Delivered to the Western Region House of Chiefs (1953)
Mr. President, I rise to oppose the question just proposed by you, namely, ‘That the governor’s proposal that the Hon. S.O. Awokoya be appointed a minister be approved’.
My objection to this proposal has nothing to do with the personal merits of my worthy colleague whose name has been proposed. He, more than anyone else, knows in what high esteem I hold him.
Indeed, it is my candid opinion that, in normal circumstances, his is a name which I would only be too ready and happy to commend for a Central Ministry. For I am confident that, if appointed, he would adorn that office with as great a brilliance as anyone, and even with greater competence than any of those who now shamelessly take their seats in the Council of Ministers.
There are four fundamental grounds on which my objection is founded.
- The proposal is contrary to the spirit of the Constitution;
- It is an unparalleled affront to the members of this Joint Council in particular, and to the people of this region in general;
- It is perfidious both in its intent and design.
- Considered against the background of recent events, the proposal amounts, no more and no less, to a request to this council to pass a vote of no confidence, albeit indirectly and only by necessary implication, in our four redoubtale ministers who are patriotic enough to abandon the prestige of a ministerial office rather than compromise the cause of liberty.
I will now proceed to deal with these grounds one by one. Section 149 and 150 (I) of the Constitutional Instrument read as follows:
- (I) ‘Whenever there is occasion for the appointment of a minister from among the members of the House of Representatives returned by any region, the governor shall –
(a) require the lieutenant-governor to submit to him the name of any person whom the lieutenant-governor may recommend for such appointment; and
(b) having considered any name so submitted to him, shall inform the lieutenant-governor of the name of the person whom the governor proposes for such appointment.
(2) The powers conferred by this section on the governor, or on a lieutenant-governor, shall be exercised by him in his direction.
- (I) When, in pursuance of section 149 of this Order, the governor has informed the lieutenant-governor of the Northern or Western Region of the name of any member of the House of Representatives returned by that Region whom he proposes for appointment as a minister, then, save as otherwise provided by sub-section (2) of this section –
(a) the lieutenant-governor of such Region shall submit to a meeting of the Joint Council of the region the name of the person so proposed by the governor;
(b) the Joint Council shall, before the termination of such meeting, resolve whether to approve of the appointment of such person; and
(c) if the Joint Council resolves as aforesaid to approve of the appointment of such person, the governor shall by Instrument under the public seal, appoint such person to be a minister.
These, Mr President, are the letters of the law.
True to type, a prosaic or mischievous mind will comprehend nothing or will refuse to comprehend anything in these sections other than what is imparted by the bare language of the law. He will accordingly attempt to construe them literatim.
To such a mind the sections can mean no more than this. It is the lieutenant-governor who, at his discretion, submits to the governor the names of persons whom he may recommend for appointment as Central Ministers. He may, at his discretion, consult with the leader of the party in power as to whether or not the names he proposes to submit to the governor are acceptable. But he is not bound by the advice which may be given to him by the leader of the party in power.
When the names have been submitted to the governor, the latter will, at his discretion, inform the lieutenant-governor what names he proposes for appointment. He, again at his discretion, may even depart from the lieutenant-governor’s recommendations; and he is not obliged at all to consult the leader of the party in power.
The prosaic mind of our illustration is certainly not unaware of the fact that after the governor has given his fiat to the names submitted by the lieutenant-governor, this council will have to resolve that the names be approved before the persons concerned can be appointed ministers. But to him, that is a simple process. All that is required is to summon a meeting of the Joint Council, let them go to the ballot box and indicate their wishes. If the names proposed are rejected in their entirely or in part, it does not matter. At another meeting other names will be submitted, and if need be this simple process will be repeated and nauseam et infinitum.
To adopt this interpretation will be to reduce these provisions of the Constitution, in certain circumstances, to utter futility and absurdity.
But in his recent broadcast, the lieutenant-governor, Western Region, has reduced these provision to a futility and an absurdity even more futile and absurd. With your permission, Mr President, I will quote the exact words of the lieutenant-governor:
‘I, as lieutenant-governor, have a particular responsibility in this matter of the appointment of Central Ministers. Under the Constitutional Instruments, it is I who submit to the governor the names of persons whom I recommend for appointment to the Council of Ministers. In exercising that responsibility it is right and proper that I should consult the leader of the party in power in my region. And it has always been the practice so to do.
But, after I have had that consultation, the responsibility for making recommendations is mine, and mine alone.’
To hold, as the Lieutenant-Governor did, that the responsibility for recommending names is his and his alone, is, I submit, wrong and unreasonable in the extreme. For it is impossible thereby to give effect to the object and the policy of the provisions already mentioned.
