Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Academic Directorate Journals
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Making a case for the teaching of reforms in the Nigerian criminal justice system and the administration of criminal justice act, 2015 in Nigerian universities
No full textIn a bid to strengthen the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria, the National Assembly enacted the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, which is applicable in Criminal trials at the Federal Courts, criminal trials for offences established by an Act of the National Assembly, and criminal trials in the Federal Capital Territory. In the same vein, several States have enacted their Administration of Criminal Justice Laws. The ACJA and ACJLs introduced a number of innovations and some of these provisions have been judicially examined in recent times by courts in Nigeria. The aim of this paper is to ensure that ACJA and ACJL are made trans-generational for continuous usage and reforms to maximise the elaborate provisions of the law. This paper adopts the doctrinal methodology by examining case laws and statutory provisions where applicable. The paper takes into consideration the opinions of authors who have written on the innovations of ACJA and ACJLs. The paper recommends teaching ACJA and ACJL in our universities through law clinics, moot and mock trials and the scope of its usage and adaptation in courses such as Law of Evidence, and Criminal Law, among others
The effect of the legal framework for the protection of the Nigerian girl-child
No full textThe Nigerian girl-child is typically considered an object rather than a subject of rights. Indeed, the odds are stacked high against her. She is subjected to a myriad of inhuman, degrading, discriminatory and repugnant practices and treatments like sexual violence, female genital mutilation, child marriage and male-child preference, among others. This is antithetical to the extant legal regime designed to protect a girl-child's rights in Nigeria. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most important international treaty. Nigeria, for example, has substantially domesticated the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the form of a domestic statute called “The Child's Rights Act 2003,” and many states of the federation have accordingly adopted it. The paper examines the effect of the existing legal framework in Nigeria to protect the girl-child. The paper argues that the current legal framework has not effectively addressed the myriad of factors affecting the realisation of the potential of the Nigerian girl-child. The article relies on the relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as relevant international treaties. The paper finds that the existing legal framework for protecting the girl-child and its enforcement have not adequately addressed the various factors militating against the Nigerian girl-child's potential. The paper recommends that all the inhuman and harmful practices affecting the Nigerian girl-child should be addressed by strictly enforcing the protective provisions in the current legal framework. The article also recommends that each state of the federation should establish a Child's Rights Court to expeditiously dispose cases relating to the abuse of the legal and constitutional rights of the girl-child. The article concludes that these measures will free the Nigerian girl- child from the present inhuman, degrading and exploitative practices. The measures will also give the current legal framework the desired effect
An overview of the impact of sexual and Gender-based violence on mental and Reproductive health: examining the legal Framework, with a view of bringing Perpetrators to justice
No full textThere has been a rise in sexual violence in recent times following the recent lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to this period most common types of sexual violence were imbedded in harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation or early child marriage. Other forms of sexual violence were in form of gang rape by armed robbers and cultists in the Southern part of Nigeria or members of terrorist groups in the Northern part of Nigeria. Most times victims do not report such violence against them because of societal norms and stigmatization, hence perpetuators are not brought to justice. The resultant effect is that victims are often traumatized, affecting their mental health. Their reproductive health is not equally speared as most victims end up with vesicovagina fistulae (VVF) and in extreme cases die from complications because of the violation. In recent times women have been seen by members of terrorist groups in armed conflict as objects used to satisfy their sexual urges, render domestic services, act as spys, recruits, suicide bombers or used in moving light weapons. The general aim of this paper is to examine the impact of sexual-based gender violence on the victims mental and reproductive health. Specific emphasis will be on sexual violence committed by terrorist groups in armed conflict while examining the legal framework available to a victim for redress. The paper will conclude with recommendations for restitution and restorative justice for victims of SGBV, and proffer solutions on how perpetuators can be identified and brought to justice
Utilisation of digital and virtual law library services during and post covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria: challenges and possibilities
No full textThe outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic raises serious concerns about students' education globally. Measures taken to contain the spread of the virus led to the abrupt closure of schools and a complete shutdown of the world economy. Over a billion students have their education disrupted, and close to 200 countries were affected by the pandemic. The best option many countries adopted is the utilization of online or distant learning platforms. This paper discusses utilisation of digital and virtual law library services during and post Covid-19 pandemic. Digital and virtual library services have become prominent especially to those institutions with the structure and infrastructure on ground to drive the process. Institutional web portals, Google classrooms, Zoom, Google hangout, emails, and WhatsApp are used for learning purposes. It shows that while the advanced nations provide access to online learning platforms for their students, the case is not exactly the same in weaker nations such as Nigeria, and other African countries where only a very few institutions could barely provide digital and virtual library services. Challenges such as poor infrastructural development, epileptic power supply, lack of implementation of government policies, inadequate skilled man power, among others are hindrances. However, these challenges can be surmounted if there is a deliberate effort on the side government and stakeholders to mobilise funds, material and manpower to ensure that our education sector competes favorably with those of its counterpart in the advanced nations
Information literacy in Nigerian Universities: approaches, challenges and Future directions
No full textThis work is concentrated on examining information literacy training in Nigerian universities. It highlighted the approaches to information literacy education adopted by academic librarians in Nigerian universities as well as the information literacy skills imparted to users. The challenges that impede effective information literacy education were also identified. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The simple random sampling technique was employed in distributing the questionnaire across universities in the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria using the Survey Monkey. Data collected was analyzed using simple percentages and presented in pie and bar charts. The result revealed that challenges to information literacy education include; absence of information literacy policy, absence of innovative approach, inadequate number of skilled librarians, lack of equipment and facilities needed for the teaching, etc. Strategies that could be adopted for improvement include introduction of information literacy as a stand-alone course, provision of adequate number of facilities, recruitment of librarians that are information literate, regular review of the curriculum among others. This paper therefore recommends that every university library should develop an information literacy policy to guide its operations
