WHAT IS CITIZENSHIP?
By
Olufemi.P.Adelusi (Ph.D)
Citizenship
is a phenomenon associated with the state. It involves a strong identification
of the individual with the state and a reward by the state for this identification.
Essentially, citizenship is a form of political identity built around the state
from which the state derives benefits and in turn rewards the individual
(Nnoli, 2003: 130).
Similarly,
Gauba (2003: 269) conceptualizes citizenship as the status of an individual as
a full and responsible member of a political community. The citizen is a person
who owes allegiance to the state and in turn receives protection from the
state. He must fulfill his duties and obligations toward the state while the
state grants him civil, political and social rights.
Arising
from the foregoing, citizenship has both a vertical and a horizontal dimension.
While the former links individuals to the state and is invariably supported by
loyalty and patriotism that accords legitimacy to the state, the latter deals
with the positive identification of individuals with one another as members of
the same state. In the same vein, citizenship implies a two-way relationship
between individual and the state as represented below:
Duties & obligations
Allegiance
Individual State
Protection
Civil,
political
Social
Rights
The
original conception of citizenship exclusively focused on the sense of duty
where the question of rights was relegated to the background. However, in the
contemporary society, citizenship is primarily concerned with certain rights.
In this scheme, duties of the individual are accepted only as long as they are
considered to be essential for the maintenance of those rights.
HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMENT OF CITIZENSHIP
` The
idea of citizenship in its earliest form is expressly traceable to the ancient
Greco-Roman state systems. It is noteworthy that unlike the prevailing
contemporary notion of citizenship, in the ancient slave city-states of Greece
As
the slave revolts increased in scope and intensity, and the demand for soldiers
to fight imperial wars became more urgent, a new dynamic was added to the
phenomenon of citizenship. In the slave society of the Roman
Empire , citizenship was extended first to the plebeians and then
the conquered people. This produced a much more heterogeneous body of citizens
than in the Greek city states. Only the people of lowest rank and women were
excluded from the benefit of citizenship. Roman practice was also different
from the Greek as citizen was no longer defined to be the protector of law but
as one who was under the protection of the laws.
The
medieval Europe was characterized by eclipse
of political authority by ecclesiastical authority which consequently rendered
temporal citizenship unimportant. Nonetheless, the Greco – Roman tradition of
republican citizenship was revived in Italy England
The
idea of citizenship reached its zenith with the bourgeois revolution of 1789 in
France and the consequent Declaration of Rights of Man and citizen. This
Declaration echoes the views of Jean Jacques Rousseau in his work: The Social
Contract (1762) where he held that citizen is a free and autonomous person, who
is entitled to participate in all those decisions which are binding on all
citizens (see Gauba, 2003: 271).
In
the 19th century, the ascendancy of liberalism gave rise to market
relations which promoted a new notion of citizenship which was essentially
associated with the idea of natural rights as postulated by John Locke. He
noted that citizens sat up a state for the protection of these rights. If the
state fails to protect these rights, the individual would be free to exercise
his right to resistance against the state. However, it took protracted struggles
by various excluded racial groups and women in the USA
MODES OF
ACQUISITION AND RENUNCIATION OF CITIZENSHIP
Constitutions
are very instrumental in deciding the nature and characteristic of citizenship
in a country. The Chapter III of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria is exclusively devoted to the concept of citizenship in modes of
acquisition, renunciation and deprivation of citizenship. Broadly speaking,
Nigerian citizenship can be acquired through
(i)
Birth
(ii)
Registration
(iii)
Naturalization
Unarguably,
birth is the commonest way of acquiring the citizenship of any given country.
According to section 25 (1) of the 1999 constitution, the following persons are
citizen of Nigeria
(a)
Every person born in Nigeria
before the date of independence, either of whose parents or any of whose grand
parents, belongs or belong to a community indigenous to Nigeria
(b)
Every person born in Nigeria
after the date of independence either of whose parents or any of whose
grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria
(c)
Every person born outside Nigeria
either of whose parents is a citizen of Nigeria
Secondly,
citizenship of Nigeria Nigeria
(a)
He is a person of good character;
(b)
He has shown a clear intention of his desire to be domiciled in Nigeria
(c)
He has taken the Oath of Allegiance prescribed in the Seventh Schedule
of the Constitution.
