INTRODUCTION

The Commonwealth of Nations is a unique grouping of 54 developed and developing nations spread over every continent and ocean in the world. It is a voluntary association of independent sovereign states of many religions, races, languages and cultures. Most of its members are republics. At inception, the name was “British Commonwealth”, but with the independence of member nations, the name was changed to “Commonwealth of Nations”.

THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME “COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS”

There are various explanations to the origin of the name “Commonwealth of Nations”. Some of these explanations include:

1. The term commonwealth was given to Cromwell’s government of 1879.
2. The concept was more loosely given to the whole periods from the execution of Charles I in 1649 to the restoration of Charles II of 1660.
3. The name commonwealth next appeared in British history as the name given to the federation of Australian states from 1900-1901.
4. The term “Commonwealth of nations of British empire” was coined by Lord Roseberry in 1883.
5. It was General Smut who invented the term “British Commonwealth of Nations in 1919 as a suitable description of self-governing nations of British Empire. This conception was defined by the imperial conference of 1926. As a result of this the “Dominion office” was renamed the commonwealth relation office.

Principal Organs of Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations according to Yaya (1999) and Dibbie (2008) has the following organs:

1. Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM)
2. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG)
3. Commonwealth Governance Arrangements
4. The Commonwealth family

The Benefits of Common Wealth

Commonwealth of Nations has a lot of benefits which member states enjoy some of these benefits include:

1. It creates and sustains trade co-operations between member states.
2. It provide avenues for military training for member states and provide military aids when the need arise.
3. It creates avenue for monetary aids in form of loan to member state for developmental purposes.
4. It creates and provides avenues for technical assistance among member states.
5. It creates avenues for cooperation in the field of education.
6. The Commonwealth since inception has played a positive role in promoting good governance among member countries, consistent with the principles in the Harare Declaration of 1991.
7. The Commonwealth assists member countries by developing, in consultation with them, best practice guidelines on administrative, judicial, regulatory and other matters; and responding to their requests for assistance with administrative reform in government and the reassessment of existing structures and systems.
8. The Commonwealth supports activities, including strengthening the domestic human rights machinery of member states, the establishment of Ombudsmen’s offices, workshops in such areas as criminal justice, administrative law and combating corruption, and implementation of international human rights conventions.

Problems Facing Commonwealth of Nations

          The major problems facing common wealth of Nations include:

1. Divided interest and loyalty by member states who are members of other international organizations.
2. The common wealth has no charter like the UNO and the AU and so there are no formal rules governing it.
3. Member nations no longer have common currencies as it was in the past.
4. Member nations no longer grant free movement to immigrants from common wealth countries like it was in the past.

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🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

There is the need to create awareness on CORONA virus in schools with a focus on:
a. What is Corona virus?
b. Mode of transmission
c. Signs and symptoms
d. Prevention

Ways of creating awareness….
a. During assembly or any gathering
b. The first five minutes of each period or lesson.

Prevention is better than cure…..

Lawson Luka

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton