2010 GOVERNMENT NECO QUESTIONS

Hint

The constitutional powers of the legislature in Nigeria include :

i.  Power to enact laws for the good governance of the state is one of the powers of the legislature.

ii.  It has power to amend the constitution.

iii. It controls the finances of the country. It approves how the country’s finances can be raised and expended.

iv.  It is a forum for the ventilation of grievances. People can lay their displeasures towards government and its institutions at the door step of the legislature.

v. It can approve treaties, declaration of war or declaration of state of emergency.

vi. It has the power to check the executive through impeachment (presidential system) or vote of no-confidence(cabinets system)

vii.  It has the power to approve major government appointments e.g. appointment of ambassadors, ministers e.t.c

viii. It has the power to check government agencies, parastatals e.t.c

ix.  In some countries like Britain, it has the power to perform judicial functions. The house of lords in Britain is the highest court of appeal.

x.  It has the power to approve the policies of the executive.

Hint

(a)  A constitution; is a body of fundamental rules, regulations, laws, and conventions that governs a state or country e.g. Nigeria 1999 constitution.

(b)  The scope of a constitution includes the following;

i.  A preamble which declares the aspiration and the people for which the constitution is written.

ii. The structure of government that will be operational. The constitution will define whether the state will operate federal, unitary, or confederal system of government.

iii.  It will contain the political institution to be created and their powers e.g. legislature, executive, and judiciary

iv. It will also contain the type of government the country will operate e.g. presidential or parliamentary.

v.  It will specify the party system that will exist e.g. one-party two-party or multi-party system

vi.  It will contain the administrative structure e.g. the civil service structure and its powers.

vii.  It will include the fundamental human rights and freedom of citizens and their duties and obligations.

viii. It will define citizenship. Who a citizen is and ways aliens can acquire citizenship or lose it.

ix.  It will also contain fundamental principles and objectives of a state e.g its political ideology.

x.  It will also include the amendment procedure; modes and procedure of amendment of the constitution.

Hint

The problems that are likely to hinder the success of the electoral commission include ;

i.  Political interference; the ruling government may wish to influence the outcome of elections to enable them to remain in power or for the candidate of his choice to emerge as winner.

ii.  Logistics problem is another problem, for example, sub-standard communication and transportation network can make the process of remitting result, counting votes and declaring of results very slow.

iii.  Election malpractices by political parties’ candidates and even the voters are problems that can hinder the success of the electoral commission.

iv.  Inadequate voters register can disenfranchise qualified voters, thereby creating room for unscrupulous politicians and their supporters to manipulate the election process in favor of their party and candidates.

v.  Shortage of election material; if the election material are not adequate e.g insufficient ballot papers, ink, ballot boxes, stamps pad, election result sheets e.t.c. this can be a problem to the electoral commission.

vi.  Corrupt electoral officials; some electoral officials may sabotage the efforts of the electoral commission by aiding and abetting manipulation of the election process to favor the party or candidate of their choice (some of them after collecting bribe)

vii.  Inadequate security; inadequate security may give room to party thugs to steal ballot boxes, intimidate voters, and try to hijack the election process to favor their party or candidates. Some security officers may be partisan and also be used by political parties and candidates to manipulate election results.

viii.  Illiteracy and poverty are also a problem that can hinder the success of the electoral commission. Parties and candidates can catch In on this making the voters to vote subjectively and intelligently

ix.  Poorly informed electorate and ignorance may also hinder the success of electoral commission if the electorates are not well informed about election guidelines, methods, and the roles of the electorate.

Hint

Features of a branch party structure include the following ;

i.  It has a centralized party structure; it has a national headquarters that coordinates the activities of the party.

ii.  The party has branches/units at different levels which include ward, local government, and state levels all over the country.

iii.  It organizes annual congress and conventions and congress is the highest policy-making organ of the party.

iv. Delegates are elected from branches of the party to the congress

v.  The branches party has party executives at national and other branches that pilot the affairs of the party. These executives are usually elected at congress.

vi.  Each branch party structure has its parliamentary group; the members of the party that was elected into the legislature.

vii.  Another feature is the vigorous drive for membership and supporters

viii.   The life of a branch party structure transcends beyond the election period.

ix.  Branch parties make use of the ad-hoc committee to handle specific problems/issues.

Hint

The okpara or the family head played vital roles during the pre-colonial periods which include;

i.  The okpara is the administrative head of his umunna or kindred and holds the family “OFO” staff of authority.

ii.   The various family heads make up the council of elders in a village.

iii.   The okpara presides over the meetings of his extended family.

iv.  He and other men in his extended family settle disputes within the family. It is only the ones he could not settle that will be presented before the village assembly for settlement

v.  They recruit able-bodied men to defend their village/community in times of war

vi.  They direct and supervise the age-grades in implementing law and order in the community.

vii.  He can consult the gods or ancestors on behalf of the family in time of trouble like poor harvest, untimely death e.t.c

Hint

i.  The French colonies were federated (single constitution) while the British colonies were not (individual constitution).

