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Political and Judicial Rights through the Prism of Religious Belief pp 217–254Cite as

Predictors of Judicial Human Rights’ Attitudes of Adolescents in Nigeria

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Part of the book series: Religion and Human Rights ((REHU,volume 3))

Abstract

The practice of judicial rights in Nigeria leaves much to be desired. Judicial rights feature prominently in Nigeria’s Constitution since the country’s independence from colonial rule in 1960. But these constitutional provisions have not always been respected. Most notable infractions in this regard were recorded in the era of the military regimes, as a result of which the nation was treated internationally as a pariah State and put on the human rights agenda of the United Nations commission. Thanks to the support of the human rights groups that the country returned to the path of constitutionalism in 1999. However, the return to a democratic dispensation has had very minimal impact on the country’s human rights record: illegal arrests and pre-trial detentions, torture and inhuman treatment of suspects, and extrajudicial killings have continued on a large-scale. Due process is still not respected. The accidents of Nigeria’s history characterized chiefly by military rule left their ‘scars’ on the ‘Nigerian psyche’, without doubts and these appear to influence the ‘national culture.’ In this study, we want to find out whether these physical and or psychological injuries also account for the judicial rights’ attitudes of Nigeria’s citizens, especially the youth. The sample includes 1191 students of 18 secondary schools in Nigeria. The objective is to determine the students’ judicial rights attitudes. Whereas it was assumed that the perception of State influences their attitudes the most, the findings rather show the perception of religion as the main predictor of their generally negative evaluation of the said rights.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    According to Dada (2013, 2), chapter II contains mostly the economic, social and cultural rights which are not justiciable in Nigeria.

  2. 2.

    The expression “a reasonable time” means – (a) in the case of an arrest or detention in any place where there is a court of competent jurisdiction within a radius of 40 km, a period of 1 day; and (b) in any other case, a period of 2 days or such longer period as in the circumstances may be considered by the court to be reasonable.

  3. 3.

    According to Ani (2011, 52) this Act came into being as Ordinance No. 42 of 1945, and was re-enacted as ordinance No. 43 of 1948. It was incorporated as Cap 80 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (hereafter LFN) 1990 and later as Cap. C 41 LFN 2004. The enactment govern criminal procedure in the Southern States of Nigeria.

  4. 4.

    Like the CPA, the CPC was enacted by the Northern Region of Nigeria in 1960, and applied only to the Northern States. See Ani (52).

  5. 5.

    This Act was derived from the Police Ordinance of 1943. After series of amendments, it is now Police Act Cap. P19 LFN 2004 (Ani, 53).

  6. 6.

    Cap. E 14 LFN 2004.

  7. 7.

    The need to improve the delivery of justice in Nigeria led to the fusion of the CPA and CPC into one principal federal Act, which is known as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015. The Act was recently passed into law. However, the existing criminal procedures are substantially preserved. See Akinseye 2016.

  8. 8.

    We made extensive use of the International Justice Resource Center’s post on the topic ‘torture’. See http://www.ijrcenter.org/thematic-researchguides/torture/#Defining_Cruel_Treatment_and_Torture. Accessed on 01.10.2015.

  9. 9.

    These include, among others: African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 5; American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, art. 27; Arab Charter on Human Rights, arts 8; Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, arts. 19–20; Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 37; European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment; European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, art. 3; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 4, 7 & 10; United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, art. 31; Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 5.

  10. 10.

    1999 Constitution FRN section 34(1)(a).

  11. 11.

    Article 15 CAT.

  12. 12.

    (1993) 178 CLR 217, 245 per Gaudron and McHugh J.J. In: Hocking & Manville (69).

  13. 13.

    Section 236 (1) (c) CPC.

  14. 14.

    1999 Constitution FRN section 36 (11).

  15. 15.

    The three sister rights, namely: right to counsel, right to remain silent, and protection against self-incrimination.

  16. 16.

    Section 6 (a) (b) (c) ACJA 2015.

  17. 17.

    See section 6 (1) CPA, section 28 Police Act, sections 44 (3), 78, 79 and 127 CPC and section 150 (1) CEMA. We got very useful information on this topic from Oghenesivbe (2014).

  18. 18.

    Section 28 Police Act, section 1 CPA and section 44 CPC.

  19. 19.

    Section 6 (2) CPA, section 44 (3) CPC, section 32 NDLEA and section 150 (1) CEMA.

  20. 20.

    Section 82 CPC.

  21. 21.

    Sections 4 Police Act.

  22. 22.

    Section 147 (1) CEMA, section 32 NDLEA.

  23. 23.

    See section 107 CPA, sections 74, 75 and 76 CPC.

  24. 24.

    Section 109 (2) CPA.

  25. 25.

    Section 111 (1) CPA.

  26. 26.

    See also Sections 7, 8 and 112 (2) CPA and Sections 34 (3) and 84 CPC (Oghenesivbe 2014).

  27. 27.

    Section 78 CPC (Oghenesivbe 2014).

  28. 28.

    Section 15 Evidence Act 2011.

  29. 29.

    Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Third Edition 2008, p. 42.

  30. 30.

    Legal Aids Council of Nigeria, Fifth Edition 2009, p. 6.

  31. 31.

    Cap 205 LFN 1990.

  32. 32.

    Cap L9 LFN 2004.

  33. 33.

    [1988] 3 NWLR. (Pt. 4) 533 (Nigeria). In: Adeyemi (2007, 118, at footnotes).

  34. 34.

    See Principle 17 of the UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment; Article 14 (30) (d) ICCPR.

  35. 35.

    1999 Constitution FRN section 214 (1): Establishment of Nigeria Police Force.

  36. 36.

    Sections 24 Police Act 1990. Also in Tawakalitu versus FRN (2011) 9 WRN, the court repeated emphasized “the power of the police to conduct all prosecution before any court of law in Nigeria.” In: Babalola (2014, 132, at footnotes). But this provision has been amended in the ACJA 2015.

  37. 37.

    1999 Constitution FRN section 33 (2) (b).

  38. 38.

    Article 13 CAT.

  39. 39.

    See Principles 13 & 14 of the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.

  40. 40.

    Section 341 Police Act Cap 359 LFN 1990.

  41. 41.

    See Principle 20 of the UN Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extrajudicial, Arbitrary and Summary Executions.

  42. 42.

    This statement is credited to the US-based International Coordinator, Ekiti Global Project, Mr. Adegboyega Omoeyeluajire Dahunsi. In: Igbonwelunduon (2015).

  43. 43.

    1999 Constitution FRN sections 230–283.

  44. 44.

    Alford (2012, 1256 at footnotes) used the expression in his work – A Broken Windows Theory of International Corruption. However, he noted that there has been no sustained analysis of the same theory as applied to corruption.

  45. 45.

    Transparency International is a nonprofit, non-governmental, civil society organization that is dedicated to fighting corruption in international development.

  46. 46.

    In the survey, residents of 107 countries were sampled based on active corruption indices. 85% of those sampled in Nigeria claimed that corruption had increased in the country in the last 2 years. Seventy-five percent of the residents state that the government was ineffective in the fight against corruption and 92% considered the police to be corrupt. See website for more information – https://www.transparency.org/gcb2013/country/?country=nigeria. Accessed on 01.12.2015; see also Ayobami (2015).

  47. 47.

    The Danish Immigration Service (2005).

Abbreviations

CAP:

Chapter

CLR:

Commonwealth Law Reports

FWLR:

Federal Weekly Law Report

LFN:

Law of the Federation of Nigeria

NCLR:

Nigerian Constitutional Law Reports

NLR:

Nigeria Law Reports

NMLR:

Nigeria Monthly Law Report

NWLR:

Nigeria Weekly Law Report

SC:

Supreme Court

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Theology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Modestus Adimekwe & Hans-Georg Ziebertz

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  1. Modestus Adimekwe
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  2. Hans-Georg Ziebertz
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Correspondence to Modestus Adimekwe .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Carl Sterkens

  2. Institute of Practical Theology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Hans-Georg Ziebertz

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Adimekwe, M., Ziebertz, HG. (2018). Predictors of Judicial Human Rights’ Attitudes of Adolescents in Nigeria. In: Sterkens, C., Ziebertz, HG. (eds) Political and Judicial Rights through the Prism of Religious Belief. Religion and Human Rights, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77353-7_9

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