Know Your Rights (KYR)

As a special gift for the absence of our usual KYR articles for the past 2 weeks, today I'll be talking about (or you can say "shaking the table") of a very interesting legal issue which more than 50% of Nigerians do not know about. I am referring to Nigeria's power sector which deals with everything about electricity in Nigeria. The power sector which deals with electricity supply in Nigeria has experienced several changes over the years including privatization and every Nigerian is familiar with the numerous distribution companies (or DisCos) we have had with 'NEPA' being perhaps the most popular of them all. Everybody uses electricity but have you ever asked yourself: 1) What is the nature of the (legal) relationship between you as a consumer, the electricity (distribution) company and the government? 2) What are the terms and conditions of this relationship? In other words, what are my rights and obligations as a consumer? If you have been faith...

#Know_Your_Rights The issue of torture and abuse of powers (especially by public officers including our law enforcement agents) is a recurring problem that needs immediate attention. To address this issue, I'll be doing a piece on a law most people don't even know about called the Anti-Torture Act. Now this Act starts by saying that the Government has a duty to protect the rights of all persons including suspects, detainees and prisoners, and to ensure the condemnation and prohibition of all forms of torture as prescribed by all relevant laws applicable in Nigeria. It then defines torture as any intentional act that causes mental and physical suffering/pain. Physical torture is further defined as any cruel/inhuman/degrading act that causes pain, exhaustion, disability or dysfunction of one or more parts of the body while mental torture is further defined as any cruel/inhuman/degrading act that affects or confuses the mind or undermines a person's dignity or mo...

In our Nigeria today, injuries and deaths caused by gunshots are rampant occurrences. Embarrassingly, some of these unfortunate instances involve trigger-happy law enforcement agents who decide to use their weapons without lawful justification but that is a story for another day. On this premise, our topic today will address the right of gunshots victims to adequate medical care. This right is now enshrined in the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act 2017. By virtue of the above law, all hospitals in Nigeria shall accept and treat without a police clearance any person with a gunshot wound. All security agencies are also mandated to render the necessary assistance to gunshot victims and ensure that they are taken promptly to a hospital for treatment. Furthermore, this law provides that all victims with gunshot wounds shall be treated without a request for initial monetary deposits and such persons shall not be victims of any inhuman or degrading treatment. ...

Today let's talk about our right to privacy.  As the Constitution puts it;  "The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected." In my opinion, this right is one of the most important rights in human existence because it goes a long way to guarantee our independence and liberty as individuals. From the wordings of the Constitution, it clearly forbids spying and intrusions of any kind (or what we fondly call "busy body") by the government or security agencies or your employer or your educational institution or your bank or by anyone else at all. Your life, your home, your properties and your communications are all protected and the law is basically saying that everyone should just mind their own business. However, they are exceptions to this right. In other words they are instances when your privacy can be lawfully interfered with and these are: 1) in the in...

#Know_Your_Rights KYR has been absent for a bit because we have been working on some upgrades which are meant to make our blog bigger & better. As part of the upgrades, KYR is now accepting scholarly short articles from learned minds on legal analysis of trending societal issues. So if you wish to be published on our blog & other media outlets, kindly drop a message & I'll get back to you. Now to our gist today, we will be briefly discussing your right to peaceful assembly & association. Basically the break down of this right are: 1) You have the right to freely organize or partake in an assembly of your choice. This means a physical and voluntary meeting between persons. In view of advances in modern technology, this right to peaceful assembly now includes non-physical meetings such as webinars, social media groups etc. 2) You have the right to associate with any person or persons of your choice. 3) You have the right to form or belong to any politic...

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 ...