2003 - JAMB Government Past Questions and Answers - page 4

The non-British colony which is a member of the Common wealth is Eritrea.

Eritrea became politically independent in 1993, with Italy as former colonial master.

The major problem of the ECOWAS is lack of common currency.

This makes financial transactions difficult among member nations.

Other problems include:

1. The high rate of poverty

2. The existence of other sub-regional organizations e.g CEAO.

3. Language barrier

4. The problem of refugees and displaced persons.

5. Similarity in agricultural products.

The ECOWAS Treaty was reviewed in 1991 to accomodate extra sub-regional interests

The headquarters of the International Court of Justice is at Hague in the Court of Justice is at Hague in the Netherlands.

The court is composed of fifteen judges. The judges are elected independently by the security council and the general assembly. It elects its own president and vice president, a registrar and other officers. Only nations and not individuals can bring cases to the court.

Correct Answer: Option E The independent African countries that signed the OAU Charter on May 25th 1963 in this context were as follows:

\(\begin{array}{c|c} & \text{Country} & \text{Year of Independence}\ \hline 1. & \text{Togo} & \text{27th April 1960}\ 2. & \text{Sierra leone} & \text{22nd April 1961} \ 3. & \text{Morocco} & \text{20th March 1956} \ 4. & \text{Angola} & \text{11th Nov. 1975} \ 5. & \text{Chad} & \text{11the Aug. 1960} \ 6. & \text{Gambia} & \text{18th Feb. 1965}\end{array}\)

Automatically, Angola and Gambia are ruled out in the context as they obtained independence after the charter had been signed.

Then ''A''-Togo and Sierra Leone and B-Togo and Morocco should have been considered as the correct answer on each case but that could not come true as the government of Togo was overthrown by the military on January 1, 1963. Before signing the charter on May 25th 1963, no African country had though of recognizing the military government. So it was not likely that the former head of state should be present at the meeting to sign the charter. For this reason, none of the options should be considered as the correct answer.

The tenure of the President of the UN Security Council is one month.

The Security Council has fifteen members out of which five are permanent members. The permanent members are as follows:

1. United States of America (USA)

2. China

3. Britain

4. France and

5. Soviet Union or Russia. The permanent members are elected by the council and general assembly for a term of two years.
The president of the security council of the United Nations is held for one month and this is done in rotation.

In a parliamentary system, the functions of the head of state and the head of government are vested in two different individuals.

This is the system which has a ceremonial or titular head of state as president and a prime minister as the head of government and chief executive of government e.g Nigeria 1960-1966,Britain etc.

Government by the wealthy is known as plutocracy it is one of the forms of oligarchy which is defined as government ruled by few privileged and powerful people.

A collegial executive is a government in which power is vested in a committee.

A committee is a number of persons who have been selected from a large body to deal with special business.

The unrestrained power of the state over its citizens is underlined by sovereignty.

Sovereignty could be defined as the supreme legal power to make and enforce laws for people within a definite territory without any external control.

Characteristics of sovereignty are permanence, indivisibility, comprehensiveness and absoluteness.