2020

The removal from office of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honorable Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen apparently generated a lot of controversies in recent times. One of the major issues that is being debated on is whether the chairman and members of the Code of Conduct Tribunal are under the disciplinary authority of the National Judicial Council? The chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Justice Danladi Umar has in a statement said that members of the Code of Conduct Tribunal are not judicial officers and therefore not constitutionally subject to any disciplinary proceedings by either the National Judicial Council or the Federal Judicial Service Commission but the Presidency1. The constitutionality or otherwise of this argument and assertion is the focus and aim of this article. The article examines the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended with regard to the status of the chairman and members of the Tribunal vis-a-vis the disciplinary authority of the National Judicial Council. It is found that the chairman and members of the Code of Conduct Tribunal are not under the disciplinary authority of the National Judicial Council. The article concludes by recommending the subjection of the members of the Tribunal to the disciplinary authority of the National Judicial Council. In writing this article doctrinal research method was used to collate materials.

Like most governments all over the world, the Nigerian Government has found it expedient to entrust certain task to administrative bodies as distinct from the civil service. Of these administrative bodies are regulatory agencies who are independent bodies and are vested with powers to oversee and regulate activities in various sectors of the economy. To strike a balance between the independence of these regulatory agencies and ensure that they do not become arbitrary in carrying out their mandate, Nigerian law provides for democratic control of these regulatory agencies by putting them under the supervision of designated ministers. Using a doctrinal method, this paper examines the powers and functions of regulatory agencies and the democratic control mechanism of supervising ministers and finds that these democratic control mechanisms have been applied by the ministers in a manner that seems more like interference rather than checking the excesses of regulatory agencies. The paper concludes by demonstrating that these interferences have watered down the independence and effectiveness of regulatory agencies and have caused the substitution of the discretion of the governing board and management team in matters within their jurisdiction for the directives of the ministers. The paper recommends that, directives of ministers to regulatory agencies should always be in writing and be made public and regulatory agencies should have the discretion to refuse specific directives that amount to interference or, in the alternative, refer such directives to a neutral third party for determination of its arbitrariness or otherwise.

The Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 9th December 2019 reportedly called on the Nigerian executive arm of government to declare a state of emergency in the nation’s power sector. The third figure in Nigeria’s helm of power described the power sector privatization as a fraud and called for a review of the scheme. Although the National Assembly is yet to take a courageous stand, the current opinion of the Senate President suggests that the Nigerian government is seriously faced with the challenge of taking a major decision of revisiting the power sector privatization scheme. This is more so because the power sector is currently in shambles and the private investors managing the sector seem to be overwhelmed by the onerous task which they signed to perform since 2013. This research work carefully juxtaposes the arguments for and against the option of ‘deprivatizing’ the power sector and finds that deprivatization may not provide a lasting solution. The researcher, however, recommends that more efforts should be channeled towards investing in the nation’s rich renewable energy resources as the surest way of solving the quagmire presently trailing the nation’s power sector.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is widely regarded as one of the most innovative mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol. It allows the developed countries flexible and cost- effective means of meeting their emission reduction commitments: by investing in projects which lower emissions in developing countries and earning certified emission reductions (CERs). The CERs issued to developed countries are used in offsetting their emission commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. The rationale of this is that it is cheaper to reduce a tone of Green House Gases (GHGs) in a developing country than in a developed country. On the part of the developing countries including Nigeria, they benefit from sustainable development projects by way of clean energy technologies, economic gains and solutions to challenging environmental issues. Most countries including China and India has benefited immensely from the CDM. Nigeria’s benefits so far have been minimal as a result of institutional and legal challenges. This paper aims at assessing the clean development mechanism as a tool for Nigeria’s sustainable development. The paper finds that Nigeria benefits from the CDM have been minimal and inadequate. Furthermore, there are institutional and legal barriers hampering the CDM implementation in the country. To optimize the country’s benefit from the CDM, the paper advocates some strategies including increase in mitigation potential, improvement of investment climate and legal reforms for large scale implementation of the mechanism for the country’s sustainable development.

The under-representation or absence of women in high-level decision making organs of government in Nigeria Pre-Beijing conference limited women’s contributions to social development. Though a lot of progress has been made post Beijing conference, more still needs to be done in the near future to achieve the objectives and goals of the Beijing Platform of action which Nigeria has shown a lot of commitment while ensuring gender parity as women’s rights are human rights. Though there are quite a number of challenges hindering the full realization of the objectives of Beijing platform of action, this paper has identified the appropriate ways to address these challenges and is proposing gender related budgeting and the urgent need to mainstream and effectively implement gender issues in Nigerian domestic laws and policies.