Similarly,
sub section 2 stated that the provisions of this section shall apply to:
(a)
Any woman who is or has been married to a citizen of Nigeria
(b)
Every person of full age and capacity born outside Nigeria any of whose grandparents is a citizen
of Nigeria
Lastly,
the citizenship of Nigeria
(a)
He is a person of full age and capacity.
(b)
He is a person of good character;
(c)
He has shown a clear intention of his desire to be domiciled in Nigeria
(d)
He is, in the opinion of the Governor of the State where he is or he
proposes to be resident, acceptable to the local community in which he is to
live permanently, and has been assimilated into the way of life of Nigerians in
that part of the Federation;
(e)
He is a person who has made or is capable of making useful contribution
to the advancement, progress and well-being of Nigeria
(f)
He has taken the Oath of Allegiance prescribed in the Seventh Schedule
of this Constitution; and
(g)
He has, immediately preceding
the date of his application, either
(i) resided in Nigeria
(ii) resided in Nigeria
CONSTITUTION
Constitution
refers to a general statement of how a country is governed. It is a legal
document or set of documents describing the frame-work of a political system.
It contains statements intended to define the relations between the rulers and
the ruled, the basic institutional framework of government, the rights and duties
of citizens and many important procedures to be followed in connection with
those matters. The constitution defines the conditions for the exercise legitimate
power; who shall exercise political power, how they shall exercise their
political powers and the limits of these powers (see Wheare cited in Anifowose,
1999:157).
A constitution
may be a vague body of unwritten laws, taking the form of usages,
understandings, customs or conventions, which courts do not recognize as laws, but
which are not less effective in regulating the government, as in Britain United States , Nigeria
Generally,
constitutional rules fulfill special needs in the nation’s total governing
system, and are generally regarded as superior to the rules of ordinary law.
They are generally considered different from the rules of ordinary law in
several respects.
In
the first place, constitutional rules are more fundamental. They apply to more
general and significant matters than ordinary law and also fix the limits of
ordinary law. Secondly, constitutional rules are less easily changed than
ordinary laws. This is to ensure that the rate of constitutional change is
slower than that of changes in ordinary law. Thirdly, constitutional rules are
more binding. In most nations, it is severally understood that any rule of
ordinary law that contravenes a constitutional rule has no legal standing and
may not legitimately be enforced. This prohibition arises because of the
reasoning that constitutions are fundamental while ordinary laws are
derivative, thus the latter can not violate the former.
It is
noteworthy that the bourgeois ruling class popularized the idea that
constitution is a crucial instrument of social engineering. It believes that by
manipulating constitutional arrangement the best in the society can be
realized. From this viewpoint all that is needed for a harmonious and
progressive society is a good constitution. Hence those societies that have
accepted this viewpoint put an emphasis on constitution making in their search
for unity, peace, good government and national stability. Thus in Africa , practically every coup d’etat is accompanied
immediately by the abolition of the constitution and its replacement later by a
new constitution deemed capable of solving the problems which caused the demise
of the former regime.
However,
constitutions are historically a recent phenomenon. At the time when state
power was controlled by ‘divinely ordained’ monarchies there was no need for
the formalization of the ground rules and procedures that guided the exercise
of state power. The idea of a constitution was the result of a long-drawn
revolutionary struggle for the secularization of political power. It occurred
first in England
SOURCES OF A
CONSTITUTION
(i) Organic
laws – e.g. The Magna Carta of 1215; the Habeas Corpus Acts of 1679; the Bill of
Rights of 1689; the Acts of Settlement of 1710, the Parliament Acts of 1911 and
1949, etc.
