On appointments to certain posts:
The following appointments must be approved by the Supreme Military Council:
- Diplomatic and Consular posts.
- Senior posts in the Armed Forces and the Police.
- Super-scale Federal Civil Service and Federal Corporation posts.
On the functioning of the Supreme Military Council: Any decisions affecting the whole country must be determined by the Supreme Military Council. Where a meeting is not possible such a matter must be referred to Military Governors for comment and concurrence. That all the Law Officers of the Federation should meet in Benin on the 14th January and list all the Decrees and provisions of Decrees concerned so that they may be repealed not later than 21st January, if possible.
That for at least the next six months, there should be purely a Military Government, having nothing to do whatsoever with politicians.
The next item discussed was the Ad Hoc Constitutional Conference which Lt. Col. Gowon had unilaterally dissolved on 30th November, 1966. The Council agreed that the Conference should resume sitting as soon as practicable to continue from where it left off, and that the question of implementing the unanimous recommendations of the Conference in September, 1966 should be considered at a later meeting of the Supreme Military Council.
Finally, on the problem of displaced persons, the relevant section of the Official Minutes of the Council reads as follows:
- On rehabilitation, that Finance Permanent Secretaries should resume their meeting within two weeks and submit recommendations and that each Region should send three representatives to the meeting;
- On employment and recovery of property, that civil servants and Corporation staff (including daily paid employees) who have not been absorbed should continue to be paid their full salaries until 31st March, 1967 provided they have not got alternative employment, and that the Military Governors of the East, West and Mid-West should send representatives (Police Commissioners) to meet and discuss the problem of recovery of property left behind by displaced persons.