Laws of the Federation of Nigeria - Enactments and Subsidiary Legislation

Laws of the Federation of Nigeria - Enactments and Subsidiary Legislation - 

made by the military Government in the year 1992 that are still in force

Name	Decree No
Federal Lands registry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Decree	7
Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Decree	9
Assets (title Vesting and Validation) (Mr. J.H. Bassey} Decree	11
National Drug law Enforcement Agency (Amendment) Decree	15
Federal High Court (Amendment) Decree	16
National Population Commission Decree	26
Engineers (Registration, etc.) (Amendment ) Decree	27
National Primary Health Care Development Agency Decree	29
National Archives Decree	30
National Institute for Sports Decree	31
National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure Decree	33
Nnamdi Azikwe University Decree	34
Federal Road Safety Commission (Amendment) Decree	35
National Broadcasting Commission Decree	38
Forfeiture of Assets (release of Certain Forfeited Properties, etc.) Decree	39
Companies and Allied Matters (Amendment) Decree	40
Nigerian Postal Service Decree	41
National Commission for Women Decree	42
Board of Customs and Excise Decree	45
Community Banks Decree	46
Trade Disputes (Amendment) Decree	47
Federal Universities of Agriculture Decree	48
National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency Decree	49
National Metallurgical Development Centre Decree	50
Urban Development Bank of Nigeria Decree	51
Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria Decree	58
Federal Environmental Protection Agency (Amendment) Decree	59
Community Health Practitioners Registration Board of Nigeria, etc. Decree	61
Nigeria Export Processing Zones Decree	63
Nigerian Export Promotion Council (Amendment) Decree	64
Export (Incentives and Miscellaneous Provisions) Decree	65
Consumer Protection Council Decree	66
Trade Malpractices (Miscellaneous Offences) Decree	67
Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Decree	68
Births , Deaths, etc. (Compulsory Registration) Decree	69
Forfeiture of Assets (release of Certain Forfeited Properties etc.) Decree	70
Sea Fisheries Decree	71
National Agricultural Seeds Decree	72
Maritime Operations Co-ordination Board Decree	74
Nigerian Communications Commission	75
Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria	76
Legal Practitioners (Amendment) (No. 2) Decree	77
Medical and Dental Practitioners (Amendment) Decree	78
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi Decree	79
Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation Decree	81
National Office of Industrial Property (Change of name, etc.) Decree	82
Nursing and Midwifery (Registration, etc. (Amendment) Decree	83
Armed Forces (Certain Rented Accomodation) (Enforcement and Validation) Decree	84
Nigerian Press Council Decree	85
Environmental Impact Assessment Decree	86
News Agency of Nigeria (Amendment) Decree	87
Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Decree	88
Fertilizer (Control) Decree	90
Pharmacists Council of Nigeria Decree	91
National Agricultural Land Development Authority Decree	92
Nigerian National Merit Award Decree	96
Copyright (Amendment) Decree	98
Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria Decree	100
Nigerian Football Association Decree	101
Nigerian Professional Football League ) (Repeal, etc.) Decree	102
Chartered Institute of Administration Decree	103
Utilities Charges Commission Decree	104
Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers of Nigeria	105
University of Abuja Decree No. 106 1992	106
Centre for Automative Design and Development Decree	107
Inland Fisheries Decree	108
Bankruptcy (Amendment) Decree

Ethics

There is a pervading crisis of confidence and trust in the global corporate culture. Trust has been ruptured between many organizations and their constituencies. Yet trust is at the basis of every relationship. The loss of trust leads to the loss of reputation and, ultimately, to the loss of business. Furthermore, ethical lapses can have substantial financial consequences for corporations with very costly litigation and government fines.

Recent corporate scandals and new legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines as well as government regulations and public scrutiny have made it imperative for corporations and not-for-profit institutions to develop and implement ethics programs. These programs can dramatically reduce fines imposed on companies found in wrongdoing. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines state that judges can reduce or multiply fines depending on whether or not a company has an effective ethics program.

Ruder Finn, the independent global public relations agency, has been, since its early years, deeply concerned with and committed to ethics in the workplace. Ethics has always been an integral part of its corporate structure. Since its early beginnings, the firm has had an Ethics Committee to address ethical issues facing the company by analyzing them carefully and examining the consequence of different courses of action. The firm has developed an internal ethics program that has allowed Ruder Finn's management to make critical decisions in resolving ethical issues.
Ruder Finn now offers ethics consulting to its existing and prospective clients. The new service can help them develop effective programs specific to their industry, company and culture.

