Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Zik was no "ceremonial President"

Bode, you do not have to believe me. I'm asking you to believe what that constitution says.  What does it mean when the constitution say (a) Executive authority shall be vested in the president, who shall exercise the power either DIRECTLY or through his SUBORDINATES? What does the constitution mean in establishing the Parliament of the Federation to create a tripartite institution of parliament: "the President, a senate, and a House of Representatives?" We cannot second guess the constitution in this regard. Nigeria did inherit the parliamentary system from Great Britain. But once it established itself as a republic outside of the Commonwealth, it modified its constitution, and its system of parliamentary governance, and created a hybrid system. The framers of the Republican Constitution were clear about this. The Republic of Nigeria's Constitution circa 1963 was a hybrid of the British Parliamentary system, and America's presidential system, and this largely based on Azikiwe's political influence. Nigerians have really, really not studied this document.

Obi Nwakanma

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Bode <ominira@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, December 7, 2015 4:14 PM
To: 'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Zik was no "ceremonial President"

 

Obi, in seeking to make sure Zik is not underrated, and I agree that he should not, you have overrated the office of the president in a parliamentary system, which by definition is as follows:  "Parliamentary systems usually have a head of government

Head of government - Simple English Wikipedia, the free ... The head of government of a country is the person who runs it. This is not always the same person as the head of state. Official titles for heads of government ... Read more...

 and a head of state. The head of government is the prime minister, who has the real power. The head of state often is an elected (either popularly or through parliament) president or, in the case of a constitutional monarchy, hereditary." you are turning this definition on its head by claiming that it was in fact, Zik, the president who had real power and not Balewa, the prime minister. If this is not ethnocentric historicism, what is?

On Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 9:17 AM, Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com> wrote:

"Nnamdi "Zik" Azikiwe was head of state (ceremonial president). Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was head of government (prime minister)."
                                                                                                                                                                                  -Anonymous

Nigerians are generally ignorant about many things about that country, yet they swear by myths invented by myth-makers. The more disturbing is when intellectuals who ought to know are not rigorous enough to verify these myths before making these statements ex-cathedra. One of the myths that have been created, no less by the newspapers that were antagonistic to Nnamdi Azikiwe is the fiction hat Azikiwe was  "merely ceremonial president." No doubt that this was purportedly derived, but clearly taken out of contest, from the statement Dr. Azikiwe himself made in 1978, that he "reigned but did not RULE for one day!" A highly nuanced statement about the difference between the Parliamentary system and the Presidential system that was then taken out of context. The serial attempts to reduce Zik from his national pedestal and place him at everyone's level by revisionists of Nigerian history has ballooned on to a great fiction. First, there was no provision for a "ceremonial president" in Nigeria's Republican Constitution - which abolished the office of the Governor-General, and declared Nigeria a free nation outside of the British Commonwealth. Chapter VI, section 84 sub-section 1 of Nigeria's Republican Constitution in fact was clear and unambiguous: "the executive power of the federation shall be vested on the president, and subject to the provisions of this constitution, may be exercised by him directly, or through officers subordinate to him." That constitution had basically made the Prime Minister subordinate to the President, for whom he was basically Chief Minister and Adviser, and head of his government in parliament, specifically, in the House of Representatives. The exercise of executive power was a presidential function, or by direct delegation of the president. People should stop retailing fiction. Here, is a link to Nigeria's 1963 Constitution <http://www.unesco.org/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/WPFD2009/pdf/Nigeria%20Constitution.pdf>

As a matter of fact, Azikiwe occupied an "empty husk" position as Governor-General between 1960 and 1963. On departing, the British had basically defanged the office of the Governor-General, as the Queen's representative in an outpost of the commonwealth. As part of the negotiations that took place between Azikiwe's party and the leadership of the NPC between 1959 and 1960, it was agreed that Zik would occupy that position without powers as a transitory process leading to the full declaration of a republic in 1963, when he would take the more substantial position of President. At the declaration of Nigeria as republic outside the British commonwealth in 1963,  its entire national will was vested on its republican parliament under a modified parliamentary system. The thing that most Nigerians failed always to read is that that constitution established three arms of that parliament: the president, the senate, and the House of Representatives. Chapter V of that constitution was unambiguous: "there shall be a parliament of the federation, which shall consist of the president, a senate, and a House of Representative." In other words, the constitution of the republic, conferred extensive parliamentary powers on the office of the president, and made the President sovereign of the Republic! In other words, while Azikiwe occupied the office of Governor-General, he was largely "ceremonial," but as soon as full sovereignty was established, and the Republic declared, its constitution abolished the ceremonial office of Governor-General, and established the full office of the president with full executive powers, and in doing that largely restored the original power inherent in the old Governor-General's office prior to October 1, 1960. And that power was enormous. It was exactly why Azikiwe assured his supporters that he was satisfied that his position was guaranteed, following those negotiations. Later attempts to modify and contain him led in some part to the national crisis that snowballed into the 1966 coup. I think people should read Shagari's memoir for some of the hints made about Balewa's powerlessness, and the frustrations. It was always a wonder to me why people have thought that an old fox like Zik would negotiate himself out of power. He was no ceremonial president. There was no provision for a "ceremonial president" under the Nigerian constitution of 1963.
Obi Nwakanma



________________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of ジョン　フィリップス <philips@hirosaki-u.ac.jp>
Sent: Monday, December 7, 2015 8:35 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Root causes of the Biafra struggle.

I think you mean head of government. Nnamdi "Zik" Azikiwe was head of state (ceremonial president). Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was head of government (prime minister).

The two functions are combined in an executive president.


> On Dec 7, 2015, at 7:42 AM, Bode <ominira@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 1. The first southerner to become head of state was obasanjo



John Edward Philips  <http://human.cc.hirosaki-u.ac.jp/philips/>
International Society, College of Humanities, Hirosaki University
"Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto." -Terentius Afer
<http://www.boydell.co.uk/www.urpress.com/80462561.HTM>



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