Pro Poor and Rights Based Archives - Centre for Social Justice

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Request for National Assembly’s approval of New Loans

Center for Social Justice — Fri, 30 May 2025 08:53:27 +0000

May 30 2025

Press Release

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Request for National Assembly’s approval of New Loans

Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) recalls President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent communication to the National Assembly seeking approval to borrow purportedly to finance critical projects cutting across various sectors of the economy, particularly infrastructure, health, education, water supply, growth, employment generation, security, etc.

Our first reaction is a call for careful consideration of all circumstances, possible scenarios, and consequences surrounding the proposed loans. This can only be done when the request for approval is pitched against extant legal and policy provisions on debt management in Nigeria. The most relevant law is the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), which provides inter alia as follows:

41 (1) The framework for debt management during the financial year shall be based on the following rules-

(a) Government at all tiers shall only borrow for capital expenditure and human development, provided that such borrowing shall be on concessional terms with low interest rate and with a reasonably long amortization period subject to the approval of the appropriate legislative body where necessary

(1) Any Government in the Federation or its agencies and corporations desirous of borrowing shall, specify the purpose for which the borrowing is intended and present a cost-benefit analysis, detailing the economic and social benefits of the purpose to which the intended borrowing is to be applied.
(1)The Federal Government shall ensure that its fiscal and financial affairs are conducted in a transparent manner and accordingly ensure full and timely disclosure and wide publication of all transactions and decisions involving public revenues and expenditures and their implications for its finances.
The following challenges arise from the President’s request for approval in the light of these provisions:

The specific listing of projects to be financed by the loan has not been presented to Nigerians and, therefore, not in the public domain.

Flowing from the first challenge, no cost benefit analysis of the projects for which borrowing is sought has been presented to Nigerians. Cost benefit analysis enables informed discourse and review of the propriety of the projects on which the proceeds of the loan will be invested.

S.48 (1) requires that all the relevant information and facts related to this request for loan approval should be fully and timely disclosed by the executive to Nigerians before any approval is sought or granted by the National Assembly. The required information is not available in hard copy or any electronic portal of the executive or the legislature.

In the circumstances, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has observed the FRA in the breach and consideration of the request by the National Assembly cannot proceed in defiance of the law. Considering Nigeria’s bloated public debt which according to the Debt Management Office stood at N144.665trillion as at December 31 2024 and the very high percentage of retained revenue set aside for debt service over the years, borrowing without public input is a violent disregard to due process and extant law.

In the light of the foregoing, CSJ demands that:

The list and schedule of all projects for which the loans are sought, their intended locations and the cost benefit analysis of specific projects should be published in hard and soft copies and made available to every Nigerian who intends to make an input into the borrowing process.

The National Assembly can not proceed to take such a monumental decision in further approving the bloating of the national debt to over N180trillion without the input of Nigerians obtained through a public hearing.

The loan approval process should not be rushed as demanded by the President and accepted by the leadership of the National Assembly who asked the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts to review and report back in two weeks. The review should hear and consider the input of a broad spectrum of Nigerians before approval or rejection.

Approval should not be on a blanket basis but on a project-by-project consideration.

Eze Onyekpere Esq
Lead Director

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How Out-of-pocket Medical Bills Render Sick Nigerians Poor

Victor Okeke — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 10:38:01 +0000

Is there a right to health in Nigeria? In other words, can an aggrieved party appear before a court in Nigeria, claiming that his right to health has been violated? Is there any legal basis for such a claim? The answer depends on whom one asks but for health and human rights scholars, the response to these questions is resoundingly affirmative and for very good reasons.
Aside from the domestication of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights by the National Assembly in 1983, the National Health Act (NHA) 2014, unequivocally affirms the right of all Nigerians to health.

But a large percentage of the Nigerian population remain astoundingly uncovered by the national and state health insurance schemes. “You have to make a deposit before we can treat the patient” is what many patients and their relatives are greeted with when they enter health-care facilities in Nigeria.

Hospitals – public or private, demand upfront payments. There is an over-reliance on out-of-pocket payments in Nigeria. About 70 per cent of Nigerians are living in poverty. Out-of-pocket payments can make households and individuals incur catastrophic health expenditure and this can exacerbate the level of poverty.

Studies published in the Lancet on Enugu and Anambra States showed that the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure among households (at a 40 per cent threshold of non-food expenditure) were 14·8 per cent and 27 per cent , respectively.

Such a source of health-care financing negatively affects people’s living standards and welfare. More than 90 per cent of the Nigerian population is uninsured in spite of the establishment of a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), in 2006.

