Nigerian Citizens and Fundamental Rights: Myth, Manoeuvre and Reality

Abstract

Fundamental rights have importance, concern and challenges to societies and states at local and international levels. Those are, however, more in developing states and democracies. Many Nigerian citizens especially civilians and the poor have gone into despair for most of the citizens' rights exist only on paper and are not realistic. This paper investigated the fundamental rights of Nigerian citizens: provisions, enforcement, and myth in these rights; reality and manoeuvre by various stake holders in human rights provisions; enforcement and safeguard. The study used secondary sources of data. It is found that fundamental rights provisions and enforcement in Nigeria are constrained by military rule, poor or no political will and commitment, poor constitutional provisions, poor legal aid and services, ignorance of the existing laws and provisions, deliberate acts to thwart the arm of justice, corruption, judicial incompetence, inefficient justice system, socio-cultural provisions, poverty, state aligned threats and intimidations. The study recommends extensive and intensive education and enlightenment to citizens, full monitoring and strict compliance with provisions on rights, broader and functional legal aid services especially to the poor and the ignorant, revamping Nigeria's justice system to reflect current realities and strict compliance with the rules of engagement by the armed forces, and reviewing laws such as the Penal and Criminal code laws to co-opt new trends and realities.

Beyond the ballot: Understanding voters’ perception on electoral reforms and mass media influence in Nigeria

“…This corresponds with the view of scholars who assert that electoral reform may be popular depending on prevailing circumstances as those who exploited the lapses in the status quo may not favour electoral reforms that are not in their political interests [28] . In the same vein, other scholars also aver that a key issue influencing the politics of electoral reforms is party interests [13] . This accounts for the reason Nigeria's political landscape is characterised by constant electoral reforms without corresponding improvements in the electoral process.…”

“…Electoral reforms are public policy issues which lead to the introduction of new laws governing the conduct and management of elections usually because of some observed irregularities in previous elections [24][25][26] . They refer to changes in the electoral process/system geared towards improving how electorates' desires are expressed in election results [13,26] . These desired changes can bring about sound innovations and initiatives that can better the lots of the populace in terms of conducting free and fair elections and bringing culprits in election rigging to justice.…”

“…The call for electoral reforms in Nigeria has garnered significant scholarly attention, particularly in the context of the involvement of the mass media. Some scholars highlight that electoral reforms are instigated to enhance the credibility of the electoral system [9] , while others contend that these reforms emerge in response to observed irregularities in previous elections [13] . Research has also shown that a substantial portion of individuals' understanding of political processes is derived from mass media messages, and this varies across countries [14] .…”

The Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary: Toward Democratic Governance in Nigeria Since 1914

“…This has characterized the country with an intense ethnoreligious and political conflict, this is, as a result, of a power struggle among its citizens there has been a rise in the level of ethnoreligious passion and an extreme sense of religious uprisings all over the nation. A study by Halliru, 2012;Shehu, Osman, & Othman, (2016), noted that religious fundamentalists in Nigeria display unnecessary and illogical enthusiasm to defend their religion and therefore become unhelpful agents of religious disagreement in the nation. The supporters of the three foremost religions, especially Muslims and Christians are at one stage or another prejudiced by extremism to result to division and ferocious hostility across the nation this as a result of the merger of the people of different religion, culture and language barrier.…”

An Overview of Push/Pull Factors of Political Participation in Nigeria

“…Political participation and apathy fluctuate, because the politics itself, is determined and influenced by a number of factors that include: level of political awareness and socialization, social status in society, standard of living/level of well-being, environmental and social influences, the extent of observing and guaranteeing the principles of rule of law (Shehu, Othman and Osman, 2016), and socio-cultural which includes religious and gender factors. Each of the above, influences participation or apathy relative to the environment and societal/state's establishments and settings.…”