Know Your Rights (KYR)

Today I've decided to talk about a very tricky topic namely: the right to self defence. Before I go further let me just drop this disclaimer that this post does not in anyway support or promote violence. And now to our discussion. First of all self-defence as the name implies, is any act done to protect one's self or property from an unlawful attack or violence. The Constitution passively mentions this right when it talked about the right to life and it makes a lot of sense because there are certain urgent situations where it is not feasible to get the timely help of any of the various security agents when faced with imminent danger. However, this right must be exercised with great caution. Let's now proceed to the elements of a valid self defence. Based on several judicial authorities, a valid act of self defence should involve a process of reasoning. This implies that whatever you're doing in self defence must be reasonable/rational. Therefore unreasonable ac...

Today let's talk about your right to dignity, in other words, your right to be respected and treated accordingly as a human being.  Today's short post is meant to address the very common social media stories of brutality and oppression. For instance, you read stories of house helps maltreating their boss' children, or teachers maltreating students, or employers manhandling their employees especially maids, or security agencies brutalizing civilians, or acts of jungle justice or public executions/lynching, or sometimes unrelated persons inflicting brutal punishments on each other because of disagreements. In the eyes of the law such conducts are unjust, unlawful and punishable.  You will be liable for violating this right if you carry out these unlawful acts yourself or even if you get someone else to do it for you for example using the police or army or 'boys' to 'deal' with someone you are having issues with.  Please note that under the law, th...

#Know_Your_Rights Today we'll be discussing briefly about women's rights which is a very broad area of law. It's significance and impact on the society cannot be over-emphasized. This short piece is coined from a paper I delivered a while back so if you're interested in the complete copy just let me know. First of all, I believe we are all aware of the 'burdens' of being a woman in our Nigerian society. In light of these there are several safeguards in our laws for protecting the female folk. I prefer to classify these legal protections into two: a) General rights b) Gender specific rights. a) General rights refer to those rights that are enjoyed by all persons by virtue of being human beings. These include the fundamental human rights contained in the Constitution, as well as economic, social, cultural and political rights.  The fundamental rights are: Right to life, Right to dignity of human person, Right to personal liberty, Right...

Today let's talk about religious rights. Religion is always a delicate and acrimonious issue in Nigeria which is even the more reason why we all need to know what the law says about religion so that we can learn to respect our different religious beliefs. So without much ado we will be discussing this fundamental right in 4 major points: 1) Every Nigerian has the freedom to BELONG, to CHANGE, to PRACTICE and to PROPAGATE or PREACH his/her religion. Under the law you are free to do any or all of the above both privately and publicly, and either alone or together with other persons. However, this freedom does not exonerate you if you use it unlawfully for instance where you become a nuisance to other people or become a trespasser or where you resort to violence. This is in line with the hallowed principle of law which stipulates that your rights end where another person's own begins. 2) No educational institution can compel its students to undergo any religious study...

Today we are going to talk about the economic right of persons to define their business relationships. Our focus today is on all business/commercial transactions that involve exchange of value (whether goods or services) for a consideration which could be money or any other economic gain. Please note that in the course of this discussion, whenever I mention business/commerce I am also referring to employments, contracts, trades & investments of every kind. The law gives people liberty to determine the terms & conditions of their business relationships/agreements but such terms & conditions must be within the limits permitted by law. This economic right is very crucial because everyone is involved in one commercial activity or the other, & every person would definitely appreciate the opportunity to have a say with regards to the terms & conditions that regulate his/her business activities.  The best way to protect & enforce this right is to get help ...

One of the serious but often overlooked societal vice which threatens people's rights is assault. Basically, you have the right to live your life without fear of unlawful physical violence or intimidation. Several human rights intertwine to offer protection to the common man from assault. In our discussion today, we will analyse 2 major aspects of assault, namely:  1) battery, 2) threats & intimidation. 1) Battery in this context can also be referred to physical assault (we ain't talking about 'tiger' batteries now). Where Mr. A strikes, touches, moves or applies force in any other way to Mr. B without Mr. B's consent, Mr. A has committed battery or physical assault. Sometimes, even when Mr. A does any of the above to Mr. B with Mr. B's consent, it will still be deemed assault if Mr. A's actions are not justified, excused or authorised by law. This therefore means that a wide range of violent physical activities which are common in our socie...