(ii) Judicial
Precedents (case laws)
(iii) The
ideas of Great Philosophers
(iv) Customs
and conventions
(v) Experience
THE SUBSTANCE
OF CONSTITUTIONS
Although
many variations in the detailed provisions of the constitutions of different countries
of the world may be found, most of their contents fall into some combinations of
five main categories. Most constitutions have a common pattern as follows:
(i) A
preamble
(ii) Structure
of Government
(iii) Distribution
of Power
(iv) Rights
of Individuals
(v) Formal
amendment procedures
TYPES/CLASSIFICATION
OF CONSTITUTIONS
(i) Written
and Unwritten constitutions
Written
constitution may be described as one in which the fundamental principles
concerning the organisation of a government, the powers of its various agencies
and the rights of the citizens are set down in a single document. Examples
include the USA , Canada , Australia ,
France , Nigeria
Unwritten
constitutions, on the other hand, are those which the fundamental principles of
the organisation and powers of a government are not codified or written down in
a single formal document, out where many of them are followed as a matter of
usages. The best known example of an unwritten constitution is that of Great Britain
However, this modus for the
classification of constitution is misleading because it does not adequately
describe what happens in reality. The fact of the matter is that for the
British, a written constitution was not historically necessary because power
shifted from the feudal aristocracy to the bourgeoisie pragmatically and
without recourse to arguments based on natural law. Subsequently, however, the
increasing ascendancy of natural law gravitated eighteenth century
constitutionalists toward a written constitution as the moral basis of a
well-ordered society. The goal was reached first in the American colonies and
thereafter in France
Thus, the distinction between
unwritten and written constitutions is not significant in the understanding of
politics for two major reasons. The first concerns the fact that the written
constitutions far outnumber the unwritten ones. Therefore, political life that
is governed by unwritten constitutions is too limited in scope to provide any
knowledge of politics from which we can generalize. Secondly, whether a
constitution is written or unwritten, there is no single document that contains
all the ground rules for the political life of a society. In reality,
constitutions in general have both elements, the written and the unwritten.
(ii) Rigid
and Flexible Constitution
Constitution
may also be classified according to the method for their amendment. Thus, they
have been classified as “flexible” or “rigid,” according to the relative ease
or difficulty of the amending process.
A flexible
constitution is one which can be changed without any lengthy or difficult
process. Sometimes, the method may be the same as that for the passing of ordinary
laws. An example is the British Constitution.
A
rigid constitution, on the other hand, is one which requires some lengthy or
difficult process to alter it, such a process is usually stated in detail in
the constitution itself. The usual process of amendment provide for initiative
by the legislature alone, by the convocation of conventions created for the
purpose, and by the popular role through the initiative and referendum. E.g.
are the USA , Nigeria , Canada ,
Australia
(iii) Monarchical
and Republican Constitution
Monarchy
is a state based on hereditary governance. It is a common characterization of
feudal societies where the aristocracy whose cohesion is maintained by blood
ties accepts one of its families to represent the sovereign will of the whole
population of the state. In other words, political decision-making begins and
ends with the monarch. In such societies, there is no equality of peoples and
individuals but a hierarchy of them that is essentially determined by birth.
This pre-modern monarchical government is the political expression of the
divine right of kings, and bedrock of absolutism. Laws of the land have their
sources in the monarch and are subject to changes dictated by the will as well
as the whims and caprices of the monarch. As a result of its central position,
the monarch is the focal point for most of the activities taking place in the
country. During the ascendancy of absolute monarchy, King James I (1566 – 1625)
in substantiation of his claim to divine rights proclaimed to the English
Parliament in 1609 that “the state of monarchy is
the supremest thing, upon earth, for kings are not only God’s lieutenants upon
earth, and sit upon God’s throne, but even by God himself they are called gods,
for that they exercise a manner or resemblance of divine power upon earth, for
if you consider the attributes to God you shall see how they agree in the
person of a king.
However,
the absolute monarchy was almost completely disappeared in the modern era,
except in parts of the Arab world where Islam constitutes the official basis
for its continuance, and a few places in Africa and Asia
where parliamentary power has substantially deprived it of its absolutist
credentials. Thus, constitutional monarchy is a direct consequence of the victory
of parliaments over royal tyranny and the final acceptance that ultimate power lies
with the people, expressed through their democratically elected
representatives. Constitutional monarchs perform mostly ceremonial and advisory
roles. Examples include United kingdom ,
Japan , Norway , Belgium
and Denmark
On
the other hand, republic is a form of state composed of non-hereditary but
popularly elected officials and representatives. It is dominated by a ruling
class that is not an aristocracy and is not governed by a monarch. It is a
state form that is governed by rules, regulations and laws rather than by
persons whose claim to rulership lies in ties of family, blood and inheritance.
Thus, it is diametrically opposed to monarchy. Quite often, the population at
large participates in one form or another, in deciding the government of the
republic, and the people have a say in how the society is governed. Such
societies are headed by presidents or prime ministers or both.
(iv) Unitary
and Federal Constitutions
The
unitary state is one organized under a single central government. It is a state
characterized by the centralization of state power in one central government.
According to Dicey cited in Anifowose (1999:166), unitarism is the habitual
exercise of supreme legislative authority by the central power. All power
resides in this central government. It may or may not delegate part of this
power to its agents in the various regions of the country. It is not compelled
by the constitution to delegate such powers.
Those
who support unitary states argue that it enables the rapid mobilization of
national resources and the quick coordination of the various aspects of the
governmental process. Unitary states tend to militate against ethnic and
religious chauvinism that in politically unstable systems increase the
likelihood of inter-ethnic violence and even civil war. Moreover, the unitary
state system prevents the system from focusing attention on centrifugal forces
such as ethnicity and religion but on central and national issues such as
production, patriotism and national success and pride. The system undermines
separatism because it frustrates an internal division of the society, promotes
common identity and allocates public goods centrally and on the basis of national
priorities. E.g Ghana
On
the other hand, a federal state is one in which a number of co-ordinate state
unite for certain common purposes. Federalism is a constitutional arrangement
whereby powers within a multi-national country are allocated usually between
two levels of government - a federal of
central government and a number of
regional, provincial or state governments - in such a way that each level and
unit, including the central, exists as a distinct government separately and
independently from the others. It is noteworthy that each government exists not
as an appendage of another government but as an autonomous entity with the
power to exercise its own mandate in governance free from encumbrance and
direction by another government.
According
to Professor K. C. Wheare, the fundamental and distinguishing characteristic of
a federal system is that neither the central nor regional governments are
subordinate to each other but rather the two are co-ordinate and independent.
In classical terms, federalism does not admit or accommodate a hierarchy of
authorities with the central government sitting on top of the other. Similarly,
power sharing arrangement should not place preponderant powers in the sphere of
either the central or regional governments to make it so powerful that it is
able to bend the constitutional mandate of the others to its own.
The
attributes of federalism are the territorial division and separation of state
power, the assignment of various powers and responsibilities to the various layers of government by the
constitution, the constitutional delineation of the sources of revenues for the
various tiers of government, a judicial mechanism for the resolution of
conflicts among the various tiers of government, a system of political accountability
of all the tiers of government to the citizenry at large, a written
constitution that provides in as clear a manner as possible the rules by which
all the various tiers of government must exercise their power. The powers of
the regional government are not delegated by a central government but are
directly derived from the constitution in the same way as the powers of all the
central government. Examples include the USA ,
Canada , Nigeria , Australia ,
Russia , Germany , Switzerland
Those
who support federations argue that they are able to manage difference among
communal groups, as well as other differences within the society. It provides governments
that are closer to the people than the central government. The people can more
easily hold such government accountable than they can the distant central
government. In this sense, federal governments are more democratic that unitary
governments. Furthermore, rights of minority groups to be culturally different
are better protected in federations. In other words, a federation is an
antidote to cultural assimilation. It also prevents the abuse of political
authority by establishing a system of checks and balances, between regional and
central government.
ORGANISATION
OF GOVERNMENT
What is
Government?
From
the standpoint of liberal orientation, government refers to the authorititative
direction of the affairs of men in a community. It is the system or structures
by which authoritative decisions are determined and enforced in a community.
