THE REALISATION that a human being, divested of basic rights, could hardly effectively function in society, led to the embedment of grundnorm with grandiloquent terms and concepts, expressing the constitutional empathy of the ruling classes for the poorer classes.
Like most democratic documents, Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended) is studded with long-winded constitutional jargons: fundamental objectives, directive principles of state policy and fundamental rights, underscoring democratic concerns of the Nigerian state to build a just, free and egalitarian society.
It has been the economic logic of capitalism to concentrate wealth and means of production in a few hands, which created powerful 19th century monopolies, whose cutthroat competition for overseas economic spheres of influence facilitated the imperialist division of the world into colonial territories. Therefore, there is no capitalist economy that hasn’t concentrated wealth and means of production and exchange in a few hands. And Nigeria wouldn’t be a wishful constitutional exception.
This piece contends that whilst the 1999 fundamentals could turn out to be a constitutional gibberish, the majority of the political class are ill-disposed to make them achievable, transforming them into a constitutional mirage.
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Global Context For Basic Rights
The third United Nations General Assembly resolution 217A adopting the 1948 United Nations Declaration On Human Rights (UNDHR) was the global context which articulated 30 basic rights informing the long-winded fundamentals in democratic constitutions around the globe.
The UNDHR right No 1 partly states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, and since by 1948, a large chunk of the globe was under colonial rule, the declaration was revolutionary, since its basic rights threatened the various colonial projects.
Fundamental Objectives And Directive Principles Of State Policy
The fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy set out in Chapter Two of the 1999 Constitution crucially set out the obligations of government, economic, political, social objectives, etc, of state policy.
Discussions of a few fundamentals could highlight their fundamentally flawed nature. Section 13 of chapter two places onerous obligations on ALL the operators of government to give unconditional effect to the provisions. And according to section 14 (2)(b) “security and welfare of people shall be the primary purpose of government “
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This lofty objective partly defines the social contract between the Nigerian state and its citizens. No longer than a decade after the 1999 Constitution came into force, the provision became gibberish due to Boko Haram insurgency, escalating rural banditry, and secessionist violence. And as more people sink into poverty due to the removal of fuel subsidy, their welfare doesn’t seem to matter; or it has become subsidiary to other objectives.
The economic objectives in section 16 beat about the bush with provisions incompatible with a neoliberally operated economy.
According to Section 16 (1)(b) “The state shall control the national economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity”.
One might ask: how could subsidy-phobic regimes, self-infested with external debt mania induce freedom and happiness? Subsidy removal increases national poverty threshold and unhappiness, whilst indiscriminate external loans mortgage future freedom and happiness to external creditors.
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And section 16(2)(c) states: “The state shall direct its policy to ensuring that the economic system is not operated in such a way to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group”.
It has been the economic logic of capitalism to concentrate wealth and means of production in a few hands, which created powerful 19th century monopolies, whose cutthroat competition for overseas economic spheres of influence facilitated the imperialist division of the world into colonial territories. Therefore, there is no capitalist economy that hasn’t concentrated wealth and means of production and exchange in a few hands. And Nigeria wouldn’t be a wishful constitutional exception.
Since 1999 there has been accelerated political drive to concentrate national wealth and means of production in a few hands through the Bureau of Public Enterprises, various concessions, and pillage of public resources.
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Section 16(2)(d) of the economic objectives states “The state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens”. If there is any capitalist state that has granted these to its citizens, it must be the eighth wonder of the world and is certainly not Nigeria.
The fundamentals fundamentally obscured the capitalist nature of the economy, and some of the rights are fundamentally abridged by the political class. Therefore, despite being fundamental, the rights in chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution could hardly threaten the weakest links of the exploitative power structures, making them fundamentally gibberish.
The educational objectives in section 18 make free education conditional “as and when practicable”, a future and as a deliberately debt-infested nation, a very long-term affair. According to the famous British economist, John Maynard Keynes, every Nigerian would have been dead in the long run, when free education could be feasible.
Fundamental Rights
There are 13 fundamental rights enshrined in chapter 4. Section 33 thereof states: “Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria.”
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To those who lost their loved ones, – hundreds of thousands of Nigerians – to Boko Haram insurgency, rural banditry, secession-related violence, etc.; the provision is a constitutional hot air only.
Section 40 of chapter 4 states: “Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other people, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of his interests”. Mallam Nasiru el-Rufai, a recent victim of the exercise of this right in Kaduna, would hardly agree that the right couldn’t be abridged by the ruling elites.
As for the right to acquire and own immovable property anywhere in Nigeria (section 43), the Igbos are generally ill disposed to allow other Nigerians to exercise this right in the South East.
Do the Nigerian constitutional fundamentals (objectives and rights) threaten the weakest links of the dominant power structures in Nigeria, as the UNDHR accelerated the demise of colonialism in the post Second World War?
The fundamentals fundamentally obscured the capitalist nature of the economy, and some of the rights are fundamentally abridged by the political class. Therefore, despite being fundamental, the rights in chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution could hardly threaten the weakest links of the exploitative power structures, making them fundamentally gibberish.
Jahun a public affairs analyst writes from Dutse, Jigawa State capital.