It is a well-known maxim that the Legislature, like nature, does not do anything in vain. But it is quite clear, in the circumstances of this Region, that if the interpretation of section 149 and 150 as propounded by the Lieutenant-Governor were accepted; the object and policy of that part of our Constitutional Instruments would become barren and futile, and the purpose thereof would be incapable of attainment.
What is the purpose, or the object and policy of sections 149 and 150? It is to ensure that every Region in the country is represented in the Council of Ministers by persons who are appointed by the people of the Region, and in whom they have confidence. Speaking therefore in respect of the three Ministers from among the commoners in this Region, the responsibility for recommending names for appointment is not, as he very wrongly held, that of the Lieutenant-Governor, but mine and mine alone, after due consultation with our noble and respected Obas. It does not require a mind trained in the forestic niceties of legal interpretation to appreciate that my construction of the sections under discussion is correct. The circumstances of the Region make that clear beyond doubt. It is well-known that there is a political party called the Action Group in power in this Region, and by the Grace of God, I am the Leader of that Party.
In addition there is also a body of chiefs in this Region who are not only highly intelligent, but also exceedingly politically conscious and well-organised. Nearly all of them are staunch supporters of the Action Group. It is the members of my party, and the chiefs, to whom I have made reference, that constitute this Joint Council.
It is therefore incontestable that if effect is to be given to the purpose, or to the object and policy of sections 149 and 150, the chiefs and the party in power must given their blessing and imprimatur to any names which the Lieutenant-Governor recommends in the first instance to the Governor, and which on the direction of the Governor he later proposes to this Hon. Council for appointment. Furthermore it is essential for the realization of the object and purpose of sections 149 and 150, that the candidate concerned should be consulted and his consent obtained before his name is proposed for appointment to this Hon. Council. Otherwise, the aim of the Constitution in this connection may be stultified by the refusal of the candidate to accept nomination, or by his subsequent resignation, if the Council imposes its will on him.
From the analysis which I have made, it is clear that for the effective fulfilment of the purpose, or the object and policy of section 149 and 150, three pre-requisites must co-exist. First, the consent of the proposed candidate must be obtained; secondly, the Party in power must be willing to sponsor his candidature; and thirdly, the Party in power must ensure that our Obas are disposed to support the proposed candidate.
That, in my humble opinion, is the spirit and the intent of sections 149 and 150. The Lieutenant-Governor has acted in contemptuous disregard of these pre-requisites. And, with great respect, 1 am constrained to observe that it seems to me to be fatuous and ridiculous for him under the circumstances, to talk pontifically of his sole responsibility in a matter of this nature.
If he is not unduly opinionated and obsessed with the almightiness of his power, it ought to have occurred to him that it is not within his power to compel or directly influence this Joint Council to do his behest or to coerce the candidate into accepting nomination.
On the other hand, if the Lieutenant-Governor had followed my advice, a different name would have been proposed. But because he has departed from that advice and has flouted the spirit and the intent of sections 149 and 150, the only course open to Hon. Members present here this morning is to oppose the proposal of His Excellency the Governor.
Before I take up the next point, it is, I think, appropriate that some reference should be made to the Constitutional position as it obtains in analogous cases in the United Kingdom. By the law of the Constitution, it is the British Monarch that appoints all his ministers. But by the convention of the Constitution, it is the party in power that in actual fact makes all the appointments. Even the Prime Minister who is ostensibly appointed by the Monarch, is in reality who is ostensibly appointed by the Monarch, is in reality an appointee of the majority party. For, the Monarch cannot, without serious consequences, supersede the person chosen by the party in power as its leader.
I have, in passing, drawn this distinction between the law and the convention of the Constitution in the United Kingdom, because the Lieutenant-Governor in his broadcast on this subject glossed over this point, and to that extent misled his hearers. The point I should like to emphasize is that in his own homeland it is the spirit or the convention of the Constitution that prevails rather than the letters thereof. I now come to the second ground of my objection to the Governor’s proposal, namely that the said proposal is an unparalleled affront to the Members of this Joint Council in particular, and to the people of this Region in general.
On the 31st March, our four representatives on the Council of Ministers resigned their seats. They did so for a cause which all the people of this Region consider to be dear, noble and just. Accordingly in the month of May last, the House of Chiefs and the House of Assembly passed two resolutions in identical terms. One of the resolutions was that whenever the Governor called for nominations to fill the vacancies created in the Council of Ministers the resigned Ministers would be returned.
I am sure I can say, without fear of contradiction, that our Obas are noble and exalted kings in their own right. They are as responsible and respectable as any monarch that occupies a throne anywhere in the world. The derogation from their status which we witness today is due to the enslaved condition in which British rule places them.
On the other hand, however much our white detractors may malign us behind our back, our legislators in the House of Assembly have shown by their past performance that they are as judicious, discreet, and responsible as any body of legislators anywhere in the world. In any event, we are, both Obas and commoners, accredited representatives of our people. In passing the resolution which I have just mentioned we have reflected the wishes and yearnings of our people. Indeed, the latter have at various meetings publicly affirmed the stand taken by our Houses of Legislature.
It is astonishing, therefore, that in spite of all this public declaration, the Lieutenant-Governor could be so impudent impertinent as to propose to us names other than those of the resigned Ministers.
The imputation is quite clear. The Lieutenant-Governor undoubtedly regards our resolutions as the senseless vituperations of a pack of imbeciles or irresponsibles.
Mr. President, I have had intimate dealings with the Governor of this Country at a very high level. I have had similar dealing with the Lieutenant-Governor of this Region. I have met and read about leading public men in the United Kingdom and I would like you to. believe me, Mr. President, when I say that I am still to be told of any virtue in administration and public affairs which any of these eminent people have that our Obas and the present generation of Nigerian politicians do not possess in equal or in some instances fuller measure.
The only difference, Mr. President, between them and us is that they are free and we are politically enslaved. It is the difference in relative political status that induces every white Tom, Dick and Harry to feel that he is superior to those who are, on intrinsic personal merits, his betters.
Judged from any standpoint, the Lieutenant-Governor’s recommendations as well as the Governor’s proposal of the Hon. S.O. Awokoya’s name is not only an unparalleled affront to us and the entire people of this Region, but it is also a challenge to our national dignity and individual self-respect. For this reason alone, Mr. President, if for no other, this proposal should be vehemently opposed by all. It is only in this way that we can reassert our resolve and firmness and demonstrate to the cynical Britons in our midst that we meant what we said and that our word is our bond.
Ever since the Lieutenant-Governor informed me of his intention to summon this Joint Council to consider the names which are placed before us this morning. I have been trying to puzzle out in my mind what can be his motive for this flagrant effrontery. It was Edward Coke, a countryman of the Lieutenant-Governor’s, who said that ‘even the devil knows not what goes on in the mind of man’. I do not, therefore, claim to know what went on or still goes on in the mind of the Lieutenant-Governor. But I do claim that it is possible, by a careful assessment of the surrounding circumstances, to make a shrewd conjecture as to what the Lieutenant-Governor has in mind.
What are the circumstances? The two Houses of Legislature in this Region have unanimously passed resolutions, as I previously indicated, that under no circumstances would they appoint as Central Ministers persons other than the resigned Ministers. In private discussions on different occasions with the Lieutenant-Governor, the Oni of Ife, the Alake of Abeokuta and myself have reiterated the irrevocable resolve of our people to stand by their plighted word. Furthermore the Oni of Ife is known to be one of the fathers of present-day Nigerian nationalism. He is a man of iron determination who never makes a vow or promise in vain. The Hon. S.O. Awokoya, Hon. S.O. Ighodaro and Hon. Anthony Enahoro are indisputably staunch and loyal members of the Action Group. Above all, the unshakable solidarity of the Action Group as a party, and of the union which exists between them and their Obas is a bye-word, and well-repeated throughout the world.
Yet, Mr. President, the Lieutenant-Governor and the Governor, in the full awareness of all these circumstances, have the audacity respectively to recommend and propose the names of my Hon. Friends on this Order Paper. The perfidious and wicked intent and design behind this apparent compliance with the letters of the law are clear. The Lieutenant-Governor, in complicity with the Governor, desires to put our much-vaunted solidarity and discipline to the test in the hope that if the test is severe enough, that solidarity may crack to the evil delight of the imperialists. Further, there is an unmistakable imputation that the Africans are by nature treacherous, corrupt and selfish; and that if the inducement is big enough, such as an offer of a central ministry, the chances are that they would prove traitors to the cause, and seek selfish gains at the expense of national aspirations.
It grieves me, Mr. President, beyond measure, and it augurs ill for the future, particularly the future relationship between this region and its Lieutenant-Governor, that the Lieutenant-Governor could imagine for a moment that the Hon. S.O. Awokoya who has maintained an exemplary and unassailable rectitude, grit and devotion in public life, is capable of such dishonourable conduct as I have just enumerated.
There is only one cause open us now. To show our unmitigated resentment by rejecting the Governor’s proposal, not because of our disrespect for our beloved countrymen and colleagues, but in order to demonstrate our downright contempt to the Governor and his faithful Lieutenant in our Region. Let it be borne in mind “Mr. President, and I do wish you, Mr. President, to convey this to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Western Region – let it be borne in mind by a.’ concerned, that contempt begets contempt, and that an abuse or misuse of power begets defiance and revolt.