However, a more critical definition of government has been advanced by Nnoli
(2003:187) who conceptualizes it as the agency of the ruling class that is
charged with responsibility of exercising state power on behalf of the whole
class. In corroboration of the above view, Igwe (2005: 179) holds that
government is an institutionalized agency for the legitimate administration of
the class society. In other words, government is a systematically organized
power, exercised by certain people purportedly on behalf of the generality.
Nonetheless,
notwithstanding this class character, government as the instrument of state
activity, is imbued with certain responsibilities. These functions, among
others, include legislation, the delivery of collective goods and other social
services, ensuring security for lives and property, maintenance of law and
order, planning and guidance of the economy, guaranteeing job and good health
for all, facilitating social life, ensuring a proper administration of justice
and promotion of individual and group rights, and conducting its external
relations in conformity with the national interest.
It is
noteworthy that government as a process exists practically in every
organisation or purposeful activity involving two or more people. Hence, it
goes as far back as the earliest combinations of men for any common purposes.
However, it became most critical with the development of the class society when
it turned into an instrument for the realization of the objectives and defense
of the interests of the dominant classes.
Structure of
Government
Modern
democratic governments are a complex process, based essentially on the doctrine
of representative government instead of the direct democratic practice commonly
found in Athenian, Spartan and Roman city – states and traditional societies in
Africa and elsewhere. Consequently, this complexity has necessitated the
constitutional distribution of powers between three major arms, namely the
Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary.
The
executive arm has the task of implementing the decisions arrived at by the
legislature and the judiciary. The judiciary has the responsibility of
interpreting these decisions and ensuring that they, as well as the actions of
the executive and those of the rest of society, conform to the laws of the
society. The judiciary has the additional function of setting disputes between
the other arms of government, between any one of them and the members of
non-governmental institutions of the society as well as between individuals,
non-governmental groups and institutions.
At
some time in the past, for example, during the period of the divine rights of
kings in Europe and the pre-colonial period in Africa ,
these three arms were not separated. Instead, they were fused into one
structure. The monarch was at one and the same time the executive, legislator
and judge. This was because the structure and function of government had not
become as complex and specialized as they are today. It was possible for one
person or institution to perform the three broad functions effectively. Today,
this is no longer possible. Effective government under the present conditions
of increasing complexity of social, economic and political life, the desire of
many people to participate in government and the increasing technical and
specialized character of various aspects of government, requires a division of
labour in which various groups, institutions and individuals are organized in
terms of their similarities of functions and on the basis of specialized
skills.
However,
although these three arms of government are usually distinct from one another
and can easily be separately identified, they are nevertheless closely linked
and their functions sometimes overlap. The executive often initiates
legislation. The legislature affects the execution of laws and projects by the
guidelines and procedures it lays down. By the way it interprets existing laws
the judiciary may greatly influence not only future decision-making but also
the execution of policies. Under abnormal political conditions the various
arms, or some of them, may become fused. For example, successful military coups
in Africa and elsewhere have been followed by
the abolition of the legislature, leading to the fusion of the executive and
legislature branches of government.
It is
noteworthy that the degree of separation among these arms varies with the
nature of the ruling class, its ideological leanings, the prevailing political
culture, the struggle within the ruling class and between it and the dominated
classes, and the values and ethos of the society. Thus in the advanced
capitalist society, dominated by the national bourgeoisies, in contrast to the
socialist countries, these sub-structures of government are clearly separated.
The assumption here is one of a balance of powers among them. In the socialist
society, on the other hand, the assumption is one of a harmony of these arms of
government under the umbrella of the communist party and Marxist ideology
Among
the three arms of government, the executive is clearly the most powerful. In
fact, the ambition of most serious politicians is to attain the highest
position in the executive branch of government. The branch is made up of the
President and/or Prime Minister and his/her/their cabinets. Each cabinet is
composed of ministers who have responsibility for a set of duties. The head of
the executive is the president as in the United
States and Nigeria
2nd Republic and 4th
Republic) or the Prime Minister as in Britain
and Nigeria Britain ,
they are chosen from the legislature; while in the US
they are chosen from outside the legislature; if a legislator is chosen in the US Nigeria
From
the extant literature an indeed arising from the foregoing, different types of
executive can be identified. These include:
(i) Titular
and real executives
(ii) Single
and Collegial executives.
