Jurisdiction of the National Industrial Court under the Nigerian Constitution Third Alteraction Act and Selected Statutes: Any Usurpation?

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ABSTRACT

Jurisdiction of the National Industrial Court under the Nigerian Constitution Third Alteraction Act and Selected Statutes: Any Usurpation?

Alero E Akeredolu* and David Tarh-Akong Eyongndi*

This paper through doctrinal research methodology examines the enhanced jurisdiction of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) under section 254(1) (i) (ii) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Third Alteration) Act, 2010, vis-a-vis the Child’s Right Act (CRA), 2003, Labour Act (LA) Cap. L1 LFN 2004 and the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, (CPPA) 2015 dealing with employment which has vested jurisdictions in courts other than the NICN. The paper discusses the province of jurisdiction of the courts and the developmental process of the NICN as a specialised and Superior Court of Record (SCR) in Nigeria. It argues that, all the provisions of the Acts mentioned above and by extension, any other, that vest civil jurisdiction in labour matters in courts other than the NICN, are null and void to the extent of their inconsistency in view of the combined provisions of sections 1(3) and 254C (1) (i) of the 1999 CFRN which vested exclusive original civil jurisdiction on the NICN with regard to labour matters. It further argues that the exclusive original civil jurisdiction of the NICN on labour and ancillary matters does not extend to criminal matters arising from the subject matters encapsulated in section 254(1)(i), thus, these other courts share original criminal jurisdiction with the NICN. In order to create certainty and enable disputants approach the appropriate court without delay, the paper proposes that these Acts be amended by deleting the ultra vires provisions to make them compliant with sections 1(3) and 254C (1) (i) of the 1999 CFRN.

Keywords: Jurisdiction of Court, Nigeria, Employee, Cybercrimes, National Industrial Court

* LL.B (Hons) UNIBEN, LLM, PhD (Ibadan) BL. Professor of Alternative Dispute Resolution, Department of Public and International Law, Faculty of Law, Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Nigeria. Alero E. Akeredolu is a Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR, UK) accredited International Mediator and a graduate of the Harvard Law School Programme on Negotiation and Mediation.
** LL.B (Hons) UNICAL, LL.M (Ibadan) BL. Lecturer, Department of Private and Commercial Law, Bowen University, Iwo, Nigeria. David T. Eyongndi is currently a Doctoral Candidate at University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

THE GRAVITAS REVIEW OF BUSINESS & PROPERTY LAW VOL.10 NO.1