THE STRATEGY AND TACTICS OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

THE Constitution should declare and entrench normative social objectives which the Federation should pursue in the fields of economics, politics, education, and health.

10. There should be separation of powers amongst the three organs of the State, namely: the Legislature, the Executive, and the Judicature.
11. As far as possible, provisions should be made in the Constitution concerning the detailed structure of each of the three organs of the State.
12. The Constitution should make express provisions for:

(i) Exclusive federal legislative functions;

(ii) Concurrent legislative functions; and

(iii) Residual functions to be vested in the state legislature.

In drawing up the exclusive federal functions, the guiding principle should be that only matters which cannot be decentralized without endangering the unity and territorial integrity of the Federation should be included.

13. The following bodies should, in the discharge of their respective functions, have jurisdiction in all parts of the Federation:

(i) The Public Service Commission;

(ii) The Judicial Service Commission;

(iii) The Electoral Commission;

(iv) The Armed Forces Service Commission; and

(v) The Prisons Service Commission.

14. A code of conduct should be embodied in the constitution which shall prescribe Rules of Discipline by which ministers and other specified functionaries, in all the branches of each of the organs of the State, be bound and guided. Appropriate sanction against any violation of the code should also be provided for in the Constitution.
15. Only a barrister or solicitor who possesses one or more recognised university degrees with at least second-class honours in one, and has had at least 10 years’ practice at the bar, or in the alternative, 5 years’ practice at the bar plus 5 years’ experience as a magistrate or court official, should be appointed as a judge.
16. Electoral franchise throughout the Federation should be based on universal adult suffrage.
17. There should be one Common Roll or Register of Voters for all elections in all parts of the Federation.
18. The Federal Parliament should be bi-cameral; while the State

Legislatures should be uni-cameral.

19. General elections to the Federal and State Legislatures as well as the elections of the Heads of the Federal and State Governments should be held every Five Years on the same day throughout the Federation.
20. Every member of the Federal or State Legislature should be directly elected by the electors in the constituency which he represents.
21. A member of parliament who resigns his membership of, or is expelled from, the political party on whose platform he was elected into Parliament shall automatically lose his seat in Parliament.
22. Every Nigerian citizen should be qualified to stand for election in any part of the Federation.
23. All Federal and State Legislatures should stand automatically dissolved THIRTY DAYS before the expiration of five years from the date on which the immediately preceding General Elections were held into the said Legislatures. No Legislature shall be dissolved otherwise.
24. The two Federal Houses of Parliament should have equal legislative powers.
25. Parliament should meet for at least 180 days in a year and it should, during these 180 days, sit continuously (dies non excepted) for at least 60 days.
26. An Electoral Act, containing all the provisions relating to the conduct of all elections in the Federation, and based largely on the following principles, should be a Schedule to the Constitution:

(i) All the staff, connected either directly or indirectly with the conduct and supervision of elections and election arrangements, shall be appointed by the Electoral Commission without the interference, direct or indirect, of the Public Service Commission. It shall not be lawful for the Electoral Commission to delegate its powers in this regard.

(ii) Nomination of candidates shall be done by the submission, in writing, by the President or Secretary of the Party concerned, to the Electoral Commission, of the names, addresses, symbols, and other requisite information of his Party’s candidates for the elections. The application shall be supported by a receipt or receipts for nomination fees paid by or on behalf of the candidates. The names of the candidates shall be published in the Gazette by the Electoral Commission, within a stipulated period of time. The nomination of every candidate shall be regarded as valid on the receipt by the Electoral Commission of the list supplied by the Party concerned in the manner aforesaid. Once nominated, it shall be unlawful for a candidate to withdraw his candidature.

(iii) All Political Parties shall be registered in the same way as a Trade Union Organization, and only a Party which is State-wide or country-wide, as the case may be, shall be allowed to contest an election. The test of State-wideness and country-wideness shall be the fielding by a Political Party of candidates for not less than three quarters of the constituencies at the Federal or State election, as the case may be: provided

(a) that any law or executive action which derogates from or interferes with the right of any citizen to form, register, and operate a country-wide political party shall be null and void and of no effect; and

(b) that any law declaring Nigeria a one-party State shall also be null and void and of no effect.

(iv) Polling Agents (who may or may not be registered voters) shall be issued with identification cards supplied by the Electoral Commission. That is to say, on the receipt of nomination, the Electoral Commission shall direct that the appropriate Electoral Official shall supply each candidate with a sufficient number of identification cards for two polling agents per polling station. The candidate shall supply to the appropriate official the names of his polling agents not later than two hours before polling begins.