Just 5 per cent of Nigerians in the formal sector are covered by the NHIS. Only 3 per cent of people in the informal sector are covered by voluntary private health insurance.

Uninsured patients are at the mercy of a non-performing health system. Health indicators in Nigeria have not changed substantially due to the non-responsiveness of the health system to the needs and expectations of the population. Unfortunately, for many years, there has been no action taken by political actors and policy makers. Most people seem to have accepted life with this terrible situation since there is not much they can do to reverse it.
Today, the cost of medicine at community pharmacies has tripled. To treat malaria, one will need about N3000 and above. Last week, this writer bought a single packet of Amatem Forte Soft Gel for N2500 at a pharmacy in Gwarimpa. The pharmacist on duty recommended that I add a ciprofloxacin tablet costing another N1800 , plus a card of paracetamol to the dosage. But I wouldn’t afford all that on the spot.

All these negative indicators of the Nigerian healthcare system has inspired the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Nigeria with the support of the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID-SCALE) to execute a project titled “Improving the Realisation of the Right to Health in Nigeria”.

The project will be implemented in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and 6 focal states of Sokoto, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Imo, Ekiti and Rivers. The project’s goal is to contribute to improvements in the realization of the right to health in Nigeria through enhancing respect for extant laws and policies, reforming laws and policies as well as mainstreaming transparency and accountability in public health sector expenditure.

The programme will be implemented through four critical objectives for action vis: (a) Improve legal and governance frameworks of the health sector through legislative and implementation advocacy; (b) Enhance stakeholder participation to improve transparency and accountability in health budgeting; and (c) Increase awareness and sensitisation of rights and duties on the right to health and (d) Build the capacity of cluster members and critical civil society stakeholders to effectively intervene for the improvement of the right to health.

“Akin to any other human right, the right to health has close affinity to other human rights and is attainable only upon the realization of these other human rights, such as the rights to food, housing, work, education, human dignity, life, non-discrimination, equality. These are integral components of the right to health and must necessarily be protected by countries seriously committed to establishing the right to health in their respective jurisdictions,” said Dr Nnamuchi Obiajulu, an Associate Professor of Health Law at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.

It is gratifying to note that the right of access to health has been recognized by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) and many other international human rights instruments that African states have ratified.

Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution, as did its predecessor, characterizes what ought to be the right to health care as one of the “Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy” (Directive Principles). And to further emasculate the right to health care, section 6(6) (c) of the Constitution precludes the courts’ jurisdiction with respect to matters enumerated in chapter II. In essence, codification as a Directive Principle means that the right to health care is not justiciable under the Constitution or, for that matter, any other law in Nigeria.

However, Nnamuchi said “legal formalisation is not a sine qua non [necessary condition] for the existence and enjoyment of human rights.” He said that projecting fundamental rights in isolation of complementary socio-economic rights leaves a gaping hole which seriously undermines the value and robustness of the former.
For him, to contend that an individual possesses the right to life in absence of ingredients necessary for its sustenance (such as health care) is, on many levels, vacuous. Enjoyment of the right to health is not only vital to all aspects of a person’s life and well-being, it is also crucial to actualization of all the other fundamental rights and freedoms.

Another study by Nnamuchi reveals that notwithstanding the provisions of section 6(6)(c), health care related interests may be justiciable if the National Assembly elects to exercise its legislative prerogative under the section 4 of the Constitution.

He suggested that item 60(a) means that the National Assembly may, by legislative sanction, arrogate justiciability status to the Directive Principles in chapter II of the Constitution. The effect of such a measure will be to nullify section 6 (6) (c), “thus allowing state organs to “conform to, observe and apply the provisions” thereof of the Directive Principles as stipulated in section.

The Nigerian situation obviously has been statutorily resolved through the enactment of the National Health Act 2014 (NHA). The Act contains various key provisions that will, if appropriately implemented, help provide universal health coverage. The provisions are aimed at increasing health coverage, affordability, and accessibility.

On this, Nnamuchi said that the right to health in Nigeria could be secured under the framework of the NHA as “the Act unequivocally affirms the right of all Nigerians to health.”

The NHA has now provided an enforcement mechanism for the enforcement of the right to health specified under the Act. The effect of this is that “citizens no longer need to go through the rigorous process of enforcing the right to health care in Nigeria under the African Charter or under the provisions of Chapter II of the Constitution.

The National Health Act represents a laudable effort on the part of the Government to use legislative measures to attain the goals specified by international obligations to health.

