Nigeria and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Straightening the Crooked Path

Abstract

As encapsulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, economic, social, and cultural rights are indispensable components of the fundamental rights that the global community guarantees to all humankind, alongside civil and political rights. Specifically, the United Nations adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 1966 to expedite the fulfillment of ESCR while imploring Member States to adopt and domesticate the same to stimulate the realization of these rights at the national level. This study examined Nigeria concerning their effort toward fulfilling the obligation to the ICESCR, which she affirmed. Depending on data derived from secondary sources and analyzed using thematic and content analysis techniques, the study found that Nigeria maintains demonstrable support for the international community in promoting the universal realization of ESCR. Nigeria has ratified and domesticated the ICESCR at the global level and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights at the regional level and incorporated these rights into their extant 1999 National Constitution. Nevertheless, Nigeria’s path to fulfilling its obligation to the ICESCR is crooked as it faces some underlying problems that impede its effort, including the paradox in its constitution. The study recommends, in addition to other actions, a constitutional reform to repeal Section 6(6)(c) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria to categorize ESCR under ‘fundamental rights’ and ascribe them the status of ‘enforceable’ rights under the law to ameliorate these issues.