Prior to the Nigerian Child's Rights Act 2003 (the first holistic enactment on the rights of the child), it was not conceivable (as in several countries of the world before the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) that a child has participatory rights. The Nigerian Child's Rights Act created participatory rights, but in some of the rights, they did not employ words showing that such rights were participatory, which thereby creating doubts in respect of their enforcement. This paper critically appraises the various sections of the Act on the subject and makes a comparative analysis of the sections on the participatory rights of the child with their equivalent in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 1989 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1990. It recommends that although, the Act did not expressly provide for the right of the child to participate in certain rights, these rights must be interpreted to implicitly included participatory rights in view of the omnibus provision of the Act that provides for "the best interest of the child". The paper concludes that the legislature undoubtedly did not intend to exclude participatory rights of the child because non-participation of children no longer represents the global state of the law on the rights of children.
The legal concept of childhood is a tinker for the application of different principles in diverse aspects of law including criminal law, contract, property law, family law and even international law. However, this concept has remained a puzzle because of its lack of uniformity in Nigerian domestic jurisdiction. Childhood is characterised differently in legal instruments depending on the purpose of the particular law. This paper analyzed the concept within Nigerian domestic legal system with the view of reconciling the different provisions on the determination of childhood and ascertaining the most probable stage of distinction between childhood and adulthood under Nigerian law. The paper concluded that despite the legal pluralism in Nigeria and the nebulous concept of childhood within the vast body of rules applicable in the country, it is possible to find a synthesis of these norms under the Child's Rights Act in the definition of childhood.
Nigeria and the world over condemn forced or exploitative labour of a child, for the obvious reason of the adverse physical, psychological, mental and emotional effect of it on children. What is condemned is not child labour per se, but child forced or exploitative labour. This paper analyses the condemnable child forced or exploitative labour, distinguishes it from the accepted child labour and makes a case for the advancement from child labour to child entrepreneurship. It posits that the advancement to child entrepreneurship shall enable the Nigerian child to contribute their bit to the financial wellbeing of their family and the economic development of Nigeria.
This paper examines the attitude of Nigerian courts to sentencing in the offence of unlawful carnal knowledge of the girl-child. It compares the positions of the two criminal statutes in Nigeria to unveil the sentencing limit allowable in Nigerian criminal jurisprudence and notes that the courts have habitually imposed far lower sentences than contemplated in the statutes. The paper concludes that awarding lighter sentences in cases of child rape in Nigeria has not served to remedy the mischief of male adult taking advantage of the innocence of children to defile them and that such sentencing pattern is against public policy in Nigeria. It recommends the way to correct this anomaly by appellate courts, so as to deter would-be pedophiles in Nigeria.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.