PATHWAYS TO RESOLUTION OF INCONGRUOUS CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS ON GOOD GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Abstract

The true test of good governance and social justice is the degrees to which they deliver on the promise of human rights. The alarming incidences of poverty, diseases, insecurity, decrepit public infrastructure and human rights violations in Nigeria often provoke the question whether there are no good governance and social justice provisions in the national Constitution, and if they exist, why are they ineffective. Therefore, this paper deployed the doctrinal research method to critically examine constitutional provisions and decisions of the courts to showcase the diverse ramifications through which the drafters of the constitution intended to midwife good governance and social justice in Nigeria. The paper found that although the Nigerian constitution mulls good governance and social justice, however, these provisions remain illusory because some of these provisions either antagonize themselves or make each other unworkable. It was therefore recommended that these conflicting constitutional provisions like the dichotomy erected between justiciable civil and political rights and non-justiciable social, economic and cultural rights should either be dismantled in order to achieve the desired ends of social justice and good governance in Nigeria failing which bad governance and social injustice will continue to thrive.