AN APPRAISAL OF EXECUTIVE IMMUNITY UNDER THE NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION: NEED FOR REVIEW

Abstract

Immunity is the legal shield that protects an officeholder from legal liabilities during their stay in office. In Nigeria, the President, Vice President, Governors, and Deputy Governors are immune from civil and criminal proceedings, including arrests during their term in office. So many officeholders have hidden under the cover of immunity to commit financial crimes and to disobey court orders; these and other abuses of the immunity privilege have necessitated calls from various quarters for the abolition of the immunity clause. This paper did an appraisal of executive immunity under the Nigerian Constitution to suggest reforms. The paper also looked at executive immunity in the United States of America to see if there are lessons that can be learned from that jurisdiction. The paper found that there is a need to reform executive immunity under the Constitution and that there are lessons to be learned from the United States. The paper employed doctrinal research methodology and made use of both primary and secondary sources of data. Primary sources of data used are the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999(as amended); relevant statutes and case laws while the secondary sources of data used are textbooks, internet materials, and journal articles. The paper recommended that the Constitution should be amended to restrict immunity protection to the institution of civil actions during the period of office of the officeholders and criminal actions that do not border on financial corruption and embezzlement of public funds.