Obstacles to Nigeria's Ratification and Implementation of International Treaties

Abstract

The rapid development and advancement of any nation as a result of transnational agreements cannot be over emphasized. No nation can effectively succeed independently without requiring the assistance of other nations and it is on this ground international agreements are made. Treaties constitute the major means of entering into agreement at International law. They are considered the closest analogy to legislation that International law has to offer [D. Harris, ‘Cases and Materials on International Law’, (6th edn, Sweet & Maxwell, London, 1998)]. In recent years, Nigeria, as a nation has actively partaken inquite a lot of treaties while plethora of them are yet to be domesticated. In spite of the enormous legal and constitutional powers in the making of treaties, frequent feud between the Executive and the National Assembly, external political influence, excessive politicization of treaty bills, ideological differences among legislators, financial considerations, religious differences, cultural biases and lack of political will among legislators have impacted negatively on the fortune of treaties’ ratification and domestication in Nigeria. Hence some of the problems that this work seeks to address.