Aside from proclaiming, as one of the objectives of the national health system, to “protect, promote, and fulfil the rights of the people of Nigeria to have access to health care services,” the NHA specifically identifies means of reaching this goal, including the creation of a legal framework that will regulate the provision of health services in the country, whether by the Government or private providers, promotion of a spirit of cooperation and shared responsibility amongst all providers of health services in the country and any part thereof; ensuring that people living in Nigeria enjoy the best possible health services within the limits of available resources; setting out the rights and obligations of health care providers, health workers, health establishments and users.

Regarding the obligation to refrain from prohibiting or impeding traditional medicines, the response of the NHA is quite positive in that it specifically identifies traditional health care providers and alternative healthcare providers as integrated within the national health system. Even the composition of the Technical Committee on Health, which advises the National Council on Health, is inclusive of associations representing traditional medicine practitioners and alternative health care providers.

There are a myriad of reasons for Nigeria’s abysmal entries in health care indicators. As one way forward, there is a need to estimate the number of deaths associated with the non-responsiveness of the Nigerian health system.

Out-of-pocket payments for health-care services are a very big challenge in Nigeria. Governments and decision makers need to come up with policies to address this problem. NHIS needs to be expanded to cover people in both the formal and informal sectors. Private health insurance has to be made mandatory while the community-based health insurance scheme needs to be scaled up across the country. Out-of-pocket payments affect the ability of households and individuals to meet basic needs and push many below the poverty line.

International organisations concerned about poverty and universal-health coverage in low-income and middle-income countries, including Nigeria, need to assist in generating adequate resources for the improvement and strengthening of health systems performance.

The importance of the right to health underscores the need for the government and partners to engender a workable healthcare framework for its citizens.

The post How Out-of-pocket Medical Bills Render Sick Nigerians Poor appeared first on Centre for Social Justice .

CSJ Filed 30 Right Enhancement Suits Against Govt MDAs, Others In 2021

Center for Social Justice — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 21:09:29 +0000

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) filed 30 Freedom of Information suit against the federal government, its ministries, departments and agencies last year under the centre’s right enhancement programme.

CSJ also litigates human rights violations and the most recent is the case of a victim of violation of the fundamental right to life. In suit Chidiebere Promise Okere & Anor v Corporal Olotu Owoicho & 2 Ors, the High Court awarded general and exemplary damages in the sum of N152 million against the Police and the Federal Government. This appears to be the highest award of damages by the courts in recent fundamental rights jurisprudence. Another suit – Ayuba Yakubu v Government of Nasarawa State and 3 ors seeks the enforcement of the fundamental rights of Ayuba Yakubu (a victim of the reckless driving of the governor’s convoy) to life and human dignity and the claim for compensation is in the sum of N1.1billion.

Another seven of the cases were outsourced to other independent legal practitioners. At the end of the year, 15 of the cases were still pending at the various courts in which they were instituted.

One of the cases, Centre For Social Justice Ltd/ Gte V. Pro Chancellor University Of Abuja & Ors had come up for hearing on September 29, 2021 with Geregory Okere Esq. representing the CSJ but the lack of representation by the respondent led to the adjournment of the matter.

CSJ had approached the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking for a declaration that denying them access to the details of documentation evidencing that the University of Abuja authority has complied with the 2017 audit recommendations as contained in page 101-103 of the Auditor General’s Annual Report on the Accounts of the Federation of Nigeria for the year 2017 constitutes an infringement of their right guaranteed and protected by section 1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011 and violates Section 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.

In the said report, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja is required to account for the sums of N198,821,445.00, N132,135,704.50 and N78,382,570.22 respectively provided as provisional sums, preliminaries and contingency embedded in the various contract bill of quantities.

In the suit Centre for Social Justice v. Honourable Minister of Finance, CSJ is asking the court to declare that denying them access to the details of the Ecological Fund allocation without explanation constitutes an infringement of their right guaranteed and protected by section 1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011 and by Section 48 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 .

CSJ is therefore asking the court to grant them an order of mandamus compelling the Minister of Finance to grant to the them access to the details of the Ecological Fund allocation to the Federal, States and Local Government Council from the years 1999 to 2017 detailed on a year-by-year basis specifically for the following information any unpaid outstanding sums accruing to the beneficiaries for these years if any, and the report of utilisation of these funds by the beneficiaries.

Also in the suit Centre for Social Justice Plaintiff v. The Director-General, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission the applicant (CSJ) is a seeking for a declaration that denying them access to the details of the documentation evidencing that the sum of N6,470,000.00 has been remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account of the Federal Government (CRF) in accordance with the 2017 audit recommendations as contained in pages 306-307 of the Auditor General’s Annual Report on the Accounts of the Federation of Nigeria for the year 2017 constitutes an infringement of the Applicant’s right guaranteed and protected by section 1 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011.

