PROTECTING SOCIO-ECONOMIC RIGHTS IN NIGERIA’S RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: LEGISLATIVE ACTION AS A ‘SHIELD’ UNDER THE 1999 CONSTITUTION

https://doi.org/10.47963/ucclj.v3i1.1249

Authors

  • Olusola Babatunde Adegbite University of Hertfordshire

Keywords:

COVID-19, Socio-Economic, Rights, Legislature, Nigeria, and Constitution

Abstract

Aside from public health devastations, one aspect of Nigeria’s national life that was severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, was the economic space. As part of the government’s mitigating measures, an economic stimulus package was put together to help those most hit by the crisis. However, a key item was left out i.e., legislation enacted by the Parliament, to ensure the protection of the socio-economic rights of the people. This article analyses how the Nigerian legislature could have triggered relevant provisions of the Constitution to adequately protect this class of rights, as a response to the devastating impact of the pandemic. This analysis is carried out against the backdrop of the existing non-justiciable status of socio-economic rights in the country. The article makes the point that there is a great deal of potential in the country’s constitutional framework regarding legislative powers, that could have been creatively deployed by the Parliament to enact legislation that would serve as a ’Shield’ for socio-economic rights in the pandemic, notwithstanding the clog of non-justiciability. The article concludes that the legislature as the people’s representative ought to have better executed its constitutional powers, by demonstrating uncommon courage at a time when it mattered most

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Author Biography

Olusola Babatunde Adegbite, University of Hertfordshire

LL.B (Hons) (Ife), BL (Lagos), LL.M, (Ife),
LL.M (Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University),
Ph.D. Candidate in International Law,
Hertfordshire Law School,
University of Hertfordshire,
Hatfield, United Kingdom

Published

2023-07-01

How to Cite

Adegbite, O. B. A. (2023). PROTECTING SOCIO-ECONOMIC RIGHTS IN NIGERIA’S RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: LEGISLATIVE ACTION AS A ‘SHIELD’ UNDER THE 1999 CONSTITUTION. UCC Law Journal, 3(1), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.47963/ucclj.v3i1.1249