State Of Emergency In Nigeria: Law And Politics

Certain situations can so threaten the constitutionality of the state that the binding constitutional provisions cannot, or at least, not with the necessary speed handle state of emergencies sufficiently. The possibility of such situations, thus, requires the adoption of laws on state of emergency, which permit circumvention of such binding provisions effectively, but which also safeguard against abuse of such circumvention. The greater the fear of abuse, as a rule, based on historical experience, the more detailed the law on emergency will be.  Thus the actual objective of state of emergency should only arise when it constitutes a challenge to democracy, negates the norms of national human interaction, contradicts the tenets of civil society, devalues opportunities for peace, stability, coexistence and social justice and should secure the “route back to the normal constitutional state”.