Legal and Theoretical Assessment of the Right to Food in Nigeria

Access to food is essential to human survival and the ‘right to food’ is a human right whose fulfilment impinges on the realization of most other human rights. Nigeria is a signatory to many international and regional treaties involving the right to food. Although the Nigerian constitution does not expressly refer to the right to food, fundamental rights, specifically, the ‘right to life’ and ‘right to dignity’ (amongst others) are arguably inextricably linked with the right to food. The chapter posits that although there is arguably an obligation on the Nigerian government to fulfil the right to food for her teeming population, the pervasiveness of hunger in the country starkly illustrates the on-going failure to fulfil these rights. In spite of many policies initiated by the successive governments, including the transformational drives in the agricultural sector by the current government, it is to be seen that much progress has not been made in terms of availability, accessibility and enforcement of these rights. This chapter presents a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the right to food as a human right in international and regional laws.