COVID-19 Pandemic and Fundamental Human Rights: Legal Implications on the Right to Protest in Nigeria

Abstract

Protest demonstrations, though never a novel phenomenon in human history has continually witnessed a rising profile in today's global scene. This is no less the case in legal circles, where the focus is on finding a balance between the right to protest guaranteed in most national constitutions and several other rights and interests, particularly the right to life, dignity, freedom and security of the person and property. Starting from the United States of America to London in 2020, the death of George Floyd has sparked a wave of social activism involving protest as an expression of discontent against the manifestation of any form of racism and social stratification. The same is also true of the Nigerian society. Since the month of June 2020 till now, there has been a rising incidence of protest demonstrations within the Nigerian societal context as a response to the death of Tina Ezekwe and Uwavera Omozuwa which is reflective of public dissatisfaction against the arbitrary use of force and fire arms by the police and the preponderance of rape cases within the country.Whilst, it is an incontrovertible fact that the right to protest demonstrations is a fundamental human right subsumed as a joint expression of the dual rights of "peaceful assembly" and "freedom of expression", notwithstanding, the right is in no way absolute in its application. The poser here for this discourse is to what extent can such right be lawfully exerted in the light of a global pandemic of a life-threatening virus? Is the intervention of the police in debarring protest demonstrations readily justifiable in the light of these present realities? Indeed, it is no surprise that several other fundamental human rights guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution have been delimited by our legislative responses to the global pandemic, COVID-19. Be that as it may, our focus in this review is narrowed down to the infractions posed by this global pandemic in relation to "the right to protest" which shall be analyzed seriatim as this essay unfolds