Legislative approval of executive appointments by the national assembly in Nigeria: a vindictive or a constitutional duty?

The power to approve presidential nominees for the office of ministers of the federation, ambassadors, and members of the Board of other executive bodies is vested in the Senate, while the power to approve governor’s nominees for Commissioners and members of other State executive bodies vest in the House of Assembly of the State. The Chairmen and members of these bodies shall be removed for misconduct by the President on approval of the Senate, while the chairmen and members of the boards at the State level shall be removed by the Governor on approval of the House of Assembly of a State. The House of Representatives is deliberately excused from participating in the approval of Presidential appointment. This paper examines how this power is being exercised both at the Federal and State levels in Nigeria. Is the power exercised in a vindictive manner to deal with a political enemy or in a patriotic manner in order to engender good governance? The paper concludes that the power should be exercised in a way that peace, order and good governance shall be promoted both at the Federal and State levels.Keywords: Executive appointments, Legislative approval, National Assembly, Constitutional dut

Cooperative Bank as an Effective Financial Inclusion Strategy in Nigeria

Cooperative banking is now a global phenomenon but going through the history of banking in Nigeria there is nothing to show that Nigeria had actually established any cooperative bank. There were the defunct Nigerian cooperative and Commerce bank, or Cooperative Bank Plc, Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative bank etc. They were never cooperative banks in the true sense, they all operated Commercial banks or at best as micro finance or primary mortgage institutions. This paper unfolded the enormity of the impact cooperative bank can have on the economy by promoting financial inclusion. The paper is concluded on the note that to reduce poverty, ensure food security and create jobs, cooperative banking based on cooperative principles is imperative in Nigeria. The paper is divided into five parts. Part one discussed the definition of financial inclusion, cooperative and cooperative bank, while part two traced the history of cooperative banking in Nigeria. Part three discussed cooperative banking in Europe, Asia and Africa, part four distinguished between cooperative bank and commercial bank and types of cooperative banks while part five discussed the possibility of establishing cooperative bank in Nigeria and the modus operandi of establishing the bank Keywords: Cooperative banking, financial inclusion, micro finance, mortgage institutions

The Civil Service as an Engine of Good Governance in Nigeria

It is no gain saying that civil service is central and inevitable to any government and good governance especially. The civil service is important both in policy formulation and implementation, it also gives technical and professional advice to successive government so as to guide the political office holders whose offices are transient in nature while that of the civil servants have some measure of permanence. It is in the light of the above that this paper looks at the civil service in Nigeria as an engine room of good governance. The paper traced the history of Nigeria civil service, the role of civil service in service delivery, the successes, and failure of civil service and most importantly the corruption in the civil service today. The paper is concluding by recommending reorientation of the civil servants, training, and retraining and provision of modern equipment for effective service delivery. Keywords: civil service, governance, policy, governmen

Can a state house of assembly enact pension law in Nigeria?

Pension means regular payments made by the state to the disabled, widowed or by a former employer to an employee after long service or a periodical payment made especially by government, company or an employer in consideration of past services.1 This paper seeks to review Nigerian pension laws with a view to identifying whether a state can enact a pension law to grant pension and gratuities to an ex-governor and if not what happens to the pensions so far collected by the ex-governors under the various states’ pension laws? The paper concludes that only the federal government or National Assembly can make law on pension in Nigeria, therefore the various states’ laws on pension and gratuity to Ex-Governors should be declared null and void.Keywords: Pension and Gratuity Law, State House of Assembly, National Assembly, Legislative Powers, State Governors who are senators or minister

TOWARDS FEDERALIZATION OF NIGERIAN UNITARIZED JUDICIARY

This paper examines federalism as a concept, its adoption to governance in Nigeria through the constitution. The constitution is examined with a view of showing elements of unitarism instead of the federalism the constitution proclaims for Nigeria. In this regard, we examined the creation of federation account, statutory allocation of revenue to states and local government and what it portends for a federation. Conduct of general Election on a date for the central government and all the states of the federation is observed as an aberration in a federal state, so also is the creation of a National electoral commission for both the central and state governments. Creation of central judiciary for both the National and state government with institutions like Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) is also an aberration in a federation. The paper is concluded by contrasting Nigerian federation with American federation with a recommendation for true federation modeled along American system so as to ensure peace, order, good governance and security of the nation. This will be a form of devolution of power which can ensure Nigeria’s unity and erase agitation for balkanisation of Nigeria