Evicted in Lagos : what are the adjudicatory options?

Lagos city government has forcefully evicted over two million residents from their homes in the past twenty years. These evictions are instrumental to the government's plan to remodel Lagos into an alluring mega-city. With the urban poor bearing the brunt of this, evictions are a reflection of the vast socio-spatial inequalities affecting Lagos. Also, and more importantly, they are also a flagrant breach of human rights, notably the right to housing. This thesis explores the right to housing regime for evicted persons under the national legal framework of Nigeria, the Constitution. Addressing the lack of justiciability of the right, I rely on an extensive assessment of the constitutional framework to conclude that the right can be realized and enforced through a purposive construction of civil and political rights. In examining the prospects for recognizing the right to housing, this thesis assesses the impact of public interest litigation as a rights enforcement mechanism in Nigeria. However, findings reveal that court interventions are fragmented and inadequate in securing protection for evicted persons. With this disclosure, I contend that developing constitutional climes like Bangladesh, where courts have progressively adjudicated the right to housing, are an example for Nigeria to emulate. More generally, this thesis recommends that courts in Nigeria rethink their rigid stance on ESC rights by embracing orientation on the subject and eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks within its adjudicatory process. As to remedial outputs, I conclude that current judicial remedies meted out to evicted residents are ineffective in changing the status quo, and I hence move to explore and recommend alternative approaches within the constitution as apt and with a more compelling force. Finally, the Nigerian parliament holds prospects of making the right to housing justiciable; this thesis concludes by urging them to ease pressure on the courts by legislating on housing since the constitution empowers them to do so, thus addressing the normative lawlessness surrounding illegal evictions in the country.