Publications

Know Your Rights

• Aghogho
  Sterling Law Alliance

Abstract
In any well-developed system of rights there are three major roles to be fulfilled: the rights holders, the duty bearers, and the agents of accountability. The task of the agents of accountability is to make sure that those who have the duties carry out their obligations to those who have the rights.
Rights imply entitlements, which are enforceable claims on specific goods or services. This means that there must be some sort of institutional arrangement to which rights-holders whose claims are not satisfied can appeal to have the situation corrected. Enforceability means that those who are to fulfill rights/entitlements must be obligated to do so, and they must be held accountable for their performance.
The supreme court of Nigeria in Garba V University of Maiduguri defined fundamental right to mean “a legal right which the law protects and which can be enforced in a court of law. These rights are not only protected but are also guaranteed under the Constitution. Since the rights are guaranteed under the Constitution, Government functionary be they legislative, executive, judicial, cannot act in contravention of such rights and if the rights are to be taken away, it is the Constitution itself which has to be amended.”

Okpako, A. 2009, Know Your Rights, Corps Legal Aid Scheme, Niger State Chapter, Minna, Niger State..