Table Of ContentPromoting Efficiency
in Jurisprudence and
Constitutional
Development in Africa
Edited by
Azubike Onuora-Oguno
Promoting Efficiency in Jurisprudence
and Constitutional Development in Africa
Azubike Onuora-Oguno
Editor
Promoting Efficiency
in Jurisprudence
and Constitutional
Development in Africa
Editor
Azubike Onuora-Oguno
Faculty of Law
University of Ilorin
Ilorin, Nigeria
ISBN 978-3-031-13813-3 ISBN 978-3-031-13814-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13814-0
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Foreword
It is always an honour to be asked to write the preface for a book. It
is a special pleasure to write the foreword for a volume that celebrates
the work of a much-admired mutual colleague. In this particular case, we
celebrate the life’s work of Professor Wahab Egbewole, one of Africa’s
most celebrated lawyers and (socio-)legal scholars.
As a legal practitioner and as a scholar, primarily attached to the
University of Ilorin in Nigeria, Professor Egbewole’s reputation is known
well to those with a background in African socio-legal studies, not least
through the Law and Society Association, of which he has been a long-
time and well-respected member, including through the Collaborative
Research Network (CRN) on African Law and Society of which I am
a co-organiser, together with colleagues Penelope (“Penny”) Andrews,
Jonathan Klaaren, Heinz Klug, Jarpa Dawuni, Mark Kende and others.
Professor Egbewole’s scholarly contributions, which include dozens
of articles, book chapters and close to a dozen books, are accompa-
nied by his greatly appreciated role as an academic leader and mentor
to emerging scholars, at the University of Ilorin, within the African Law
and Society CRN and further afield. His academic scholarship has been
ground-breaking, critical and intimately connected with the lived realities
of especially Nigerians who have been mobilising for social justice.
v
vi FOREWORD
Sadly, due in large part to systemic inequalities built into the pillarized,
Western/Northern-privileged orientation of the (socio-) legal academy,
which is reinforced by a range of mainly corporate-owned digital matrices
that are relied upon as a valorisation of global academic scholarship,
Egbewole’s work is far less known to those outside of the flourishing
community of African law and society scholars than it should be. This
lack of representation is arguably shifting, however, not least due to
global South-led intellectual initiatives such as Third World Approaches
to International Law (TWAIL).
Alongside Professor Wahab Egbewole, African scholars who have had
a particular impact on critical, socio-legal scholarship in Africa certainly
include, but are by no means limited to, scholars such as E. Tendayi
Achiume, Penny Andrews, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, Ntombizozuko
‘Zozo’ Dyani-Mhango, Frantz Fanon, James Gathii, John Grovogui,
Tshepo Madlingozi, Makau wa Mutua, Joel Ngugi, Celestine Nyamu-
Musembi, Obiora Chinedu Okafor, Boaventure Rutinwa, Issa Shivji,
Matiangai Sirleaf and Sylvia Tamale.
Inspired by these and other scholars, including from the TWAIL move-
ment and especially Professor Egbewole’s scholarly legacy, this volume
plays a role in remedying this systemic injustice, making his work and
those of the contributors to this volume, known to a broader audience.
As Onuora-Oguno and Olatoke notes in the introduction to this
volume, “(a) successful scholar must always represent the high moral
values and discipline which distinguishes in the society”. Professor Egbe-
wole not only resonated these values as a human and as a scholar but
ensured that his scholarship and legal practice have been of benefit to
society. His research has not merely gazed at the blue sky as so much
research does. It has been critical and grounded and has exemplified the
true meaning of social relevance. Accordingly, Egbewole has constructed
a formidable scholarly and personal legacy that future generations of
legal practitioners and scholars will continue to look to for guidance and
inspiration in the generations to come.
This introduction sets up the remainder of the volume, with contri-
butions by some of the finest of a new generation of scholars within the
African law and society community. This volume covers three key areas
FOREWORD vii
of scholarship in which Professor Egbweole has made numerous contri-
butions: first, international law and institutional challenges at the (sub-)
regional levels of governance; second, the advancement of socio-economic
and cultural rights, both through the courts and in relation to their
gender-specific aspects, and finally, early childhood education policies as
well as legal education.