Clear communication is key in developing ethics programs. Effective communications can convey to stakeholders, such as employees, the community and the government, the company's values and commitment to ethical behavior.

An effective ethics program can help foster an ethical culture throughout the organization. The development of an ethics culture within a company can not only prevent wrongdoing from taking place, but can also increase morale, loyalty and productivity.

Consistency and Ethics

Developed by Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer

Consistency—the absence of contradictions—has sometimes been called the hallmark of ethics. Ethics is supposed to provide us with a guide for moral living, and to do so it must be rational, and to be rational it must be free of contradictions. If a person said, "Open the window but don't open the window," we would be at loss as to what to do; the command is contradictory and thus irrational. In the same way, if our ethical principles and practices lack consistency, we, as rational people, will find ourselves at a loss as to what we ought to do and divided about how we ought to live.

Ethics requires consistency in the sense that our moral standards, actions, and values should not be contradictory. Examining our lives to uncover inconsistencies and then modifying our moral standards and behaviors so that they are consistent is an important part of moral development.

Where are we likely to uncover inconsistency? First, our moral standards may be inconsistent with each other. We discover these inconsistencies by looking at situations in which our standards would require incompatible behaviors. Suppose, for example, that I believe that it is wrong to disobey my employer, and also believe that it is wrong to harm innocent people. Then suppose that one day my employer insists that I work on a project that might cause harm to innocent people. The situation reveals an inconsistency between my moral standards. I can either obey my employer or I can avoid harming innocent people, but I cannot do both. To be consistent, I must modify one or both of these standards by examining the reasons I have for accepting them and weighing these reasons to see which standard is more important and worth retaining and which is less important and in need of modification.

A more important kind of inconsistency is that which can emerge when we apply our moral standards to different situations. To be consistent, we must apply the same moral standards to one situation that we apply to another unless we can show that the two situations differ in relevant ways. I might believe, for example, that I have a right to buy a home in any neighborhood I wish, because I hold that people should be free to live wherever they choose. Yet, I am among the first to oppose the sale of the house next door to a group of mentally retarded persons. But what is the difference between the two situations that justifies this difference in treatment? What is the difference that makes it all right for me to buy a home in any neighborhood, but not them?

There is another sense in which the need for consistency enters into ethics. We might hold consistent moral standards and apply them in consistent ways, but we may fail to be consistent in who we are as individuals. We often use the word "integrity" to refer to people who act in ways that are consistent with their beliefs. Here consistency means that a person's actions are in harmony with his or her inner values. Polonius, a character in Shakespeare's Hamlet, points out--perhaps with some exaggeration--how critical such integrity is to the moral life when he says to his son, Laertes:

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Consistency in our lives also implies an inner integrity. It may be the case that a person's inner desires are allowed to conflict with each other. For example, a desire to be courageous or honest may be contradicted by a desire to avoid the inconvenience or pain that courage or honesty often requires. Allowing such a conflict is self-defeating because these desires are contradictory. To achieve consistency, we must work to shape our desires to produce a kind of internal harmony.

So central is consistency to ethics that some moralists have held that it is the whole of ethics. They have argued that if people consistently treat all human beings the same, they will always act ethically. Ethical behavior, they argue, is simply a matter of being consistent by extending to all persons the same respect and consideration that we claim for ourselves. The Bible itself seems to imply that ethics consists of nothing more than consistency with the words: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you: this is the whole Law and the prophets." (Matt. 7:12) This biblical verse sometimes has been interpreted as meaning that all of morality can be summed up in the requirement to avoid contradictions between what one thinks is appropriate for others and what one thinks is appropriate for oneself.

But is consistency all there is to ethics? We may be perfectly consistent with respect to our moral principles and values, yet our principles may be incorrect and our values misplaced. We may even be consistent in treating others as we treat ourselves, but this kind of consistency would hardly be the mark of a moral life if we happen to treat ourselves poorly.

We might say that while consistency is surely not sufficient for ethics, it is at least necessary for ethics. Ethics requires that there be consistency among our moral standards and in how we apply these standards. Ethics also requires a consistency between our ethical standards and our actions, as well as among our inner desires. Finally, ethics requires that there be consistency between how we treat ourselves and how we treat others.

