Ethical Foundation of Legal Provisions of Self-Defence in Nigeria

Abstract

In recent times, Nigerians have been grappling with the problem
of insecurity, ranging from the marauding criminal herdsmen
maiming, killing and kidnapping of harmless and innocent
citizens to cult clashes destroying lives and properties. In the
midst of all these, there has been a seeming negligence on the side
of the government to provide the needed security which ordinarily
constitutes the primary aim of forming a government; thus, the
calls from different quarters for people to defend themselves. The
paper seeks to ethically investigate and establish the justifiability
of such calls for self-defence and its possible implications. The
research exposes the concept of self-defence, its call in Nigeria,
addresses the ethical concerns with self-defence vis-à-vis its
accompanying legal provisions; it then, raises concerns with the
tenability of such calls considering the level of poverty in the
country and other factors that may impede the call for selfdefence in Nigeria such as the possibility of slippery-slope and
concludes that, in the light of obvious negligence of the
government to tackle the menace of insecurity and in accordance
to the principle of self-preservation, it is indeed behooves of
Nigerians to resolve to self-defence as a last resort but this must
be well planned and coordinated considering the legal bottlenecks
such as the bureaucratic and tedious nature of obtaining license to
own firearm.