Health and medical care as human rights: an assessment of the national and international legal frameworks
No full textHuman rights constitute a set of norms governing the treatment of individuals and groups by states and non-state actors on the basis of ethical principles regarding what society considers fundamental to a decent life. All people qualify for human rights for no other reason other than the simple fact that they are human. These norms are incorporated into national and international legal systems, which specify mechanisms and procedures to hold the duty-bearers accountable and provide redress for alleged victims of human rights violation. These rights are the same for everyone, and they exist independent of government recognition. The human right to health means that everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, which includes access to medical care, healthy food, water, sanitation, decent housing, healthy working conditions, and a clean environment. The question that arises therefore is whether the right to medical care and access to health constitute fundamental rights with legal backing from which government and its agencies cannot derogate from? This paper addresses the related issues, based on a plethora of legal authorities at both the national and international scene. The doctrinal research methodology was used with a review of several laws, conventions and literature that abound on the subject. The paper argued that across all jurisdictions, the subject of human rights, including health rights have gained wide acceptance with many nations of the world having ratified the UN Declaration on human rights. The paper also found that Nigeria went further to codify the tenets of the Declaration as part of its domestic laws. With such legal backing, this work concluded that every citizen could stand up and exercise his/ her right to health and medical care as a fundamental right while holding the government accountable if it attempts to derogate from it. This paper also noted several challenges militating against citizen actualization and enforcement of their fundamental rights to health and medical care by holding governments accountable. To address these challenges, recommendations have been proffered that addresses the present legal framework in this regard with a view to initiate reforms that will go a long way to impact positively on access to health and medical care
Public private partnership and public finance management in Nigeria
No full textPublic-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements typically have financial implications for governments. Whilst some of these are direct, certain, and obvious, others are not, but contingent on the occurrence of uncertain events and, therefore, difficult to predict or manage. The consequences of these liabilities can be devastating for countries' economies and therefore require careful public finance management. Since most of the fiscal consequences of PPPs relate to how underlying project risks are managed, the proper management of risks, therefore, becomes a useful tool for managing these liabilities. This paper explores how the proper management of project risks could be used to deal with fiscal liabilities that arise from PPPs. It then evaluates the public finance management structures available for managing the fiscal risks arising from PPP projects
Nigerian law school at 60: pearls, predicaments and prospects of vocational legal education
No full textThis research examines how the Nigerian Law School has fared as this year 2022 marks its Diamond Jubilee. It analyses its background, applicable laws, accomplishments, challenges and what to do to make the School better fulfil its mandate. It relies on the historical school of jurisprudence, which stresses that law-making and law reform should be based on the study of the origin, development and the first principles of a people's law so as to make it effective. The article adopts both qualitative doctrinal and statistical nondoctrinal research methods. The primary sources of materials used are the Legal Education (Consolidation, etc) Act and the Legal Practitioners Act. The secondary sources of materials used are textbooks, Legal Education (Consolidation, etc) Amendment Bill 2022, newspaper reports and online data. The article finds out that legal education at both the Law School and university faculties of law in the country seriously need a lot of pedagogical, ethical, legislative, and regulatory reforms. Such reforms have to do with ethics among students and lecturers, right number of years for law programmes at the university and Law School, low number of educators in the Council of Legal Education, unbridled proliferation of law faculties, whether the law programme should be a second degree course, necessity or otherwise of new Law School campuses, need or otherwise for an enabling law for the Law School and specialisation by law students and law lecturers. The research is rightly coming out at a time that nearly all stakeholders have realised the need for some reforms in both the Law School vocational education and university legal education in the country
The librarian and social media tools for e-learning during lockdown situation
No full textWith the report of the outbreak of Corona Virus in December 2019, various countries placed lockdown on major sectors of the economy, the educational sector inclusive. This lockdown was seen as part of government's efforts in battling the pandemic and curtail the spread of Covid-19. However, this has affected learning and academic activities of schools as well as exposed the deficiencies of most educational institutions in providing online educational services and e-learning programmes to their students. Fortunately, this lockdown has placed an opportunity for librarians who are academic staff in tertiary institutions to implement the use of social media tools such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Podcasts, Flickr and blogs, Instant Messaging (IM), Rich Site Summary (RSS), Library thing, Ning, Zoom, GoogleMeet etc. for e-learning. Therefore, this paper discusses social media tools and e-resources that can be utilized for elearning during lockdown period as well as the challenges and prospects for effective utilization of social media for e-learning by librarians during lockdown period. The paper concluded that social media tools in this lockdown period have served as a reliable platform for e-learning and information sharing. Recommendations were that the librarian needs to be provided with further training on awareness, knowledge, and interaction with social media tools and e-learning resources as tools for teaching and learning
Dissemination of information to patrons in the COVID-19 era
No full textDue to the high rate of transmission of the COVID-19, it is evidenced that people in rural and urban areas (of which most of them are library patrons) have not been properly informed about this scourge which has resulted with over 16 million cases of infections as reported by the World Health Organization. The proliferation of conflicting information with its propagated conspiracy theories had created confusion for people on what to believe. This, therefore, has provided a gap for the librarians to fill. This theoretical paper discussed the dissemination of information to patrons in the covid-19 era. It discussed the reliable sources, contributions of libraries and the challenges faced by librarians in the dissemination of information to patrons on COVID-19. The paper concluded that the prevailing fake news that is spread through the social media has impaired compliance to measures aimed at curtailing the spread of the virus even when libraries and librarians utilize effective media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, 2go, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, among others to disseminate information to their patrons on covid-19. The paper recommended that libraries should be well funded to be able to provide their librarians with subscription and other social media tools that will boost their dissemination of information on COVID-19 to the patrons in this lockdown