This article appeared originally in Issues in Ethics V1 N4 (Summer 1988)

Conscience and Authority

Developed by Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer

Since the Nazi atrocities toward the Jews were discovered at the end of the World War II, people have wondered how so many could have engaged in such obviously unconscionable behaviors. The death camps in which Jews were systematically tortured and killed were efficiently organized and managed by well-trained administrative personnel. These administrators were not extraordinarily vicious savages running amuck. On the contrary, the Germans who ran the death camps seemed to be ordinary "decent" citizens, with consciences no different from those of any of us. How could they have blinded themselves to the clear injustice of what they were doing? More generally, what motivates the unethical acts of ordinarily decent people?

Perhaps one of the most fascinating experiments ever conducted to investigate this moral question is known as the Milgram experiment, after Stanley Milgram, the psychologist who devised the experiment. Subjects in his experiment were told that they were going to take part in exercises designed to test other people's abilities to learn. They were seated at a mock "shock generator" with thirty switches marked from 15 volts ("slight shock") to 450 volts ("danger--severe shock"). Through a small glass window they could see the "learner" in the adjoining room strapped to a chair with electrodes on his or her wrists. The subject was told he or she was to test the other person's ability to memorize lists of words, and to administer a "shock" when the learner made the mistake, increasing the intensity each time. As the intensity of the "shocks" grew, and the learner pretended to cry out in more and more pain, eventually fainting, the experimenter told the subjects they had to continue administering the shocks. Astonishingly, although the subjects grew nervous and agitated, more than two-thirds administered the highest level of shocks to the learners when ordered to do so by the experimenter. Milgram concluded that when people are ordered to do something by someone they view in authority, most will obey even when doing so violates their consciences.

In view of the Milgram experiments, the Nazi crimes are not difficult to understand. Milgram himself suggested that one of the major factors accounting for the Holocaust was the ready propensity of human beings to obey authorities even when obedience is wrong. Indeed, although Milgram's experiment has been repeated dozens of times with many different groups of people, the results are always the same: most people will obey external authority over the dictates of conscience.

Although Milgram's findings are disturbing, more recent research has suggested that obedience to authority over conscience is not inevitable. Indeed, the research of Steven Sherman, also a psychologist, suggests that education can strengthen the power of conscience over authority. Sherman had a colleague contact several people by telephone, ostensibly to "poll" them on their opinions. The "pollster" asked them what they would do if they were ever ordered to perform a certain act that was morally or socially undesirable, and spent some time discussing the issues with them. Several weeks after the contact was made, these same people were actually asked to carry out that act. Surprisingly, two thirds refused to obey the order, a sharp contrast to to Milgram's finding that two thirds of those ordered to act against their conscience would normally obey.

The implication of the Sherman experiment is that if people reflect on a moral issue before they are involved in it, they are more likely to behave in accordance with their consciences when that issue faces them in real life. Moral reflection and discussion of the kind found in the best types of moral education substantially enhance the ethical quality of a person's future choices.

This article appeared originally in Issues in Ethics V1 N2 (Winter 1988)

Can Ethics Be Taught?

Developed by Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer

In a recent editorial, the Wall Street Journal announced that ethics courses are useless because ethics can't be taught. Although few people would turn to the Wall Street Journal as a learned expert on the teaching of ethics, the issue raised by the newspaper is a serious one: Can ethics be taught?

The issue is an old one. Almost 2500 years ago, the philosopher Socrates debated the question with his fellow Athenians. Socrates' position was clear: Ethics consists of knowing what we ought to do, and such knowledge can be taught.

Most psychologists today would agree with Socrates. In an overview of contemporary research in the field of moral development, psychologist James Rest summarized the major findings as follows:

• Dramatic changes occur in young adults in their 20s and 30s in terms of the basic problem-solving strategies they use to deal with ethical issues.
  
  
• These changes are linked to fundamental changes in how a person perceives society and his or her role in society.
  
  
• The extent to which change occurs is associated with the number of years of formal educaton (college or professional school).
  
  
• Deliberate educational attempts (formal curriculum) to influence awareness of moral problems and to influence the reasoning or judgement process have been demonstrated to be effective.
  
  
• Studies indicate that a person's behavior is influenced by his or her moral perception and moral judgements.
  

Much of the research that Rest alludes to was carried on by the late Harvard psychologist, Lawrence Kohlberg. Kohlberg was one of the first people to look seriously at whether a person's ability to deal with ethical issues can develop in later life and whether education can affect that development.

Kohlberg found that a person's ability to deal with moral issues is not formed all at once. Just as there are stages of growth in physical development, the ability to think morally also develops in stages.

