2009 - JAMB Government Past Questions and Answers - page 5

Separation of Power is a prominent feature of a presidential system of government. Separation of powers implies that the three organs of government the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary are separated in functions and personnel. In Presidential system of government, the Legislative implements the laws and the Judiciary interprets the laws. There is strict separation of powers in the Presidential system of government.

The executive checks the excesses of the legislature through the use of veto power. The power to veto certain acts of parliament granted to the Executive. President will always make the legislators to sit up.

The Consciousness of a common identity of a people is called nationalism. Nationalism is then defined as the strong emotional awareness of belonging to a nation/state which leads to the struggle against foreign rule of domination.

Citizenship of a state by decent requires that one's grandparents were citizens of that state. A child born to a Nigerian couple in the United States of America is a Nigerian citizen by descent because his parents are Nigerians.

The judiciary needs independence primarily in order to dispense justice impartially. Judges must be free from the absolute control of either the executive or the legislature. That means that the judiciary should not be controlled any how.

A State with a hegemonic political party is one in which there is only one dominant party. In this system, one party is firmly established in office. The party has hegemony, that is, it enjoys unchallenged authority. The law does not operate formally against any opposition, but clearly the state concerned is effectively single-party for longer period of many years. For example, South Africa was an example of a hegemonic party. There, the National party came into power in 1948, and it only left when Dr. Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994.

Nigeria's commitment to the liberation of Africa could best be seen in her policy towards South Africa and Angola. The administration of Murtala Mohammed recognized Agostinho Neto's Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA0 at the expense of US and South Africa's support of UNITA AND FNLA played a decisive role in Angolan independence. In the year 1980, Shehu Shagari's administration offered N10 million to Zimbabwe on their independence celebration while Buhari's administration donated undisclosed amount of money to SWAPO of Namibia and the ANC of South Africa.

The set of policies on the basis of which countries interact with one another is called foreign policy.

It could also be defined as the sum total of decision formulated by the government of a country to manipulate the international environment to attain certain national interest or objective.

Nigeria's membership of the UN complements her foreign policy in the area of multilateral diplomacy.

Nigeria teamed up with other developing countries to assert a neutral posture under the platform of Non-aligned Movement. Non-alignment is the idea or notion of a group of nations in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Caribbean and Europe to be neutral in the cold war between the Western Capitalist and it Eastern Socialist powers.

It should be noted that many African countries have found it difficult to implement the principles of Non-alignment as required. This is mostly due to internal political problems which force them to look for aids and military assistance from either of the blocs. For instance Nigeria and Russia during Nigeria and Biafra war which in most cases referred to as Nigeria civil war.