Background: Written informed consent is a pre requisite for surgical intervention as it provides the forum for the patient to appreciate implications of the procedure and the doctor to explain details and effects of the surgery. Objectives: To evaluate the practice of obtaining informed consent pre-operatively by surgeons in Benin City and proffer solutions that would enhance its practice. Design: Cross-sectional study involving surgical patients or their relations or gurdian (in cases involving minors and unconscious patients) who were interviewed with structured ended questionnaires. Setting: Study was carried out at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, between 5th July and 6th September 2002. Results: One hundred and thirty-three respondents; 53(39.2%) males and 80(60.2%) females were interviewed. Documentations regarding consent were noted in 118(88.7%) cases. Of these, 74.6% felt they had enough time to reflect on the consent obtained while 48(36.1%) respondents were meeting the individual who obtained their consent for the first time. The content of information offered patients prior to obtaining consent was found to be significantly related to the levels of education (X 2 = 31.44; P<0.001). Over a hundred respondents were not informed of risk of procedure. Nonetheless over 50% of respondents felt satisfied with information supplied. Conclusion: The quality of consent obtained from the average patient fell below expected standard. There is need for greater awareness amongst administrators of consent on the essence of improving quality of information given and mode of obtaining consent from patients.
Periodic elections are major planks of democracy that has its attendant grievance procedure which ensures that the real consent of the governed is sort and obtained. The origination process in Nigeria is through election petitions, which is sui generis. The appropriate electoral statute and the constitution prescribe the grounds for questioning elections in Nigeria. The essence of this paper therefore is to resolve the apparent conflict as to where to predicate the grounds for questioning elections in Nigeria. Is it the Electoral Act, the Constitution or both in pursuit of electoral justice: Quo vadis?
The burden and standard of proof in election petition without criminal allegation is in tandem with the extant Evidence Act, as election petitions is sui generis. The purpose of election laws is to obtain a correct expression of the intent of the voters. However, this paper argues that whereas proof of election petition without criminal allegations requires proof on the preponderance of evidence, the shallow chant of “he who asserts must prove” in the extant law is a conduit pipe for electoral injustice. This paper therefore makes a clarion call for the amendment of the relevant extant law to usher in a legal regime of burden of proof on the pleadings, where whoever asserts the affirmative or positive must prove on the state of the pleadings. The rebuttable presumption of the regularity of the conduct of elections and declaration of results, no longer serve the end of justice in our electoral process. This paper therefore argues that the Electoral Act be amended to place the burden of proof of the regularity of elections and declaration of results on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to meet the desired justice contemplated in the electoral process.
It is an essential ingredient of sovereignty that every State has an absolute jurisdiction to determine the laws that apply within its territory and to determine, by its laws, the organ of the State that has the competence to make laws and the procedures to be followed. The competent organ that makes municipal law (the legislature) is usually different from the organ that makes international law (the executive). As a result, and following the dictates of separation of powers, while the executive is competent to enter into treaties, its competence is eroded by the competence of the legislature when a treaty is intended to be applied to municipal subjects; such a treaty intrudes into the competence of the legislature. When this occurs, the municipal applicability of the treaty would turn on the requirements specified by municipal law. This is the function of section 12(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). This section bars the executive from transforming its treaty-making power into legislative powers by requiring legislative approval for the application of a treaty in Nigeria. Expectedly, the section has been variously interpreted and applied by Nigerian courts. This paper examines the views expressed by the Supreme Court in JFS v. Brawal Line Ltd and argues that the Supreme Court failed to give proper expression to the dualist nature of that section.
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