Tag: African women

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Life Imprisonment for Child Sexual Assault: Legal Basis and Constitutional Considerations by Lawson Akhigbe

The primary statutory authority for this sentence is Section 260 of the Kebbi State Penal Code Law, 2021, which criminalizes "unnatural offences." While the exact wording of Kebbi State's provision isn't publicly available in full, similar provisions in northern Nigerian penal codes typically define "unnatural offences" as carnal intercourse against the order of nature, which judicial interpretation has extended to include same-sex sexual acts and anal intercourse.

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The Double-Entry Ledger of Suffering: How Nigeria Taxes the Poor Twice and Delivers Nothing Once by Lawson Akhigbe

Reform, when it comes, will be welcomed. The question is whether the reformers are counting the same things Mama Chioma is counting. So far, the evidence suggests they are operating from entirely different ledgers and that only one of those ledgers is written in the ink of lived consequence.

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Nigeria and the ECOWAS Court: The Ongoing Battle Over Vagrancy Laws

Nigeria's relationship with the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice has been tense, highlighted by two recent rulings. The 2017 victory in the landmark case "Dorothy Njemanze & Ors v. Nigeria" saw the court find that Nigeria violated the women's rights to dignity, personal liberty, freedom of movement, and non-discrimination under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The 2025 case, "Lawyers Alert Initiative v. Nigeria," was dismissed because it lacked specific incidents and evidence of concrete harm. The contrasting outcomes underscore the importance of victim-centred litigation in achieving success at the court.

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