Nigerian law is a relic of colonialism

Across Africa, the modern states today derive their origins from the legacy of the conquest and overthrow of extant traditional empires and kingdoms that preceded the colonial state. After bringing these kingdoms and peoples to subjugation, the colonial administrations went ahead to impose their domination on the conquered peoples through the transmission of their cultures, religions, values and ethos. The colonial administrations referred to their enterprise as a civilizing mission. Colonial rule ended with independence but after independence, a good number of the states that emerged remained largely inchoate, weak and combustible, often sliding to violence at the slightest provocation or trigger by internal competing forces often based on unresolved competing claims and narratives.

Tabe and his companions were reportedly committing no crime, at least not one that has yet been disclosed. There are inconsistencies in the reporting. Some accounts say 10 people were arrested, while others speak of seven. And so there the story ends.

No public outrage — in Nigeria or anywhere else. As has been said many times: Tabe and his associates are part of a movement seeking independence from the Republic of Cameroon, a fight that would not be necessary if Britain had granted its former colony independence in In France granted its colony independence.

Britain, however, had a different proposition, put to the people in a referendum in February The anglophone Cameroonians who opted in that referendum to form a federation with French Cameroonsoon found the terms of that union were void.

The promise of equality was never kept, with the English-speaking minority facing widespread discrimination and repression. The ongoing crisis is about decolonisation, not secession.

The ever-present risk of detention is a story I am intimately familiar with. I was born in Cameroon and return often. Going home over the Christmas holidays three years ago, we were constantly reminded to carry our ID cards. Taxi drivers would check as you got into their yellow cabs. Everyone seemed to know someone arrested, or threatened with arrest.

These stories, like those that followed the campaign to revive an article in the penal code banning women from wearing short skirts the year before, all end with someone paying a bribe for their freedom. I am equally familiar with the fight for self-determination in Southern Cameroons.

My father is part of the Ambazonia Governing Councilthe leadership of the movement seeking independence for the anglophone region they call Ambazonia. I woke up at 3am on Sunday to find him huddled over his phone, talking frantically as he learned of the news of the arrests in Abuja.

The question then and now: The British empire, in its arrogance, did not think this small group of people could effectively self-govern. It was an imperialistic decision that has so far cost hundreds of lives, and seen many others detained in squalid conditions.

This article was corrected on 31 January “They are literally relics of the dead past in the modern world,” a Nigerian comedy writer, David Hundeyin, told the New Yorker earlier this year, lambasting one chief whose entourage blessed an airplane with a traditional dance before takeoff.

To say that religion is the root cause of the present global violence in the world today especially in the Middle East where migrants are fleeing to Europe for dear life is no exaggeration.

To. This law - a relic of British colonialism - already violates Nigeria's international human rights commitments. The evident intent of this definition of same gender marriage in the new bill is to. “The appeal filed against the judgment by the Inspector-General of Police was dismissed by the Court of Appeal which held that police permit was a relic of colonialism, which cannot be justified under a democratic dispensation.

Divided Cameroon, relic of colonialism: A reverse Quebec in Africa? By Socrates Mbamalu on October 4, — The relics of colonialism are dispersed all over the continent, language being one of them. Cameroon's anglophone population has protested about facing discrimination and . DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE AND CUSTODY OF CHILDREN UNDER CUSTOMARY LAW IN NIGERIA BRIGHT E.

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ONIHA* the Nigerian Supreme court in the case of Zaiden v Mohssen5 weddings,’ it would appear is largely viewed as a relic of colonialism. C. Islamic Law.