Very quickly let's talk about tenancy rights, that is, the rights of landlords & the rights of tenants. Landlord's rights: 1) the right to be paid rent, 2) the right to recover his property at the end of the tenancy, 3) the right to have his property maintained in good condition by the tenant, 4) the right to have the tenant pay bills & rates imposed on the property such as electricity bill, water bill etc, 5) the right of protection of his title of ownership from being challenged by the tenant,  6) the right of protection of the rented property from being altered without his consent, 7) the right to inspect the rented property upon giving reasonable notice, 8) the right to protect his reversionary interest in the property, 9) the right to have the tenant abide by the terms & conditions of the tenancy. Tenant's rights: 1) the right to quiet & peaceful enjoyment of the property without disturbance even from the landlord, 2) the ...

Negligence is a very important issue that cuts across so many aspects of our daily lives & seriously affects our rights. But interestingly, although this area of law is rampant yet it is often overlooked. Negligence in law can simply be defined as the omission to do something which a reasonable person (under similar circumstances) would do, or the doing of something which a reasonable person would not do. To establish negligence in law you must show that: 1) someone owed you a 'duty of care', 2) that person breached that duty of care, 3) and you suffered damages or losses as a result of that breach. 1) A duty of care is simply the duty we all owe each other to be careful so that our actions do not injure or harm another person. It does not matter if you know the person or the person is far away from you. Whenever your conduct can potentially injure another person or persons, then you owe that person or persons a duty of care, i.e. a duty to be careful. 2)...

Earlier I did mention that I will talk about wills in details later so here we go. The issue of wills is important to human rights because it deals with the rights of persons to transfer ownership of their properties to any beneficiary of their choice & the right of those beneficiaries to acquire ownership of both the moveable & immoveable property that has been willed to them. Considering the facts & practices prevalent in Nigeria & indeed the world as a whole, the importance of wills cannot be over-emphasized. And now to our discussion proper. First of all inheritance is a tricky but very important issue. Generally, the intention of every person is to pass on his/her possessions to his/her loved ones. Most times this becomes very difficult due to the fact that many persons are always interested in these possessions especially when the owner dies. Unless properly handled, persons who the owner never intended to inherit his/her properties usually oppress the deceas...

On this episode, let's talk about the rights of persons in relation to their banks. In other words, what rights accrue to you as a customer of your bank. I'm just going to highlight a few points so for more details consult your lawyer. The first right we are going to talk about is your right to privacy. This particular right is actually constitutional. What it entails is that as a customer of a bank, you have the right to be afforded privacy by your bank with regards to the contents & transactions of your account. There have been multiple tales of bank staff disclosing information about clients' accounts to outsiders & this is totally illegal. The only legal means of obtaining information about a person's bank account is through a court order. The second right I want to talk about is the issue of unauthorized transactions. This could be in the form of a withdrawal or transfer or other transaction from your account without your authorization. Such acts a...

Let's quickly talk about the right of individuals to own immovable property, that is, land & structures erected on land. To do justice to this topic I'll be analysing this right from 3 perspectives: 1) right to acquire land (which I'll be discussing last), 2) right to protect your land ownership, 3) right to compensation in the event of a compulsory acquisition. Starting from no. (2) above, every land owner has the right to protect his/her land from both: unlawful intruders/trespassers & people making adverse claims of ownership (that is other persons who are claiming ownership over your land). The proper way to enforce this right is through the court system & not by resorting to self-help or physical aggression as that would likely create more problems than it would solve. For no. (3) above, every land owner whose land is compulsorily acquired by the government is entitled to adequate compensation. Now the few points to be noted here are: a) th...

Let's discuss another common legal issue namely the rights of a person during police investigation. It will not be exhaustive but I'll try to cover the basics. So the first thing we should all note is that people have the right to report crimes to the police & the police has the right to investigate such crimes. In the course of investigation, the police also has the right to invite a person to the station for questioning or effect an arrest or search a person's premises. It is advisable that as patriotic citizens, one should cooperate with the police in their investigations with the guidance of his/her lawyer. Like the learned Justice Stephen Adah said; "I do believe that in a civilized country such as ours, maintenance of law & order should be the focus of all of us citizens. When an allegation of financial crime or any crime is raised against any person, it is in the person's interest for the allegation to be thoroughly investigated & dealt with...