By Tonye Clinton Jaja, PhD
It was reported that the Anambra State Government of Nigeria has enacted a law entitled: Anambra State Homeland Security Law, 2025. It is reported that the said law comes in effect on 17th January 2025.
A summary of the said law is stated as follows:
“This law establishes Agunechemba, a structured state security outfit designed to complement and support existing law enforcement agencies in preventing crime, detecting criminal activities, and preserving law and order across all communities, local governments, and urban centers in Anambra State.”
As laudable as the said law may appear on paper, both the interpretation and implementation of certain provisions of the said law could result in unintended consequences which both the legislators and the drafters of the said law did not envisage.
This problem of unintended consequences of legislation is a common problem that afflicts both the law-making and legislative drafting process in Nigeria and other third world countries.
In my over fifteen years of teaching and practice as a legislative drafting lawyer, I have identified the lack of pre-legislative scrutiny and robust consultations with the users of the legislation as the major culprit.
Whereas in industrialised countries like the United Kingdom, under it’s Regulatory and Legislative Reform Act, 2006, it is a mandatory requirement that consultations must be held prior to submitting a Bill to the Parliament of United Kingdom. The purpose of the said consultations is to obtain first-hand information and documentation to ascertain the number of citizens who are supposed beneficiaries or otherwise of the proposed law.
Based on the consultation documents which are attached to the Bills and submitted to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the legislators would know the prevailing thoughts of their citizens on any Bill.
In contrast, in Nigeria, even though the holding of public hearings by both the National Assembly of Nigeria and State Houses of Assembly appears to be the equivalent of holding consultations, in actual practice, such public hearings do not translate into legislators voting to favour the members of the public who submitted their written and oral submissions during such public hearings.
The end result, (as is the case with this Anambra State Homeland Security Law, 2025) is that the legislators end up enacting a legislation which they assume (with all the best of intentions) is valuable for their constituents, but which in actual practice produces negative consequences upon the said citizens when the said legislation is interpreted or implemented.
In other words, such a legislation ends up fulfilling the cliche:
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
The meaning of this statement is as follows:
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” is a proverb that means good intentions are not enough, one must also take action.
It can also mean that good intentions can lead to bad consequences.
Explanation
The proverb emphasizes that people must act in accordance with their intentions, or they may face problems or punishment.
It can also be used to describe situations where someone promises to do something but doesn’t follow through.
For example, someone might promise to bring bread to a community event to raise money for a playground, but then doesn’t show up.
Examples:
Introducing Asian carp into the United States in the 1970s to control algae blooms was an action that had good intentions, but led to bad consequences.”
This Anambra State Homeland Security Law, 2025 appears to fall into this category.
As well-intentioned as it may appear to be, certain Sections of the said legislation are capable of producing unintended consequences.
Although there are many Sections that are capable of producing unintended consequences, I shall focus on only Section 18, which is reproduced below as follows:
“Section 18: 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬.
- Any person who under the practice of “𝑶𝒌𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒆” or “𝑬𝒛𝒆 𝑵𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒊” or under any other guise, administers any substance or charm on or for any other person for the purpose of commission of any offence or for the purpose of accumulation of wealth by supernatural means other than by any known lawful means of livelihood or who publicly propagates the accumulation of such wealth other than by any known lawful means of livelihood, commits and offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of 6 years with an option of fine of 20 million naira or both.
- Any person who performs any sacrifice or dumps on any road or thrown into any water body in the state, any charms, substance or items of sacrifice in foregrance of the commission of any offense under subsection 1 of this section, commits and offense and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of 6 years with an option of fine of 20 million Naira or both.
- Any person who misleads the public by purporting to wield any Supernatural powers which he is found not to possess or who obtains any reward from any person in furtherance thereof, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of 6 years with an option of fine of 20 million naira or both.
- For the purpose of ascertaining whether or not a person possesses the natural powers under subsection 3 of this section, any such person suspected of misleading the public under subsection 3 of this section shall at the stage of investigation, be subjected to proof that he possesses such powers.
- An investigation made by the police in respect of any offence under this section shall be forwarded to the Attorney General of the State for review and advice before the prosecution of any person suspected of having committed the offence.”
One of the problems with this legislation is that it has singled out the worshippers or adherents of a particular brand of Indigenous African religion namely:
“Any person who under the practice of “𝑶𝒌𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒆” or “𝑬𝒛𝒆 𝑵𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒊” while leaving the worshippers of other deities such as “Amadi-Oha” or “Okija Shrine”.
Also, the legislation does not provide a scientific criteria about how the legislators decided to classify the two forms of traditional African religion (namely “𝑶𝒌𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒆” or “𝑬𝒛𝒆 𝑵𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒊”) as illegal.
The unintended consequence that may arise is that previous adherents of “𝑶𝒌𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒆” or “𝑬𝒛𝒆 𝑵𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒊” may now switch their adulation to other deities, therefore, the Anambra State Homeland Security may be left with no one to arrest under this Section.
Another unintended consequence of this particular Section is that it does not stipulate the scientifically verifiable criteria that would be applied to determine when an offender is guilty of using a charm or other means to use supernatural powers on another person.
I could go on and on.
It just highlights one of the problems that arises when non-professional legislative drafting lawyers are engaged to draft legislation.
Sometime last year or the year earlier, a government official of another South-Eastern had contacted me to serve as a consultant for the same Homeland Security in a different State of the South Estate.
I declined for two reasons: they wanted it as a pro bono service and morally and ethically I did not believe in the concept behind the said legislation.
It was promoted by a certain Special Adviser to the Governor of the said South Eastern State.
The said Special Adviser was previously resident in the United States of America, wherein they have the Department of Homeland Security. Nothing on earth was going to dissuade the said Special Adviser from not using the name: “Department of Homeand Security”