ii.  The British had both the crown colonies and the protectorates whereas the French established communes for their citizens (Africans)

iii.  The French did not allow political activities early in her colonies for the attainment of independence, unlike the British that allowed political activities early in her colonies.

iv.  The French regarded her colonies as an integral part of metropolitan France whereas the British regarded their colonies as dependencies.

v.  The British used indirect rule while the French used direct rule to govern their colonies.

vi.  The French divided the inhabitant of her colonies into citizens and subjects whereas the British regarded all of them as subjects.

vii.  The French used indigent policy, forced labor, and corvee, the British did not use them.

viii.  The French did not use traditional rulers during the period of assimilation whereas the British used traditional rulers (indirect rule policy).

ix.  Education was restricted to the children of chiefs and inhabitants in the four communes in French whereas education was thrown open to all in British

x.  French did not respect African culture and tradition; hence the policy of assimilation, the British had respect for African culture and tradition.

xi.  Africans were elected into the French parliament/chambers of deputies in Paris but Africans were not elected into the British parliament in London.

xii.  The French did not discriminate against the education of elites whereas the British did.

Hint

Socio-political consequences of the Nigeria civil war of 1967-1970 include the following;

i.  A lot of economic resources were wasted to fight the war; properties were destroyed, a lot of money was wasted buying guns, ammunitions e.t.c.

ii.  Lives were lost and innocent children suffered from hunger, diseases like kwashiorkor e.t.c even families were displaced.

iii.  There were disruptions in the education of students in some parts of the country. Many institutions of learning were destroyed while others were closed. The war caused an academic setback in the country

iv.  Trade and economic activities in the country were disrupted. Many factories and industries stopped production because of the war.

v.  The war tarnished Nigeria’s image abroad. Some foreign countries regarded the war as one between Christians and Muslims

vi.  The war also increased in crime rate as soldiers at the end of the war were not fully disarmed

vii.  The currency policy of the federal government made the Igbo’s poor at the end of the civil war e.g. irrespective of the amount they had in their bank account, they were given twenty pounds only.

viii.  The war made it possible for Nigeria to remain one, indivisible entity.

ix.  It has sent signals to any group that wants to break away that it will not be possible. Other groups/sections of the country will not allow any group to break away.

x.  The war reduced the autonomy of the regions and made the central government stronger than other units of the government.

xi.  The war enabled the central government to create more states e.g from four regions to twelve states.

xii.  The war enabled the Nigerian government to have more regard and confidence in the organization of African unity.

xiii.  It enabled Nigeria to develop technologically e.g. the southeast developing local bombs, guns e.t.c

Hint

Shortcomings of the Babangida’s military regime ;

i. The regime violated fundamental human rights and the rule of law. It promulgated draconian decrees that arrested and detained journalists and people that criticized its policies without trial and closed down media houses.

ii.  The government economic programs including structural adjustment program (SAP) including a second-tier foreign exchange market (SFEM) brought untold hardship to Nigerians.

iii.  The economic policy such as the devaluation of the naira and trade liberalization made naira worthless and made Nigeria dumping ground for fairly used items and obsolete goods.

iv.  There was a high degree of corruption and indiscipline.

v.  There was little or no respect for public opinion.

vi.  This government annulled the result of the June 12, 1993, generated election for no just cause and handed over power to an interim national government.

vii.  Nigeria’s image abroad was tarnished at this period as a good number of them were caught peddling hard drugs. There were incidents of Nigerian drug pushers arrested abroad, these made them become suspicious of every Nigerian and subjected them to rigorous security scrutiny. This impression has not changed till date.

Hint

The highest decision making organ of OPEC is the conference.

The functions of the conferences include the following;

i.  It formulates and implements policies of the OPEC

ii.  It considers fresh applications and admits new members to OPEC

iii.  It considers reports from the board of governor’s reports and recommendations on the budget of the organization.

iv.  It appoints the board of governors and other senior executive staff of the secretariat

v.  It appoints the secretary-general who is the head and chief executive of the secretariat.

vi.  It appoints the auditing firms that audit the accounts of the organization.

vii.  It approves amendments and revisions to the statutes of the organization.

Hint

i.  The constitution provided for the constitutional division of power between the central government and other component units of government (federalism)

ii.  It introduced republicanism in Nigeria. A Nigerian was elected as president by the legislature.

iii.  The federal and regional legislatures were bicameral.

iv. The Supreme Court became the highest court of appeal.

v.  The constitution recognized a four regional structure by including the mid-western region thereby bringing the number of the regions to four.

vi.  It also provided for a parliamentary system of government, where the cabinet is collectively responsible to the legislature.

vii.  Each governor was elected by the regional legislature.

viii. The number of seats in the Senate was increased from 44 to 56 and that of the house of representatives from 305 to 312 .

ix.  It provided for revenue allocation formula for sharing resources.

x.  It abolished the power to remove the premier without the resolution of the regional house of assembly.

xi.  It abolished the judicial service commission, and the power to appoint judges was given to the president on the advice of the prime minister while the power to remove judges was vested in the parliament

xii. The Director of public prosecution became under political control.