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SERAP v Nigeria

Geographic relevance: Africa
Nigeria

Language: English

Data type: Legal citations

About this resource:

SERAP, a human rights organisation, brought a case against the Nigerian Government and Nigeria’s Universal Basic Education Commission to The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice.  A key part of the complaint was that the Universal Basic Education Commission, which was responsible for funding basic education in Nigeria, had mismanaged the national education fund through corrupt practices. This was supported by a report by a national corruption watchdog.

The Court ruled that the corrupt practices of the Commission had led to less money being invested in education and the government had not taken enough steps to recover or compensate the lost funding to education, and that this violated the right to education protected in the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights. As a remedy, the court ordered the State to provide funds to cover the shortfall in education funding caused by corruption.

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