(iii) Parliamentary
and non-parliamentary executives.
The
legislature is made up of those who make laws and others binding decisions for
the society. They are usually more in number than the executive. In
democracies, they represent various sections if the country. After their
elections they meet together and often elect some of them to lead them as for
example the speaker of the legislature. In authoritarian regimes, however, the
size of the legislature may be quite small, even smaller than the executive;
the legislators are not elected but appointed by the dictator. In the
performance of their legislative functions the legislators may assign
responsibilities to themselves according to whatever rules they had previously
decided upon. But the leader of the legislature cannot dismiss the legislators
in the same way that the leader of the executive can dismiss the other members
of the executive.
The
legislature is identified with different names in different countries, ranging
from National Assembly in Nigeria ,
the Congress in the USA ,
Parliament in the United Kingdom ,
National Assembly in France
i. Unicameral
Legislatures and
ii. Bicameral
Legislature
While
the factors in favour of unicameralism rest on the supposed demerits of
bicameralism and conversely, factors opposed to it are the assumed advantages
of bicameralism.
Today,
legislatures in most countries have declined while the executive continues to
arrogate more powers to itself. In most democratic nations, the legislatures
have largely lost their traditional policy-initiating roles and have become
mere checkers revisors and critics of policies initiated by the executive (see
Ranny cited in Anifowose, 1999: 182). Some of the reasons responsible for this
decline include the growing volume and complexity of problems requiring public
policy intervention, the need for exercise of emergency powers by the
executive, lack or paucity of technical experts by most legislatures, lack of
adequate time to devote to discussion of legislative bills as well as other
limitations imposed on the powers of the legislature by the influence of
pressure groups, public opinion and growth of disciplined political parties.
The
third arm of government, the judiciary, is made up of the judges and
magistrates who settle disputes in the law courts of the nation. They are
organized in a hierarchy that extends from the magistrates at the lowest end of
the ladder through the High Court judges and the Appeal Court
Unfortunately,
when one thinks of government what comes to mind is only the executive arm
people now associate government with only the executive. This is wrong
Government is a trinity of the executive, legislature and judiciary. None is superior
to the others constitutionally. It is only as a matter of social and political
dynamics that the executive enjoys more social prestige and power than the
other branches of government. It is the arm of government that affects the
lives of the people on a daily basis; it disperses the most patronage in the
society; and it alone deals with foreign countries. It is the harbinger of the
greatest good and evil associated with government. This often breeds arrogance
on the part of the executive that needs to be curbed by the other two branches
of government.
CITIZENSHIP
EDUCATION
The
term “citizenship Education” has been conceptualized in different ways by
different scholars across the globe. According to Osakwu (1993), citizenship
education conveys to the learners the body of knowledge, set of values and
behavioural orientation that are considered vital and necessary for the
sustenance and well-being of the people. To Iyamu (1999), citizenship education
is the conscious effort to inculcate in the youth, a set of values and attitude
contingent on the need and problems of the society. It is a set of practices
and activities aimed at making young people and adults better equipped `to
participate actively in democratic life by assuming and exercising their rights
and responsibilities in the society.
Citizenship
education otherwise called civic education encourages the preparation of young
people for their roles and responsibilities as citizens and in particular, the
role of education (through schooling, teaching and learning) in that
preparatory process. Citizenship
education programmes often promote active citizenship as a way of
building social capital and social solidarity and thereby providing the grounds
by which divisions especially within plural societies can be healed. The scope
of citizenship education encompasses citizenship, civics, social societies
social studies, life skills and moral education. It also incorporates
curriculum subjects and options like history, geography, economics, law,
politics, environmental studies, values education, religious studies,
languages, human rights and sciences.
