ILLITERATE PROTECTION LAW IN NIGERIA: MYTH OR REALITY

Abstract

Nigeria is home to one of the largest population of illiterates in the world. This is a major impediment to the nation’s quest for advanced human capital development that could manage the natural resources for economic growth. In order to protect the illiterates against fraud and economic exploitations, various states governments enacted Illiterate Protection Laws and some other legislations. This paper reviews all these laws and argues that these laws especially the Illiterate Protection Law have not sufficiently protected the illiterates. This is contrary to the intention of the parliament and the notion carried both by the courts and the legal profession who have always read too much into the law and have assumed that Illiterate Protection Law is a law which protects the illiterates. This paper finally calls for an urgent review of the law to make it conform to its name, and further suggests among others that the courts should not look at the protection of illiterates in isolation.