In the first part of this volume, there are several contributions that
resonate with Egbewole’s longstanding legal practice and scholarship
on the role of international law and institutions. Contributions address
both the roles of these normative frameworks and enforcement organs in
addressing both longstanding and recent social and economic challenges
within the African Union and in particular at the (sub-)regional levels of
the Economic Community of West African States.
The second part of the volume is a nod to another aspect of Egbe-
wole’s role as a scholar and practitioner to advance socio-economic and
cultural rights across the continent, through contextualised, progres-
sive adjudication and from a gendered perspective. This includes the
role of progressive Islamic legal scholarship as an alternative to the
orthodox, punishment-oriented goals of contemporary measures aimed
at addressing domestic violence.
The third and final part of the book addresses a further aspect of
Egbewole’s legacy, namely his abiding concern for early childhood educa-
tion and legal education alike, the role of the courts in redressing these
concerns and the need for greater inclusion of Afro and queer-sensitive
pedagogies and perspectives. Contributors to the volume address the role
of schools in redressing systemic marginalisation—including stigmatisa-
tion based on disability—and efforts to translate their rights as prescribed
in national constitutions and international legal instruments. Contributors
also address a topic that TWAIL scholars have paid significant atten-
tion to, namely the need to revisit orthodox approaches to law school
education, both in expanding their normative scope to include issues that
receive less attention than they should. These issues include persons with
disabilities as well as addressing the existential challenges posed by climate
change that are most drastically affecting lower-consuming countries,
including in Africa and regarding sexual violence as more than merely
a criminal act, but as a social and deeply gendered phenomenon.
viii FOREWORD
Altogether, the scholarship in this book serves both to honour the
legacy of Professor Egbewole as both a legal advocate and a scholar in
critical African legal studies, and to advance the scholarship on three key
areas that meant so much to him. There is little doubt in my mind that
this book will serve as a crucial reference for African students and scholars
of law and society, and for global students and scholars alike.
The Hague, The Netherlands Jeff Handmaker1
1 Associate Professor in Legal Sociology at the International Institute of Social Studies,
Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Netherlands and Senior Research Fellow at the
School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Contents
1 Reflection on the Development of Jurisprudence
Teaching and Practice in a Silver Era—Thoughts
and Musing of Prof. Wahab Egbewole, SAN 1
Azubike Onuora-Oguno and Joshua Olukayode Olatoke
2 ECOWAS Court and Emerging Community Legal
Order in West Africa 7
Mojeed A. Olujinmi Alabi
3 Making a Case for the Implementation of the African
Union Model Law for the Implementation
of the Kampala Convention in Nigeria 35
Akinola E. Akintayo
4 COVID-19 and the Implementation of Aspiration
1 of the African Union’s Agenda 2063: The Case
of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Eswatini 53
Linda Mushoriwa and Esther Njieassam
5 “Bastions of Hope”: The Democratic Potential
of a Willing Judiciary in Progressive Socio-Economic
Rights Litigation in South Africa and Nigeria 77
Omowamiwa Kolawole and Dee Smythe
ix
x CONTENTS
6 Gender Mainstreaming in Post-Conflict
Reconstruction in North-East Nigeria 95
Olanike Adelakun
7 Islamic Law Perspective on Emerging Issues
from Legal Frameworks on Domestic Violence
in Nigeria 119
Muhammad Kamaldeen Imam-Tamim
8 The Role of Nigeria Courts in Protecting Women
and Children Against Harmful Traditional Practices 149
Balarabe Alhaji Haruna and Amana Mohammed Yusuf
9 Protecting the Marginalised Child in Nigeria: Social
Protection of Children with Albinism in Nigerian
Schools Examined 165
Azubike Onuora-Oguno and Nnamdi Onuora-Oguno
10 Early Child Education and Care: A Cradle
for Inclusion in Nigeria? 183
Ngozi Chuma Umeh
11 Inclusion of Disabilities-Related Courses
in the Nigerian Law School’s Curriculum 191
Barakat Adebisi Raji, Abdulrazaq Owolabi Abdulkadir,
and Ibrahim Akeem Owolabi
12 Climate Change and the Realization of Human Rights
in Africa 207
Michael Addaney
13 The Role of the Courts in Mapping Out Inclusive
Education 239
Serges Djoyou Kamga
14 Decolonising the Nigerian Law Classroom: Analytic
Diary on Indigenous Storytelling at Niger Delta
University, Nigeria 257
David Nnanna Chukwukadibia Ikpo