` Citizenship
education is very topical in many countries; thus its importance to the growth
and development of any nation cannot be overemphasized. It essentially focuses
on he preparation of young people for the challenges and uncertainties of life
in a rapidly changing words. The aims of citizenship education are formulated
in a variety of ways from one country to another, in accordance with the
national context, traditions and cultural background. The precise aim also
varies from one level of education to the next. Some of the specific roles of
citizenship education include:
(i) Understanding
of the distinctive nature of human society, the state and its institutions.
(ii) The
ability to approach public issues critically, rationally and democratically.
(iii) An
informed involvement in public affairs;
(iv) Respect
for human rights and democratic ideas and principles;
(v) Commitment
to freedom, equality and social justice;
(vi) The
ability to work through conflicts and contradictions that can arise among
citizens;
(vii) Civility
and tolerance for dissension and disagreement;
(viii) Willingness
to balance the pursuit of private interests with concern for the public good;
(ix) Balancing
regional and cultural diversity with national unity;
(x) Eliminating
inequalities relating to race, gender, age, class and ethnicity.
(xi) Protecting
the environment;
(xii) Ensuring
the successful functioning of the economy.
Considering
the prevailing ethno-regional and religious crises and other manifestations of
extremist tendencies with the attendant socio-economic and political challenges
in Nigeria
In
recent times, much attention has been devoted to the roles the schools are
expected to play in the training of good citizens in Nigeria
Some
Nigerian leaders, including ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, have at different
for a expressed an unfortunate feeling of general despondency on the part of
many Nigerians. In a reaction to the sporadic and frequent ethnic violence
embarked upon by the Ijaw Youths in the Niger Delta area, Obasanjo (1999) holds
that Nigerians are not patriotic and lack sense of national consciousness. This
is because they have lost confidence in one Nigeria
For
purpose of instilling a sense of national consciousness and patriotism amongst
Nigerians, citizenship education should be made compulsory at all levels of
education in the country. The school curriculum must be redesigned to include
citizenship education that would give the learners experiences needed to
achieve national objectives. Such education should consist of Nigerian
inter-cultural education, imbibing in the citizens the virtues of mutual
tolerance and respect which would invariably enhance the unity and stability of
the country. It will inculcate national moral values and develop a truly
patriotic citizens whose consciousness will transcend their ethnic boundaries
and consequently, produce educated citizen who know their duties to the
country.
HUMAN RIGHTS
AND OBLIGATIONS OF CITIZENS
The
ideas of human rights and obligations provide essential tool for the analysis
of the relations between individuals and the state. The recognition of the
basic rights of the citizenry is one of the hallmarks of democracy. The concept
and principles of fundamental human rights are dominant topics of discussion
today essentially because of the new world order and the increasing shrinking
of the world into a global village. It has more or less become the basis for
assessing the moral and civilized character of states its agencies and functionaries.
It is also the measure for assessing the success or otherwise of any government
or regime in power.
Human rights refer to the benefits and privileges to
which an individuals or citizen is entitled.
They
are rights that a man is a human. These rights are inalienable and fundamental
to his being and existence and thus nobody or authority has the right to deny
him of such rights. While some of these rights are still ideals that are yet to
be legalized. However, there exists a great disparity in the level of sincerity
with which these laws are genuinely protected by different countries. This
implies that there are significant differences in the extent to which these
rights are actually enjoyed among nations.
What
we know as human rights today is a process that has gone through many stages of
development, many of the prevailing conceptions of human rights are traceable
to the ideas of natural law which were developed by ancient Greek philosophers,
the stocks, Roman lawyers, Christian fathers such as St. Thomas Aquinas, and
the social contract thoughts of the 17th and 18th
centuries. Natural laws are those laws created by the will of God, they are
eternal, unchangeable and universal in application. Natural laws are not
created by the act of human will. The rights and duties of man established by
this law are considered to be inmate in man.
However,
another school of thought considers that human rights belong to positive law.
Positive law, unlike natural law, is derived from the arbitrary will of human authority.
It is the law established by men according to its usefulness in the society.
