JUSTIFYING THE NEED FOR THE JUSTICIABILITY OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC RIGHTS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The germane nature of socio-economic rights is one that has always been overlooked in legal discourse. The socioeconomic rights are vital due to its tie to human dignity and the role it plays in maintaining the social wellbeing of the people. However, such rights form non-justiciable rights within Chapter II of the Nigerian Constitution, which render them legally non-enforceable through the courts in Nigeria. Such a restriction undermines the functional realization of socio-economic rights and institutionalizes poverty at a systemic level. This paper set out the rationale of the necessity for socio-economic rights to be justiciable in Nigeria by clearly drawing the nexus between socio-economic rights and the justiciable civil and political rights such as right to dignity of human person as well as right to life, amongst other things. The article noted the ramification of judicial enforcement in advancing development and providing Nigeria’s constitutional guarantees. The paper clearly illustrated that the issue of the non-justiciability of socioeconomic rights in Nigeria stems from section 6 (6) (c) of the Nigerian Constitution, upon which the courts were constrained but to declare socioeconomic rights nonjusticiable in Nigeria. On this basis, the paper recommended constitutional amendment and judicial activism as an imperative means of transforming socioeconomic rights into binding legal rights for all in Nigeria.