The earliest level of moral development is that of the child, which Kohlberg called the preconventional level. The person at the preconventional level defines right and wrong in terms of what authority figures say is right or wrong or in terms of what results in rewards and punishments. Any parent can verify this. Ask the four or five year old why stealing is wrong, and chances are that they'll respond: "Because daddy or mommy says it's wrong" or "Because you get spanked if you steal." Some people stay at this level all of their lives, continuing to define right and wrong in terms of what authorities say or in terms of reaping rewards or avoiding unpleasant consequences.

The second level of moral development is the level most adolescents reach. Kohlberg called this the conventional level. The adolescent at the conventional level has internalized the norms of those groups among whom he or she lives. For the adolescent, right and wrong are based on group loyalties: loyalties to one's family, loyalties to one's friends, or loyalty to one's nation. If you ask adolescents at this level why something is wrong or why it is right, they will tend to answer in terms of what their families have taught her, what their friends think, or what Americans believe. Many people remain at this level, continuing to define right and wrong in terms of what society believes or what laws require.

But if a person continues to develop morally, he or she will reach what Kohlberg labeled the postconventional level. The person at the postconventional level stops defining right and wrong in terms of group loyalties or norms. Instead, the adult at this level develops moral principles that define right and wrong from a universal point of view. The moral principles of the postconventional person are principles that would appeal to any reasonable person because they take everyone's interest into account. If you ask a person at the postconventional level why something is right or wrong, she will appeal to what promotes or doesn't promote the universal ideals of justice or human rights or human welfare.

Many factors can stimulate a person's growth through the three levels of moral development. One of the most crucial factors, Kohlberg found, is education. Kohlberg discovered that when his subjects took courses in ethics and these courses challenged them to look at issues from a universal point of view, they tended to move upward through the levels. This finding, as Rest points out, has been repeatedly supported by other researchers.

Can ethics be taught? If you look at the hard evidence psychologists have amassed, the answer is yes. If you read the Wall Street Journal, you wouldn't have thought so.

This article appeared originally in Issues in Ethics V1 N1 (Fall 1987)

Possible Questions

1.       A].     Define Media Law

B].     Distinguish between Media Law and Ethics of Journalism profession.

C].     List or summarize at least 10 Laws that regulate media practice in Nigeria from 1903 to 1999.

2.       Discuss Press Freedom under Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution and explain whether there is any limitation of the press under the Constitution;

3.       A].     Define Law of Defamation

B].     Distinguish between libel and slander

C].     What are the defenses available to a journalist when charged for defamation?

4.       Discuss the main features of the following Laws: Nigeria Television Authority Act and National Broadcasting Commission act.

5.       Write short notes on any 3 of the following:

A].     Copyright Law

B].     Law of Privacy

C].     Contempt of Court Law.

D].     Law of Sedition.

E].     Guidelines in reporting criminal cases.

Solution:

1.       A].     Media Law can easily be defined as laws that regulate or govern Media

Practice generally for instance, Newspaper act, Criminal and Penal Code, NAN Act, NTA Act, NBC Act, etc. These laws regulate Media Practice in Nigeria.

B].     The distinction between Media Law and Ethics of Journalism profession are that Media Laws regulate or govern the conduct of media practice generally, e.g. of such laws are the Newspaper Act 1912 later amended in 1978 which provides for registration of Newspapers and condition to be satisfied before a Newspaper is published are set out under section 3 of the Act. The provisions of the Criminal and Penal Code which provides for punishment of offenders related to media practice offence of 2.7 defamation, sedition Act, etc.

Ethics of the Journalism profession on the other hand are rules or code of conduct on how journalists should behave or ought to behave. It deals with morals not law.

C].     Laws that regulate Media Practice in Nigeria are, Newspaper Act 1917, later amended to Newspaper Act 1978, Printing Press Act, Seditious Act, Criminal Code, Penal Code, NTA Act, NBC Act, NAN Act, Nigeria Press Council Decree No.31, 1978, FRCN Decree No.81979, Official Secret Act 1962, Obscene Publications act 1961, 1999 FRCN Constitution.

2.       Press Freedom is the ability of the Press to own and discharge their duties of receiving and importing ideas, dissemination of information without any interference. The right is fundamental as enshrined under chapter 4, section 39 of the Constitution, see Nwabueze's view on Press Freedom when he said it is the right of the operator to publish in it what information, ideas and opinions that he pleases to circulate freely without license and without interference.

See the cases of Adikwu vs Federal House of Representatives (1982) 3 NCLR 394; Tony Momoh vs Senate of National Assembly (1981) 1 NCLR 105.

As regards the issue of limitation see Justice Balogun's decision in the case of Innocent Adikwu vs. Federal House of Representatives.

