SECTION 12 OF THE 1999 CONSTITUTION OF NIGERIA AND TREATY IMPLEMENTATION: A LEGAL CRITIQUE

Abstract

No country can survive without some form of cooperation and collaboration with other States. Nigeria’s participation in the international arena is effectuated through the instrumentality of treaties which could be bilateral or multilateral. Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the ratification of a treaty binds a state party and the principle of law has been that no State shall be allowed to plead domestic law to evade its obligation under a treaty. Section 12 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) subordinates the legal bindingness of all treaties to which Nigeria is a party to their domestication in Nigeria through an Act passed by the National Assembly. Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution can only operate to the international obligations of Nigeria that are to be implemented domestically and not to those possessing international or trans-boundary character. The section is unnecessarily restrictive and inhibits the implementation of progressive treaty rights in Nigeria. It is recommended in this paper amongst others that there is need for the amendment of section 12 of the 1999 Constitution in order to make directly enforceable the provisions of treaty obligations assumed by Nigeria under international law, and that Nigeria can use the mechanism of reservation, non-ratification or non-adoption to evade or postpone treaty obligations she does not intend to implement within the foreseeable future rather than blanket refusal to implement her treaty obligations under the guise of section 12 of the 1999 Constitution.