Nigeria operates a federalism under which power and responsibilities are shared between the federal, state and local government authorities, with separate revenue, expenditure, and assigned responsibilities. Also, the power to collect, regulate and administer taxes, is shared among the different levels of government. Thus, pursuant to the recommendations of the 2018 Revised National Tax Policy, most major tax statutes in Nigeria, including the Stamp Duty Act, were amended in January 2020 to ensure that the Nigerian tax regime is at par with global best practices and the prevailing digital economy. However, pursuant to its powers to issue circular and regulation which is based on Sections 7(1) and 61 of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act No. 13 of 2007, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has issued multiple publications purporting to serve as explanatory guidelines and directions for stakeholders. This paper reviews these publications against the contemporary constitutional, administrative and statutory law principles, as well as case law. It posits that the recent publications which purport to either amend, vary or expand the substantive provisions of legislative laws on stamp duty administration and collection powers, violate principles of fiscal federalism and are overbroad, overreaching, ultra vires, duplicitous, vague and ambiguous, and/or unsupported statutes and case law. The paper concludes by suggesting reforms.

Nigeria has a rich creative industry as signified by its film industry, Nollywood. Other emerging creators in the creative industry include musicians, dancers and comedians. Performer’s rights, therefore, play significant roles for players in this industry. The protection of performer’s rights has however advanced beyond the basics as provided in the Nigerian Copyright Act 1988. International copyright treaties have increasingly given performers control over their performances and sought to protect them in the light of digital technology. This article, therefore, examines the protection of performers’ rights under Nigerian law and various international treaties. It identifies the shortcomings in the extant legislation and suggests legal and practical ways performers can protect their performances and commercially exploit their legally granted rights.

Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide are part of the requests from terminally ill patients. The debate for and against euthanasia and physician assisted suicide is a global phenomenon. It is generally believed that involuntary euthanasia is prohibited even among the states where euthanasia is legalized. While countries such as Netherlands, Dutch, Belgium, Luxemburg, and Switzerland have legalized voluntary euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, in Nigeria, euthanasia whether voluntary or involuntary is absolutely prohibited. In addition, there is no direct legislation on euthanasia in Nigeria; however, reference to euthanasia is drawn from her criminal laws which prohibit murder and suicidal acts. This paper examines the meaning of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, types of euthanasia, ethical arguments for and against euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, the position of Nigeria law on euthanasia and physician assisted suicide with reference to the case of MDPDTC v. Okonkwo. This article adopts doctrinal method of research with the use of primary and secondary materials such as the Constitution, Criminal Code, decided cases, online journals, published articles, textbooks, conferences work and newspaper. This paper concludes that the debate for and against euthanasia and physician assisted suicide is still on and in Nigeria the position of voluntary euthanasia is dicey since the Supreme Court held that a patient has the right to refuse treatment on religious grounds in MDPDTC v. Okonkwo’s case in line with the provision of section 38 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic, 1999 (as amended) which provides for freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It is submitted that patients who want to die can abuse the right to religion and thought to refuse treatment just to hasten their death. This paper recommends that the Nigerian laws should take adequate measure on our stand on euthanasia and physician assisted suicide and if voluntary euthanasia would be allowed, it should be well regulated to avoid abuse.

Abstract Achieving food security has been a challenge for many nations in the world including Nigeria. Some researchers have expressed concerns about the capacity of traditional means of food production to meet the demands of world growing population in view of several snags such as diminishing land for agricultural use, soil degradation, and climatic conditions. Genetic modification involves changing the structure of living things’ genes to make it better for human use. Genetic modification is being explored as a way of enhancing food production, amongst other goals. Two schools of thought have emerged; one school supports Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) because of its perceived potential in enhancing food production and economic growth. The opposing school raises safety, health and cultural concerns. The debate lingers and dispassionate scientific research barely exists. There are regulatory mechanisms and policies to achieve food security through legal control of GMOs in Nigeria, but these need to be strengthened. Relying on analytical method of research, this paper examines safety procedures for the use of GMOs under relevant laws in Nigeria. The paper suggests amendments that would guarantee safety of genetically modified foods in Nigeria.

Many feminist activists and NGO’s who fought to have crimes relating to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) committed in armed conflict situations recognized in their own right, welcomed their inclusion in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Unfortunately, getting a conviction for these crimes came with their own difficulties, as illustrated by the first few cases tried before the ICC. In highlighting these difficulties two cases are considered – The Prosecutor v Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui’s where SGBV was evident but not successfully prosecuted and The Prosecutor v Jean-Pierre Bemba case, the landmark ruling where the ICC successfully prosecuted crimes of SGBV, which the Appeals Chamber overturned. This article concludes that these crimes are still one of the most difficult ones to obtain a conviction for.