LAW LECTURERS, PUBLIC SERVICE AND THE 5TH SCHEDULE TO THE 1999 NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION

Abstract

The public service of the Federation of Nigeria in relation to code of conduct is well encapsulated in Part II of the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended. The Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution placed a seemingly absolute ban on all public servants from participating in the management and running of any private business or profession save farming. The Fifth Schedule also creates the Code of Conduct Tribunal and ascribes sanctions to be meted out on any public servant who contravenes the Code of Conduct for public service. This creative appreciation focused on the extent of assimilation and impact of Law Lecturers within the constitutional lips and bounds of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution. The paper proffer answers to questions such as: Does a community construction of the Fifth Schedule exempt Law Lecturers from its constitutional webs? Can the Code of Conduct Tribunal impose any punishment on a Law Lecturer if found guilty? The responses to the metaphorical posers are in the affirmative and negative respectively. It is therefore, the logical conclusion of this paper that Law Lecturers despite being public servants are not captured within the constitutional contemplation of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution and therefore wholesomely exempted thereat.