamic scholarship. I hope I am able to convince you contrary to that claim.

Let's look at the ritual of animal sacrifice or burnt offering to God, called Olah in old Hebrew. The corresponding root is A-L-H. They call it Aliyah and the meaning is "ascension to (or moving to) Israel".

It would appear from this that the corresponding Yoruba term, Ileya (which precisely means "it's time to go home), had been in usage and culture of the Yorubas and in connection with sacrificial offerings to God long before Islam took root on thdir land. Which home are the Yorubas referring to when they say Ileya, coild it be Israel?

I opened a topic not long ago inviting families or people who were born and grew up in Apa Tira area of Lagos to join me in discussion. Apa is used in the context of a ward or area to mean a "branch". Tira in Yoruba is Torah - the Jewish scripture of Old Testament. Apa Tira would then mean a branch or part of town occupied by the observers of Torah.. Who are the tribes of Israelite among us?.

Kabiyesi, from K-B-S, is a match word for the proto-semitic Qaboosie. It denotes the right of dominion inherent in a ruling authority and the unrestricted, unbridled power of that individual to lay foot and terror in territorial
campaigns. In other words, this individual does not yield or surrender to anyone..

Afyn denotes a staff or rod .symbolizing authority. For many resons ths is a very interesting one. Where does the investiture come from?

Anyway, ALAAFIN, the political flag bearer of the House of Oduduwa is, like the titular Ooni, a proto-semitic institution as well. While the Ooni is the Yoruba equivalent of a Pope - the High Priest and King, second only to God.......the Alaafin is the Emperor and derives his authority directly from the land. Of the two, only the Alaafin can be addressed as KABIYESI!

We cannot fully grasp the significance of that last statement until we understand what KABIYESI stand for.

Continuation of . . .

Part II

Powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria


5. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of the Federation:

(a) shall be vested in the President and may subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by the National Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the Vice-President and Ministers of the Government of the Federation or officers in the public service of the Federation; and

(b) shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, all laws made by the National Assembly and to all matters with respect to which the National Assembly has, for the time being, power to make laws.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of a State:

(a) shall be vested in the Governor of that State and may, subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any Law made by a House of Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the Deputy Governor and Commissioners of the Government of that State or officers in the public service of the State; and

(b) shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, all laws made by the House of Assembly of the State and to all matters with respect to which the House of Assembly has for the time being power to make laws.

(3) The executive powers vested in a State under subsection (2) of this section shall be so exercised as not to:-

(a) impede or prejudice the exercise of the executive powers of the Federation;

(b) endanger any asset or investment of the Government of the Federation in that State; or

(c) endanger the continuance of a Federal Government in Nigeria.

(4) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section:-

(a) the President shall not declare a state of war between the Federation and another country except with the sanction of a resolution of both Houses of the National Assembly, sitting in a joint session; and

(b) except with the prior approval of the Senate, no member of the armed forces of the Federation shall be deployed on combat duty outside Nigeria.

(5) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (4) of this section, the President, in consultation with the National Defence Council, may deploy members of the armed forces of the Federation on a limited combat duty outside Nigeria if he is satisfied that the national security is under imminent threat or danger:

Provided that the President shall, within seven days of actual combat engagement, seek the consent of the Senate and the Senate shall thereafter give or refuse the said consent within 14 days.

In continuation of Translation. . .

Part II

Powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria


5. (1) The Constitution, acting as an instrument of authority on behalf of the 250+ tribes (voice of the people), delegated powers in three areas of Government. We have seen the Legislative one designated in the National Assembly. Here is the second one called Executive Powers of the Federation. This power:-

(a) is designated in the Presidency. The President will be conferred with powers that are provisioned or created Constitutionally by the National Assembly. President has right to exercise these executive powers directly or if he chooses by delegating it through the Vice President or through Ministers of the Government of the Federation or officers in the public service of the Federation; and

(b) the President derives his/her power from the Constitution, he/she is the executor and maintainer of the Constitution on the affairs and overall management of the Federal Government. He/she is also the executor and maintainer of all laws made by the National Assembly as well all matters in respect of that, whether or not the National Assembly is in Legislative session.


