Form of Government

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

The qualifications of the twenty persons each, under paragraph 5 above, should include literacy in English and eligibility for election as a Member of the Upper House of the Federal Parliament; and disqualifications should include: membership of Federal Parliament, Regional Legislature or Local Government Council, provided that a traditional chief who is an ex officio member of a Local Government Council shall not be disqualified by reason of such membership; membership of the Public Service or of the country’s Forces; holding any office of profit under the Government or any of its agencies;

4. holding office in a Political Party; and ineligibility for election as a member of the Upper House of the Federal Parliament.

Within a period of time, which should be stipulated by the Constitution, the President should, in consultation with the Vice-President, compile a list of candidates for each of the three Commissions. The number of candidates in each case should be thrice the total membership of the Commission. That is to say, if the total membership of a Commission is seven, the President should getup a list of twenty-one candidates. The President, in consultation with the Vice-President, should also compile details ofthe character, experience, scholastic qualifications, and any other information which may be useful in assessing the relative merit and suitability of every candidate. When all this has been done, he will then convene a meeting of the College. The names of the candidates for each Commission will be submitted to the members of the College after they have assembled at the meeting. In other words, no one, other than the President, the Vice-President, and the President’s confidential Secretary should have any knowledge of the names of the candidates until after the members of the College shall have assembled. One hour or so after the names, qualifications, etc., of the candidates have been submitted to the members of the College, they would be called upon to vote on them one by one: one Commission being taken and disposed of before another. Voting shall be by secret ballot.

Only candidates who obtain an absolute majority will be returned. If there are more than the number of members of a Commission who obtain such a majority, then the required number will be chosen in order of votes scored.

At this meeting, there should be no speech-making, no canvassing or lobbying in favour of any candidate, and the College should remain in session continuously, that is, if need be, from day to day and without adjournment, until their task is accomplished. Arrangements for food and accommodation, if required, should be made at the place of meeting. In other words, the members of the College should have no contact with any other person outside their numbers, and those who cater for them, until they have duly appointed all the members of the three Commissions. For this purpose, the Secretary and other Officers of the College, all of whom must be so appointed by the President, should be deemed to be members of ‘ the College, even though they cannot participate in voting.

The members of a Commission duly appointed by the College, should at its first meeting elect their own chairman for the duration of their term of office, which should be five years from the date of their appointment by the College; save that the Chief Justice of the Federation shall be both ex officio member and chairman of the Judicial Service Commission. A member of any of the Commissions should only be removable from office by the College on the grounds of inability to discharge the functions of his office or for misbehaviour.

It is our considered opinion that the method now proposed for the appointment of the members of these Commissions is much better than the old one. It combines the wisdom and sagacity ofthe President and Vice-President with the Appointors’ unimpeachable detachment and freedom from bias or partial affections in determining the memberships of the three Commissions. To this extent it ensures the independence and impartiality of the members of the Commissions much more than the old system of appointing these members could ever pretend to do.

We are not unmindful of the fact that in constituting this College, a number of problems will arise. How, for instance, are the Christian and Moslem organizations going to be defined and identified? Who is going to convene the meeting of all the traditional chiefs in the country with a view to getting them to elect their twenty representatives? How are factions within the trade unions going to be brought together to transact the business of electing their own twenty representatives? What rules will govern proceedings at the meeting of the College when they assemble for the purpose of appointing members of the Commissions, or of removing any of them?

These and similar questions are not at all difficult to resolve. We could have tackled them here; but we consider that such an exercise involves too many minor details for the present discourse.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK