Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term - Senior Secondary 2

Term: 3^rd Term

Week: 5

Class: Senior Secondary School 2

Age: 16 years

Duration: 40 minutes of 2 periods each

Date:       

Subject:      Government

Topic:-       Major constitutional conferences of 1950, 1953, 1957 and 1958

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson, pupils should be able to

1. Highlight the decisions made at the conferences

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES: Identification, explanation, questions and answers, demonstration, videos from source

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS: Videos, loud speaker, textbook, pictures

INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES

PERIOD 1-2

NOTE

MAJOR CONFERENCES OF 1950, 1953, 1957 and 1958

Ibadan conference of 1950. The conference was held as part of the effort of Macpherson to come up with an acceptable and workable constitution, it was held in January 1950 and was chaired by general Holmes, the attorney general, the recommendation of the conference are as follows;

1. A federal system of government should be adopted in the 3 regions
2. The three regions should become administrative regions with a governor and a House of Assembly
3. Lagos should become an autonomous municipality
4. There should be the existence of the Federal Government Territory that will monitor the affairs of the three regions
5. Revenue from tax should be allocated to the 3 regions based on per capita
6. Nigerians should start participating in their own governance.

THE LONDON CONFERENCE OF 1953

The London conference of 1953 was the idea of Oliver Lyttleton who in an address to the British house of common in 1953 suggested a new constitution to tackle among many issues, the relationship between the regional and central government, independence of the country and deficiencies inherent in the Macpherson constitution. 19 delegates comprising of 6 from each existing 3 regions and one from the Cameroons attended the conference.

RECOMMENDATION OF 1953 CONFERENCE

The conference between July and august 1953 came up with the following decision

1. Nigeria became a federation
2. The public service to be regionalized
3. Internal self government to be given to the regions that want it
4. Lagos to cease being part of western territory and become federal capital territory
5. Governor of Nigeria to become governor general while regional governors will be designated lieutenant governors
6. Separate administration for the Cameroons if the inhabitants of that region so desired
7. Legislative power should be shared between the central assembly and regional legislative.

LAGOS CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE OF 1954

The conference was held to resolve outstanding issues from 1953 London constitutional conference and it came up with following recommendation

1. Resources to be allocated to the regions based on derivation
2. Partial autonomy to be granted to the southern Cameroon
3. Civil service and judiciary to be regionalized

4. Southern Cameroon to remain part of the federation but with a legislature of its own.

PRE INDEPENDENCE LONDON CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE OF 1957

The conference met in London from May23 till June 1957, under the distinguished chairmanship of the colonial secretary. Membership of the conference was made up of 10 delegates and 5 advisers from each of the regions and 5 delegates and 3 advisers from the southern Cameroons.

In addition, the Federal Government was represented by the Governor-General, the Regional Governors, the commissioner of the Cameroons, 2 federal ministers and the leader of the opposition in the House of Representatives, 2 delegates represented the federal capital, the United Kingdom government was represented by 10 delegates, 9 experts and a legal adviser.

The following decision were taken at the conference held in London

1. It was agreed that eastern and western region would be granted self government 1957, while the north would become self governing by 1959
2. Commission: the conference decided to set up a commission to look into complaints by the minority groups and examine the possibility of creating more regions, and the commission was created in 1958 and was headed by sir Willinks.
3. Bi cameral: for the first time provision was made for a bi cameral legislature- House of Representatives and senate. Members of the House of Representatives were elected directly. While the senator s were to be recommended by their regions to the Governor General.
4. Universal adult suffrage : it was extended to the west and east but suffrage was limited to males in the north
5. Revenue allocation; the issues of revenue allocation was addressed by setting up a commission to handle the issues
6. Prime ministers: the office of prime ministers was created for the first time.
7. Niger delta areas : it recommended that the delta area to be declared a special area
8. Shariah law: it also recommended that the non Muslims should not be tried under Shariah law against their will
9. Boundary adjustment : no boundary adjustment between the south and north unless such an adjustment is agreed to by a conference

PRE INDEPENDENCE LONDON CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE OF 1958

This was the last constitutional conference held before Nigeria national independence in 1960. The conference was to finalize arrangements for Nigeria’s political independence and it came up with the following recommendations

1. Fundamental human right to be entrenched in the constitution
2. Northern region to be self governing by 1957
3. Nigeria to become independent by 1960

4. Referendum to be held to determine the status of Northern and Southern Cameroons
5. It considered the issue of creation of states to allay the fears of the minorities.
6. It adopted Willinks recommendations not to create states but accepted the entrenchment of fundamental human rights into the 1960 constitution
7. The amendment process of the constitution and boundary adjustment procedures were accepted.

WILLINKS COMMISSION OF INQUIRY OF 1957

For the fears of minority ethnic groups and demand for creation of new regions, a commission was created and headed by sir Henry Willinks. It was constituted on 23^rd November 1957. It met between 23^rd November 1957 and 12^th June 1958. It received memoranda from individuals and minority groups, deliberated on them and presented a report containing among others, the following points:

1. No boundary adjustments between the north and south unless such approved via a referendum
2. No imposition of shari’ah law on non Muslim
3. Fundamental human right to be entrenched in the constitution
4. The police to remain under federal control
5. No new regions to be created before independence
6. Special development board should be created for the Niger Delta area
7. Minority areas should have special councils
8. Problems cannot be solved by creating more or new states.

EVALUATION:    1. State four decisions at the

1. 1950 conference
2. 1953 conference
3. 1957 conference
4. 1958 conference

CLASSWORK: As in evaluation

CONCLUSION: The teacher commends the students positively