In the said report, the Director-General of FCCPC is required to refund the sum of N6,470,000.00 to the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account of the Federal Government (CRF) being money that was paid to some staff for the purpose of organising award ceremony for the Director-General which contravened Financial Regulation 415 which stipulates that money must not be spent merely because it has been voted without explanation.

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CSJ Briefs Media on Provisions for Small Scale Women Farmers in the 2021 Federal Budget Estimates

Center for Social Justice — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 09:18:00 +0000

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CSJ Creates Template for Audit Assessment, Organizes Validation Meeting.

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CSJ Conducts A Review of Agriculture Estimates In 2021 Federal Budget

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Here is a the review of the Agriculture Estimates In 2021 Federal Budget
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CSJ Briefs Media on Provisions for Small Scale Women Farmers in the 2021 Federal Budget Estimates

On the 10th of November 2020, the Centre For Social Justice (CSJ) and Small-Scale Women Farmer Association of Nigeria (SWOFON) organized a media briefing. The briefing was held to present a gender-focused review of the Federal Agriculture Budget Estimates for 2021. The review is part of SWOFON’s advocacy bid to improve the welfare of small-scale women farmers in Nigeria. According to the National Gender Policy on Agriculture, women carry out about 80% of agricultural production in Nigeria. It is at this backdrop that SWOFON and CSJ are advocating for improved public support to small scale women farmers.

Mr. Fidelis Onyejegbu, Programme Officer, Public Finance Management (PFM) at CSJ while presenting the review document at CSJ’s conference room, noted that over N6trillion has been spent on food importation from 2016-2019, a figure he described as unnecessary given the high rate of unemployment in the country. He also noted that the agriculture budget for 2021 is only about 1.37% of the total budget which is far below the Maputo/Malabo Declaration Standard.

He then went further to present the 33-page document which features an introduction to the topic in part one. A breakdown of votes allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and how it mainstreams gender into its budget is the main focus of the second part. The third part of the review takes a look at agriculture votes outside the Ministry of Agriculture and how much gender mainstreaming has been achieved. Part four of the document analysed frivolities, inappropriate, unclear and wasteful expenditure proposals in the agriculture budget estimates for 2021, which if eliminated could save the Nation over N7Billion. Finally, CSJ and SWOFON made recommendations on how the agricultural sector can be improved especially as it concerns small scale women farmers in Nigeria.

During the event, Mrs. Mary Afan President SWOFON, presented a Charter of Demands which represents the needs of small-scale women farmers across the six geo-political zones of the country. She then took the opportunity to call on the government to take the charter into cognizance in budget and policy implementation. To the National Assembly, she made a call for the reworking of the 2021 budget to guarantee that it takes the peculiar interest of women farmers into consideration. A summary of the Charter of Demands can be found on page 4 of the document which is available on CSJ’s website.

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SEXUAL AND GENDER BASED VIOLENCE (SGBV): THE MENTAL HEALTH EFFECTS

Center for Social Justice — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 04:48:33 +0000

The World Health Organisation has recognized SGBV as a significant public health issue. SGBV includes acts that inflict physical, mental and sexual harm on an individual. Globally, one in three women has experienced physical or sexual violence. Roughly 20 percent of women have experienced sexual abuse before the age of 18 while just 7 percent of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual abuse in their lifetime, which has resulted in degradation to their mental health.

SGBV has prolonged impact on not only physical but mental health of survivors who are at increased risk of depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The link between violence and mental health is found to be stronger in women. Studies have shown that women who have experienced physical violence have significantly high incidences of major depression, substance abuse and are suicidal. Most women feel embarrassed and shameful after such experiences, deterring victims from seeking help.

There is an exponential rise in mental illness resulting from such SGBV yet, mental health services are not readily made available for survivors and, where available, they are rarely integrated into the primary health care system.
The importance of mental health interventions aids in mitigating the effect of sexual and gender based violence. Interventions including counselling and therapeutic or rehabilitative services for survivors and affected family members. This has been shown to reduce the psychological impact of such violent acts and risk of re-occurrence.

Not properly addressing the connection between mental health resulting from sexual and gender based violence means that the women are often misdiagnosed or unable to access the support they need to heal. As established, SGBV have immediate and long-term global impact on the health and welfare of women and children, with ripple effects in the community. Contemporary violence prevention interventions are known to address the mental health. Critical support needs to be strengthened for women experiencing this, both to prevent and address violence. This includes long-term counselling, child support, legal assistance and employment opportunities. Providing women with comprehensive mental health services would allow them take back control of their lives, bodies and sexuality.

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