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.
Highlights
Humankind, as a higher social animal, is naturally created with an inbuilt desire for the maximisation of pleasure and the minimization of pains and with certain natural and inalienable rights
In the course of sociocultural, political and religious settings, the formation of the Nigerian state in January 1914 has brought a fundamental change in the socio-economic, cultural and religious settings of the later Nigerian people as the amalgamation came with the imposition of Western alien culture, values and life on the various people of Nigeria
The Judiciary is generally seen to be inefficient in safeguarding of these rights; the public is losing confidence in law enforcement agencies to safeguard the rights; the constitution is seen as being unable to bridge the gap between its provisions and the reality on the ground; the public is negatively hit by the ignorance of or negligence to its constitutional rights; while the rights are circumvented, misinterpreted to suit selfish ends resulting in a travesty of justice to one and to all
Summary
As a higher social animal, is naturally created with an inbuilt desire for the maximisation of pleasure and the minimization of pains (felicific calculus) and with certain natural and inalienable rights. In the course of sociocultural, political and religious settings, the formation of the Nigerian state in January 1914 has brought a fundamental change in the socio-economic, cultural and religious settings of the later Nigerian people as the amalgamation came with the imposition of Western alien culture, values and life on the various people of Nigeria. One such imposition was the introduction of a legal system with values of the emerging industrial society. The extents to which they observe, safeguard and allow citizens to exercise these rights vary from one to the other depending on interest, specific issues and circumstances
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