Here this, "The right of the Press is not absolute. The fundamental right is subject to the interest of justice, national security, public order, and public morality, welfare of persons or prevention of disorder or crime". See section 46 of the 1999 Constitution. Limitation of the Press Freedom by Civil and Criminal Laws i.e. Law of Defamation, Law of Sedition and Law of Contempt of Court.

3. A].           Law of Defamation means the law which protects individuals from indignity, ridicule and contempt. Therefore, it can be defined as any publication which causes a person to be shunned or that which lowers his reputation in the eyes of right thinking members of the society. Under the criminal Penal Code, criminal defamation is punishable for two years and seven years under sections 375 and 376 of Criminal Code and punishable under section for 2 years or with fine or both under section 23 of the penal code. There are two types of defamation (i) Libel (ii) Slander. See generally the case of NTA vs. Ebenezer Babatope (1996) 4 NWLR (P.440) 70 & 75.

    B].           The distinction between slander and libel is that slander is made by words and gestures only while libel is made in writings or conveyed through signs, films, effigy, pictures, cartoons or photographs. Also slander is a business for the 'ear' to conceive and comprehend while libel is a business for the 'eyes' to conceive and comprehend, etc.

C].           Defenses available to a journalist on the charge of defamation can be classified into two, i.e. major defenses and minor defenses. Major defenses are (i) Defence of Absolute Privilege (ii) Fair Comment (iii) Truth and Justification (iv) Qualified Privilege and (v) Defense of innocence. Minor defenses involve (i) Statute of Limitation (ii) Accord and Satisfaction (iii) Noranti Hon-Fit injuria (iii) Pres Juticota (iv) Death of Plaintiff.

4.       The main features of the NTA Act are:

i.        The Act was promulgated in the year 1976 which is now an Act CAP 113 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.

ii.       The main aim of the establishment of the provision of Televisions Broadcasting and other related matters in Nigeria.

- issues relating to Zonal Board Members, Director General and their functions, provisions of land, finances and tenure of office of members.

iii.      The duties of the Authority are contained in section 6 of the Act - Duty to provide for Nigerians independent and impartial television for general reception within Nigeria.

iv.      The exclusive right of authority for television broadcasting in Nigeria - see Section 7(1) of the Act.

v.       The general functions of the Act in Section 8(1) of the Act.

vi.      The power of the Minister of Information to direct the entire activities of the authority, see Section 13 of the Act.

5. A]. Copyright can be defined as the right which the law gives an author or other originator of an intellectual production whereby he is invested with the sole and exclusive privilege of producing and selling copies of his work.

The essence of the law of copyright is to protect intellectual property from being reproduced and sold by unauthorized persons, so that the owner of the work can enjoy the fruit of his labour. But the advance in technology is making it increasingly difficult to enforce copyright laws. This is because hundreds of thousands of copies of books and phonographic materials of all kinds can now be easily produced by privates, thanks to the ubiquitous photocopying machines and audio/visual recorders.

The following works are those eligible for copyright violation in Nigeria:

(a).    Literary works

(b).    Musical works

(c).    Artistic works

(d).    Cinematographic works

(e).    Sound recording; and

(f).     Broadcast

B].     Law of Privacy protects individuals' privacy in order to allow persons to enjoy their private life, because the journalist in the course of digging up information to uncover facts exceeds bounds. Privacy 17 is a well known fact that the more an individual attains a high rank the more limited his privacy is that is why public figures and top government officers have limited privacy. A person's privacy can be invaded when one of the following offences is committed:

i.        Offence of Appropriation

ii.       Placement in False Light

iii.      Physical instruction

iv.      Public Disclosure

v.       Confidentiality of Source, and

vi.      Conspiracy.

Defenses available to journalists are:

i.        Right to be left alone

ii.       Volenti Non-fit-injuria

iii.      Public interest

iv.      Permanent Publication.

C]. Contempt of Court Law. Contempt of Court is divided into two (i) Contempt ex-facie-curia and (ii) Contempt in-facie-curia, i.e. Contempt outside the Court and Contempt inside the Court.

D]. Law of Sedition. See Section 50(1) and 50(2) of Criminal Code and Section 416 of the Penal Code. The punishment for such offence is from 3 years to 7 years. The offence must be prosecuted within 6 months of the commission of the offence and the written consent of the Attorney General of the Federation or of the State Government.

The effect of the law is that it (i). Invigorating public disturbance (ii). Ignite civil war, (iii). Cast hatred or disaffection to the government, and (iv). Subvert obedience to the Constitution and challenge sovereignty of the country.