Joseph Raz on Legal Obligation- Implication for Minority Struggles in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the nature and character of legal obligation in the philosophical jurisprudence of Joseph Raz vis-à-vis civil disobedience are conscientious objection. It attempts an exposition of the notion of civil disobedience and its implications for minority struggles in contemporary Nigerian nation-state. It provides a veritable guide for addressing the lingering and looming issues of minority agitations and separatist movements which are prevalent in current democratic dispensation in Nigerian body-politic. It concludes that Raz’s prescriptions regarding legal obligation which imposed a duty to obey the law on the citizens and the legal and moral rights to disobey unjust laws have theoretical plausibility. It recommends that the right of the oppressed minority to civil dissent be enshrined or entrenched in the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.