(2) A similar Executive Power exist at the State level of Governance:-

(a) the Executive power of a State is vested in the Governor of that State. The Governor's Executive power is created and conferred Constitutionally by the State's House of Assembly. This power is exercised directly by him/her or through the Deputy Governor or Commissioners of that State or officers in the public service of the State; and

(b) the State Governor derives his authority from the Constitution, he/she is the executor and maintainer of the Constitution on the affairs and overall management of the State Government. He/she is also the executor and maintainer of all laws made bythe State House of Assembly and as well all matters in respect of that, whether or not the House of Assembly is in Legislative session.


(3) The Executive Powers vested in a State in subsection (2) of this section, above, shall be so executed as not to:-

(a) impede or detriment execution of the Executive powers at the Federal level;

(b) endanger any asset or investment of the Government of the Federation in that State; or

(c) endanger the continuance of a Federal Government in Nigeria.


(4) Nothwithstanding the foregoing provisions of Executive power conferred in this section:-

(a) the President, before declaring a war between Nigeria and another country, shall first obtain sanction of a resolution of both Houses of National Assembly sitting in a joint session and consenting to war; and

(b) except with the prior approval of the Senate, no member of the armed forces of the Federation shall be deployed on combat duty outside Nigeria.


(5) Even though the provisions of subsection (4) of this section, above, imposes a limitation on unitary action by the President, there is nonetheless a wiggle room for him/her to act alone and deploy military force. This wiggle room sidesteps the National Assembly. Here is what it says:-

In consultation with the National Defence Council (instead of the National Assembly), the President may deploy members of the armed forces of the Federation on a limited combat duty outside Nigeria if he is satisfied that the national security is under imminent threat or danger.

This is a conditional waiver (not a total waiver)! It is contingent upon the President taking the following action and complying with its outcome:

The President shall, within seven days of actual combat engagement, seek the consent of the Senate and the Senate shall thereafter give or refuse the said consent within 14 days.

I started few months ago on a project to bring to you a breakdown and interpretation of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 but shelved it for some other higher priority projects in my hand. Over the past few months controversies involving the CBN Governor and other Government officials have drawn our attention and interest to the Constitution. We have all heard that the National Assembly will soon embark on a review of the Constitution. The civic awareness and how democracy work in our society is still a mystery for many people and truth be told there are still simple aspects of Government, the basic ones, that many of us still do not understand. If there was ever anytime in our history as a nation that we need to understand our rights and how to guard it, that time is now.

The Constitution already empower you with certain civic rights which the Government wants by all means to deny to you. If you fail to understand what they are and how to negotiate them, then you become a victim of your own Government. The Constitution belongs to the People, not to the Government or any political party or segment of society. It is the people that have the power to convene a conference for Constitutional review. This is contained in the Constitution itself.

So, section by section, I will bring you a watered down version using simple to understand terms and language so that you get over the confusion of the legal language in which the document is written.

The time I spend doing this will not be consistent as I have other things to do for myself but I am hoping that when the NASS review starts we should all at least have enough understanding to be able to flow with their progress and raise questions on disturbing issues which otherwise if included would serve to erode the rights of the people.

That's my new style bro. . . saves me headache from cyclic arguments that lead nowhere. I will be seeing you around, where are the caricatures? miss them!

The coalition is what brings you the change. What change is better than one in which ACN is an active partner? Everything socially and politically progressive for this country has emerged out of West. We can go as far back as memory would allow and recount the many progressive ideas, actions and legacies that was pioneered by the West.

Kobojunkie: Coalition/merger my arse! Where are the other political parties? We ought to get interested in green movements out there. If Change is what we want then we need to reduce the powers of PDP and ACN in Nigeria.

. . .shut up there! who is this "we"? green movement ko, purple comrade ni!

Jmaine, how u dey my brother? Long time no see.

. .. .dont worry, if he moves ahead and complete the name change we will revert it back to UNILAG when he leaves office.

A merger is unlikely. . .a coalition maybe!