JAMB Government Past Questions & Answers - Page 153

The exclusive list is reserved for legislation by the Federal Government. There are about forty three exclusive lists.

Concurrent powers are left for both federal and the state governments while residual lists are reserved for the states only.

The immediate cause of the 1966 military coup de'etat in Nigeria was political instability. It should be noted that the Action Group Crises of 1962 was one of the crisis that led to the military take-over of government in January 1966. The 1962 Action Group crisis continued to rear its ugly head, until Western Nigeria election crisis of 1965. The disagreement over the election result between UPGA and NNA in Western region resulted to a crisis which led to a breakdown of law and order. This situation attracted military intervention on 15th January, 1966.

In the Igbo political system, the most senior member of the council of elders is the Okpara. The Igbo political system was based on the village as a political unit.

A village is then seen as made up of a group of related families. Each family head held the Ofo title and all of them put together formed the council of elders. The council of elders governed the village. Among the Ofo title holders, one of them was regarded as the most senior to as the Okpara and he had the right to preside over the council of elders meetings.

The fear of domination in the public service led to the establishment of the Federal Character refers to distribution of amenities and resources or appointments based on quota system. This is to be applied in the three tiers of government in the country. E.G. Political appointments, Location of Unity secondary Schools, Board, Admission into tertiary in institutions, Location of iron tertiary institutions, Location of iron and Steel Mills.

Some of the Factors responsible for the introduction of Federal Characters include:

1. To ensure Unity, Stability, etc.

2. Discrimination

3. Struggle for Lion's share

4. Fear of Domination.

Privatization and Commercialization programmes in Nigeria have de-emphasized government ownership. This should be clearly seen when we look at the respective definitions of Privatization and Commercialization.

Privatization: This may be defined as the reduction of the burden borne by the government in the provision of goods and services by transferring some of this to the private sector. Full privatization means that government will sell of its controlling shares to the private sector while partial privatization means that reduction of government shares from 60 to 40 percent.

Commercialization: This is the alteration of the capital base of a government company and its modes of operation to enable it engage in business for the sole purpose of making profits.
Companies under full commercialization will no more receive any subvention from the government while those under those under partial commercialization will receive government subvention but will be expected to generate, at least 50 percent of their financial needs from their own operations.