Sustainable Internal Security in Nigeria: Any Role for International Human Rights Law?

Abstract

Since Nigeria’s restoration to democracy in 1999, the country has never faced the same level of internal security threat as it does now, including threats from Boko Haram rebels, herdsmen and bandits. This paper argued that the problem of internal insecurity in Nigeria is a symptom of a failed state and that this can be remedied by the adoption of the concept of new approach to security in international law which essentially entails enthroning a regime of human rights protection in the country. The paper discovered that in Nigeria the number of human rights recognised in each generation of rights is not exhaustive enough. The paper further found, among other things, that Nigeria’s Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rule, 2009 does not give effect to internationally-recognized Rights that are uncaptured or weakly captured in Nigeria’s municipal law. The paper utilised the doctrinal methodology.