By Okungbowa Adesina San & Co.
In Nigeria, the Constitution comprises the base of the entirety of societal superstructure, every single individual, every office, every business, and every law derives its legitimacy from the Constitution but the Constitution is not an infallible constant of the universe rather it is a created document.
The question arises that if the Constitution is created then it must also derive its authority from a valid place, whence then would the authority to govern every sphere of Nigerian existence, action and purpose, the answer is quite simple and contained in the Preamble of the Constitution itself, outside of the Index, the very first words in the Constitution “We the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”. The authority of this document that lays the foundation for our social infrastructure comes from we the people. The Constitution in its texts provides freedoms for the people in essence the people giving their freedoms to themselves, outside of Jurisprudential Scholars, for whom the question of whether the Constitution gives the rights or affirms existing rights is salient, ordinary consideration suffices that the reason such rights are enjoyed are the fact they are contained within the Constitution. However how free are the freedoms we have been promised?
The law firm of Okungbowa Adesina San & Co. wishes for you to join us in the coming months as we welcome each month by answering this question in every right enshrined in the Constitution. Join us in this series as we examine the margins of freedom in Nigeria.
Right To Life
Section 33 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 provides the very first right contained in the Constitution; the ‘Right to Life’. The section indicates that no person shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria, we can easily see that the primary exception to the right to life is as judgment for the enforcement of penalty after the commission of a crime, subsection 2 continues providing three exceptions namely, self defence and defence of property, to effect arrest or prevent escape from arrest and for the purpose of suppressing riot, insurrections or mutiny.
While the above constitute the bulk of the exceptions to the right to life, we must remember that the right to not have your life taken from you differs almost entirely from the right to be able to live. What the constitution has provided is the right for individuals to be free from violent action or external influence in the course of their death. What the Constitution has not done however is give individuals the rights over their own life or the right to live. While it would be illegal for a person to take their own life in an act of suicide or for a Doctor to euthanise a patient living in chronic pain and unable to continue going on, it is conversely very legal for a person to be rendered so poor in society that they and quite possibly their family simply starve to death.
The Constitution stops others from killing you and the laws stop you from killing yourself, but nothing is violated if you are put in a situation where life becomes untenable.
The margin of the right to life is that you can afford to live and can endure living it, but what it doesn’t do is give you ownership of your life.
Welcome to the month of May,
OKUNGBOWA ADESINA SAN & CO