According to this school of thought, human rights are contracts concluded by
the state with the population or citizen of the state, and neither of the
parties could change the contracts without the consent of the other. These
contracts are seen as preserving certain rights for men while preventing the
state from interfering in the exercise of those rights.
It is
noteworthy that all the Western European great declarations of rights, from the
Magna Carta (1215), the petition of
rights, (1627), the Petition of Right (1627), the Bill of Rights (1688),
through the American Declaration of Independence (1776) to the French
Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), are said to be within this
natural law tradition. The French Declaration of Rights of 1789 and the
American Bill of Rights of 1791 are great documents deriving from the desire of
man to proclaim his inalienable in embodying bills of rights in their national
constitution became infectious in Western Europe, the America , Asia and Africa .
HUMAN RIGHTS
AND THE NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION
The
adoption of a bill of rights by Nigeria
The
fundamental human rights enshrined in all our constitutions have remained
basically the same, despite the fact that they have been assaulted and
threatened by successive military regimes in Nigeria
Human
rights can be broadly categorized into three namely:
(i) Civil
Rights
(ii) Political
Rights; and
(iii) Socio-economic
Rights
Some of the civil rights include:
1. Right
to life
2. Right
to dignity of human person
3. Right
to personal liberty
4. Right
to freedom of movement
5. Right
to freedom from discrimination
6. Right
to property
7. Right
to private and family life
8. Right
to fair hearing
Some of the political rights include:
1. Right
to peaceful assembly and association
2. Right
to freedom of expression and the press.
3. Right
to participation in government
4. Right
to freedom of through, conscience and religion
5. Right
to vote and be voted for
6. Right
to equality before the law and to equal protection before the law.
`
Some of the socio-economic and cultural rights
include:
1. The
right to work
2. Right
to just conditions of work
3. Right
an adequate standard work
4. Right
to equal pay for equal work
5. Right
to join and form unions
6. Right
to education
7. Right
to health and Medicare
8. Right
to take part in cultural life
9. Right
to enjoy scientific discoveries
10. Right
to enjoy the benefits of one research and creative activity.
11. Right
to shelter, etc.
However,
it is noteworthy that socio-economic rights are non-justiciable in most
capitalist and liberal oriented count, including Nigeria
Furthermore,
human rights have been grouped into three generation namely: first generation,
second generation rights consist of the civil and political rights, which
originated from the ashes of the English, American and French Revolutions.
Their aim is to secure the liberty of the individual from the arbitrary actions
of the government. This aspect of human rights is contained in Chapter IV of
the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The
second generation of rights corresponds, by and large, to the economic, social
and cultural rights. These rights originated from the Bolsherins Revolution and
were echoed in the welfare concepts, which were the products of abuse of
capitalism in the Western world. These rights entail positive obligations on
government to provide the living conditions without which the first generation
rights cannot be enjoyed. These rights are contained in Articles 22 – 27 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Chapter II of the 1999 constitution
of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The
third generation otherwise known as solidarity rights is a response to the
progressive unfolding phenomenon of global inter-dependence. They are products
of the rise and decline of the nation-state in the last half of the 20th century.
These rights include the right to development, right to clean and healthy
environment and the right to international peace and security.
RATIONALE FOR
INCLUDING HUMAN RIGHTS IN A COUNTRY’S CONSTITUTION
1. It
makes for easy reference;
2. It
prevents dictatorship by limiting the powers of rulers;
3. It
ensures constitutional protection of citizen’s right;
4. It
enables citizens to seek redress for violation of their rights in law courts;
5. It enables
member countries to comply with the United Nations directives on Human Rights.
On
the other hand, citizenship consists not merely in enjoying certain rights and
guarantees, but also in discharging one’s obligations conscientiously. This
entails active participation in public affairs for the improvement of cultural
political and material aspects of social life. Obligation is primarily
concerned with the question: how far, when and why an individual is obliged to
obey the law and commands of political authority. This may be accompanied by
such duties of the citizen as obedience to laws, payment of taxes, political
participation and voting, jury service and military duty, defending the
territorial integrity of one’s country, etc which are necessary for the
maintenance of political institutions.
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