A Critical Evaluation of Human Rights and Social Justice in
Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

Chukwu P. Ezechi

doi:10.56201/ajha.v9.no2.2025.pg88.98

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A Critical Evaluation of Human Rights and Social Justice in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

Chukwu P. Ezechi

Abstract

Nigeria's return to democratic rule in 1999, ushering in the Fourth Republic, was heralded as a new dawn for human rights and social justice after decades of military authoritarianism. However, over two decades later, the nation finds itself grappling with a profound paradox: a constitutional democracy that enshrines fundamental rights coexists with a reality of systemic violations, deepening inequality, and state-sponsored impunity. This article critically evaluates the state of human rights and social justice in Nigeria, employing a qualitative, document-based methodology. It analyzes the gap between the robust legal and institutional frameworks on paper and their abysmal implementation in practice. The study finds that the Nigerian state is characterized by a "rights-retreat," where security sector brutality, ethnoreligious conflicts, the securitization of civic space, and a culture of corruption systematically undermine constitutional promises. The analysis reveals that social justice is further eroded by the state's failure to address foundational issues such as access to quality education, healthcare, and economic opportunity, which are increasingly weaponized as tools of exclusion. The article concludes that the human rights crisis in Nigeria is not merely a failure of policy but a fundamental crisis of governance, accountability, and state legitimacy. It recommends comprehensive security sector reform, judicial independence, robust civic space protection, and a shift towards a rights-based approach in socio-economic policy as critical pathways towards reclaiming the promise of the Fourth Republic.

Keywords

Human RightsSocial JusticeNigeriaFourth RepublicGovernanceSecurity Sector ReformCivic SpaceAccountability.

References

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A Critical Evaluation of Human Rights and Social Justice in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

Abstract

Keywords

References

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