Civil and political rights versus economic, social and cultural rights: Is there a hierarchy of human rights in Nigeria?

Whereas the United Nations, which is the chief custodian of international human rights law, has been consistent in its affirmation of the indivisibility and universality of human rights, human rights instruments seem to mean different things to different countries. The approach by some countries has resulted in a big gap between the promise and performance of socio-economic rights obligations by them. If this remains unchecked, citizens of developing countries, such as Nigeria, will remain denied their socio-economic rights, though recognised by law. This paper argued that human rights are indivisible and, in particular, that the provisions of Chapter II of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 are indeed justiciable. We used doctrinal methodology and content analysis research design because the paper focused on reviewing existing works and analysing human rights instruments to establish our claim. We concluded that Nigeri a is capable of significantly implementing all species of human rights and, in so doing, engender social development.