INTERROGATING TRUST PROVISIONS UNDER CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA LEGAL SYSTEM

Abstract

Trust settlement is very important in the modern economy to be left without a comprehensive legislation that answers to the contemporary economic question. In the capital and money markets, the regulator often ensures that trust deed for transaction documentation conforms to the scrutiny and strict regulatory provisions. The question is, whether the plethora of statutes and legislations, (some with tangential and marginal provisions) relating to trust settlement have fully attended to the contemporary need of trust options? How has the lacuna in the leftover of colonial legal appendage of Trustees Act, 1893 been ameliorated by other legislations in Nigeria? Is it possible for the National Assembly to engineer a robust legislative trust regime that will strengthen the hands of trust practitioners and rejig a new trust regime? This study presented a picture of trust provisions in Nigeria jurisprudence. A doctrinal methodical approach was employed to analyze statutes and legislations relating to trust options in Nigeria. Secondary sources such as cases and decisions of courts were scrutinized to evaluate the judicial opinions in respect of trust options. It was found that the only comprehensive trust statute is old and most of its provisions have failed to answer to current economic questions. It canvassed for a robust legislative framework by the National Assembly to answer many of the plethora issues demanded by the modern society.