Section 12 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal of Nigeria (as amended) empowers the National Assembly on the treaty-making process.
States have also been assigned specific roles in the ratification through the provision of subsection 3 of Section 12.
A Specialist in comparative constitutional law, Professor Edoba Omoregie, described the process as “federalism imperative.”
Essentially, this implies that given Nigeria’s Federal construct, States as the independent but coordinate unit of the Federation, have vital roles in the treaty-making process. In this regard, only the legislative approval of the treaty through an enabling statute actually facilitates ‘its implementation.’
Therefore, the implementation of treaties is embedded in the international law Principle of Good Faith or Pacta Sunt Servanda.
Nigeria is a signatory to many international conventions and treaties. Being a signatory imposes obligations on Nigeria over a variety of matters; and one of them is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (UNCRC 1989).
The UNCRC 1989 is a legally-binding international agreement setting out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of every child, regardless of race, religion, or abilities. Despite the ratification of UNCRC 1989 in 1991 (because of Nigeria’s dualist disposition to international agreements), the National Assembly just domesticated the UNCRC for legal application in Nigeria in 2003. The law took effect as a federal legislation and operates in only 26 (of the 36) states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This was just a means to an end.
A major setback to the implementation of the Child Rights Act 2003 rested on the role of the States in its domestication application in their respective domains especially as the matter remained in the legislative competence of State Houses of Assembly.
States that have not passed the bill into law include; Sokoto, Adamawa, Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Borno, Gombe, Yobe, and Zamfara.
Extant literature is replete with cases of abuse of children’s rights. In 2011, for example, the World Bank estimated that 35.1 percent of children aged 7 to 14 years were subjected to underage employment in Nigeria.
Similarly, the United States Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2020 observed that the Nigerian Security Forces recruited and used, at least, two children in supportive roles during the 2020 reporting period.
The report also alleged that there were reported cases of sexual exploitation and sexual trafficking by security officials at Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in government-run camps in and around Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. Regrettably, Maiduguri is yet to adopt and domesticate the Child Rights Act 2003 based on Nigeria’s federal construct which empowers the States on such matters (Section 12 (3)).
Minimal, indeed non-implementation of the Child Rights Act 2003 has been attributed to federalism concerns and legal inconsistencies.
Specifically, Professor Edoba Omoregie reiterated that “the Federal government wields enormous powers in the treaty-making process, thereby, rendering the constitutionally guaranteed roles of States, insufficient.’’
Inconsistencies in the definition of the child in extant laws – Labour Act and CRA 2003, respectively, constitute a major impediment to the application of their provisions. The Convention’s definition of ascribing a child as a human being below the age of 18 years clearly negates certain provisions of Sharia codes.
Therefore, the inclusion of the definition of a child in the Nigerian Constitution to ensuring consistency in the definition of a child in various legislations designed to advance the Rights of the Child, such as the CRA and the Labour Act as well as the principle of subsidiarity which allows states the option of “first legislative initiative” can significantly improve the implementation of the Child Rights Act 2003 and any other convention in the future.
By Ani Jude Okafor
Parliamentary Research Consultant
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