In shaping Nigerian rule, all social classes, religious and ethnic groups aim to be remembered. Advocates of cultural pluralism understand the risk of politicizing shared beliefs and collective identities as assumptions taken for granted(Ugorji,2016). Culture and law are mutually constitutive and are in the process of almost continuous flux. Culture continues to emerge in the legal sphere, from multicultural legislation to cultural exemptions in trade treaties; individual artistic visions are delegitimized and legitimized by law. We should consider the forms in which they have been traditionally expressed, stabilized, and destabilized, rather than merely connecting law and culture. To understand the signifying power of law in specific conflicts over meaning and its resulting political ramifications, culture must not only be understood as meaning but also for materiality.
Nigeria Constitution is the primary constitutional law used in Nigeria. Today, the foundation of Nigeria's police can be marked up to the colonial heritage. Colonial policies vanquished the new traditional non-formal law administration order, and the Western concept of law enforcement was forcibly enforced(Alemika,2018). Thus, policing has been related to Western orientation in the sense of oppression and gross abuse of authority. Not only are successive Nigerian governments retaining and preserving this colonial mindset, but they also have significant consequences for successful policing in Nigeria. As a definition, culture is a complex whole, including traditions, laws, values, arts, skills, opinions, intelligence, and all other behaviors and abilities acquired as a part of society by man(Osemeke & l, 2017). It implies the ways that people do their things or manners of people's lives. These forms are expressed in citizens' lifestyles and intertwined in the proper functioning of any socio-institutional system in which laws are enforced. Legislation has a community of its own that forms its logic. Historically, theological partisanship and intellectual misunderstanding have clouded the proper relationship between religion and law in Nigeria.
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They are exploring in the Akwa Ibom federation of Nigeria the expectations and predictors of extreme types of punishment of children(Bassey,2016). While revered by their traditionalist, African children are frequently punished by life-risking physical abuse, including strangulations, burns, and extreme beatings inflicted by the community's adult members. The rights of Nigerian people are abused by childhood violence and neglect. Chapter 4, Sections 30 and 40 of the 1997 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria safeguard all people's constitutional and cultural rights . This part is in Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigerian, 1997. Such requests can apply to minors. The ethos of caregivers plays a significant part in revoking such harsh somatic discipline. Belief systems for parents are interpretative mechanisms that direct the expectations of children, objectives, effective discipline, child-rearing, understanding of child development and perception that can be interpreted and understood. The philosophy of enlightening children wrong and right is segment of child-upbringing, and to achieve this, caregivers use various approaches(Bassey,2016). Therefore, researchers’ cultural predictors and expectations that contribute to certain types of physical punishment need to be discussed to influence Nigerian law's reform to improve conditions for children.
After political independence, especially from January 15, 1966, the military rule became the dominant government feature in Nigeria. This has become a nationwide problem. The function of the military in the politics of Nigeria has produced heated debates. The big question is why the military has taken on its traditional position of defending the country's territorial integrity and has a strong interest in the administrative function and politics. The effect of nearly 30 years of a military dictatorship can be seen at all levels of Nigeria's political and everyday life. Nigerians aptly define its influence as the militarization of the psyche of Nigeria. To a large degree, the violence and instability prevalent in the nation is the product of the creation of military culture. Consequently, the military's systemic violence, physical conflict, and the protection of the military and police forces are extensively resorted to by civilians. The demilitarization of Nigerian social life is, therefore, a prerequisite for the country's democratic progress. The long direct presence of the military in Nigerian law implementation has contributed to Nigeria's motives for military rule.
Despite the comparative absence of sovereign Islamic legal structure in Africa, it is noticeable that Islamic law's political status in Africa is pre-independent. Muslims have the rule of law, which is an integral part of their faith(Ochiai,2020). They can establish a distinctive sentiment of Muslim unity on occasion. It is unnecessary to overemphasize the contemporary importance of these somewhat dated findings, and there is no other suitable validation workshop than in Nigeria. Once again, the continuing argument about the equilibrium of Sharia with the British and standard law system and the clamor for some of its expansion to the south brought forward by the persistent question of deciding the genuine function of religion in the laws of countries.
Further, the application of Sharia in the standard law system can occur through the native court system(Ochiai,2020). This balance can be outlined in three stages during the colonial period. Between 1900-1932, the First Step occurred. Sharia was retained, and indigenous courts enjoyed a degree of autonomy under the versatile, self-restrained colonial administrators' oversight. This era was known as the period of protection. Native courts such as Alkali and Emir Courts were, however, linked to English courts through the appeals system in the Second Phase that took place between 1933-1953. A judicial hierarchy in which the former is defined as inferior and the latter as superior, as well as a conceptual order under which the codified Criminal Code limited Islamic criminal law, reinforcing the subjugation of Sharia to the secular judiciary. This was known as the subjugation era. The attempt by the Nigerian Muslim-led Administration of the Northern Region to find a political settlement in the Third Period between 1954-1960 did not regain Sharia that had been subjugated by the colonizers but instead created a situation in which the implementation of ShariaSharia was rescripted to personal law. This era was named the period of compromise.
In conclusion, Islam is a religion entirely consistent with comparative constitutionalism's principles, ethical standards, processes, and structures(An-Na’im,2020). It is essential to analyze its roots and evolution to stress the historical and contextual existence of Islam and Sharia as Islam's social and political normative structure. In Muslim majority countries or anywhere else in the world - constitutionalism will not succeed except through indigenous trial and error processes, whereby norms and institutions are developed slowly over a period. This trial will involve acceptable practices and bad experiences of lessons learned. The post-colonial state, which includes converting its anchor in colonial institutions, norms, and principles to the Islamic view of such anchor, which is also compatible with constitutionalism, needs to come to terms.
References
Alemika, E. E. (2018). The constraints of rights-based policing in Africa. Policing Reform in Africa , 14.
An-Na'im, A. A. (2020, November 10 November 10). Islam, ShariaSharia, and comparative constitutionalism . Elgar Online: The online content platform for Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781786439284/9781786439284.00016.xml
Bassey, A. A. (2016). Culture and Attitudes Regarding Physical Punishment of Children in the Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria . Scholar Works | Walden University Research. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3813&context=dissertations
Ochiai, T. (2020). The application of ShariaSharia and the evolution of the native court system in colonial Northern Nigeria (1900-1960). Asian Journal of African Studies , (49), 77-110.
Osemeke, N., & Osemeke, L. (2017). The effect of culture on corporate governance practices in Nigeria. International Journal of Disclosure and Governance , 14 (4), 318-340.
Ugorji, B. (2016). Culture and conflict resolution: When a low-context culture and a high-context culture collide, what happens.