I now come to the fourth and last ground. In his recent broadcast on the subject-matter of this meeting, the Lieutenant-Governor said, inter alia, as follows:
‘That responsibility is no easy one. For it affects not only the Western Region but the whole of Nigeria, and in making recommendations I deem it my clear duty to stick to that first essential which I have so constantly stressed in this talk – the need to form a team; to ensure so far as possible that each member of the team shall be a person who will be able to work for the good of Nigeria with each and all of his colleagues. That, in my view, must be the guiding principle and that is the principle by which I have been guided in making my recommendations.’
In other words, by disregarding the resolutions ‘of our Legislature, by rejecting my advice, and by recommending and proposing the names now before us, the Lieutenant-Governor and the Governor are in effect saying that Bode Thomas, Prest, and Akintola are temperamentally and otherwise incapable of working harmoniously in a team, and that they are not persons who will be able to work for the good of Nigeria with each and all of their colleagues.
The Lieutenant-Governor’s broadcast was not the first occasion when the character of these trusted countrymen of ours has been attacked and impugned. The Lieutenant-Governor himself has on previous occasions told me that the reasons why the gentlemen mentioned were not wanted back in the Council of Ministers were that they had on several occasions been rude to the Governor, and that in any event the Ministers from the North and the East were not prepared to work any longer with them. The Northern and Eastern Ministers feel so strong and adamant about the matter that they have threatened, so I was told by the Lieutenant-Governor, that if the resigned Ministers were sent back they would resign. I must stay in this context that I was not told what the Governor would do if they were returned. But there is no doubt that he himself feels so bitter about what he considered to be rudeness to him that he would probably prefer to pack and go rather than have our revered friends back.
The position in which we now find ourselves in this Region, Mr. President, is the extremely humiliating one in which not only the Governor but also the traitorous elements dictate to us who and who shall not be our representatives in the Council of Ministers. The Governor has alleged rudeness to himself, but no concrete instances of this act were been given at any time. No one has yet told me why the Northern and Eastern Ministers do not want our resigned Ministers back. One is therefore left free to examine all the available evidence and to make his own deductions.
Ever since Sir John Macpherson started his whispering campaign against Bode Thomas and others, I have taken steps to find out the facts.
And what are the facts? From the inception of the Council of Ministers, our four resigned Ministers have constituted themselves into indivisible and unyielding champions and defenders of the rights and liberty of our people. Without them on that Council, the British enslavement of this country would have become more grinding and oppressive. Many a diabolical measure has had to be shelved, withdrawn, or deferred because of the strenuous, relentless, and intelligent opposition of our Ministers.
It must be generally known by now that Sir John Macpherson is a die-hard imperialist of the deepest dye. I have no doubt, Mr. President, that it is also notoriously known that the Ministers from the East are spiteful and treacherous, and that the Northern ones are unsophisticated and extremely pro-imperialist. Above all, Mr. President, it is widely acknowledged that the resigned Ministers are brave, independent, progressive, patriotic, and anti-imperialist to the core.
Now, Mr. President, because Chief Bode Thomas and Mr. S.L. Akintola have been the chief spokesmen of this formidable team from the West, the Governor and his Northern and Eastern allies have marked down the heroes of our freedom struggles for utter destruction. To achieve their end, they have invented this story of rudeness to the Governor. If that were all the offence, one would have thought that it was insufficient for the evangelist, who preached that others should forget past animosities and think the best of others, to resolve not to have anything more to do with them. Mr. President, I assure you, Sir, that, knowing the truth as we do, the more the Governor and his allies hate these four stalwarts of ours, the more will our affection for them grow. For it was due to their heroic and unbending efforts that the conspiracy to enslave this country in perpetuity has not been hatched by the Council of Ministers. As an earnest, therefore, of our unshaken confidence in the four resigned Ministers, and in pursuance of our resolutions to the same effect, it is our bounden duty here this morning to reject this proposal. More so, because there is the added imputation that, if appointed, this gentleman who is one of our foremost nationalists would lend himself to the diabolical machinations and conspiracy of the Council of Ministers.
Mr. President, today we are being forced against our wish to take part not in a drama, but in a burlesque – a burlesque which not only depicts the incapacity of Britons to rule this country any longer, but also brings vividly home to us the humiliation, insult, and degradation which we will continue to suffer as long as we remain under alien rule.
‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.’ All human beings are born free and equal as to their rights and dignity. Our enslavement today is the outcome of our weakness in military might as well as in the effective application of our spiritual power. The former we have not. But the latter we have in the fullest measure because we are images of God just as the whitemen are. I have no doubt that if we apply our spiritual power, we shall be free; and by God’s grace we will then put an end to this type of infamy.
CONTINUES NEXT WEEK
and then