AN EXAMINATION OF THE ATTITUDE OF THE NIGERIAN COURTS TO THE USE OF INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC AIDS IN THE INTERPRETATION OF STATUTES

CHAPTER ONE

Background to the Study: The doctrine of separation of power entails the divisions of power among the different organs of government namely, the legislature, executive and judiciary. The legislature is the body responsible for making laws, the Executive executes and implements while the judiciary interprets the laws. In the course of interpreting laws made by the legislature, the courts use various aids to interpretation in other to arrive at the intention of the legislature as contained in the statute. Some of these aids are intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic aids are those contained inside the statutes while extrinsic are those contained outside the statutes.

Other aids to interpretation of statutes include Literal rule, golden rule and mischief rule. There are two views to statutory interpretation namely, the texualist and purposivist. The textualist are of the opinion that in interpretation of statutes, the only thing relevant is the TEXT or LANGUAGE of the statutes and nothing more. While the purposivist are of the view that the court should always seek out the PURPOSE surrounding the legislation especially where a literal meaning of the text will lead to absurdity.

This work will examine the various aids to statutory interpretation in Nigeria.

Generally, in drafting legislation, the Nigerian legislature has two major goals to wit; to construct a legislation that gives legal effect to government policies; to communicate the law clearly to the people who are affected by it, the officials who administer it and the Judges who interpret it.

The Nigerian legislature draft law based on the instructions they receive from the sponsoring Ministry, as a general tradition, this is the case in terms of Executive Bills that are submitted by the President or Governor. The meaning of that law, in the end is not necessarily the meaning the sponsoring Ministry or Legislature’s intention nor the meaning the average reader might give it. Rather the meaning of the law is what the courts determine it to be by applying the substantial body of legal rules known as the principles of statutory interpretation. To put this in a constitutional context, the role of our courts as a final authority on the meaning of legislation is one of the most important component of the rule of law. Because the courts, independent of the Executive government determine the meaning of the law, that meaning does not change simply because a different executive government is in power. That keeps the law sufficiently certain to enable the people who are subject to it to know their rights and obligation. However, challenges abound as far as drafting and interpretation of statutes is concerned. Some of these problems include but not limited to the fact that different words could mean different things depending on the time period; every word has meaning.

It is against this backdrop that this research has been embarked upon in order to address the attitude of the Nigerian courts towards the application of the intrinsic and extrinsic aids to interpretation of statutes.

​​​​​​​Statement of the Problem

As demonstrated in the background, there are various concerns surrounding the interpretation of statutes. Nigeria as a democratic country operates a system of separation of power where the legislature is charged with law making while interpretation is for the judiciary as contained in section 4 and 6 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. However, in the process of ascertaining the interpretation of law enacted by the legislature, the court makes use of intrinsic and extrinsic aids. This raises concern as to the nature and extent to which the various aids in interpretation of statutes have been effectively used by the court. In response to the issues raised, the purpose of this research is to examine the attitude of the Nigerian courts to the use of intrinsic and extrinsic aids in the interpretation of statute in order to determine whether and how best to improve their effectiveness. Examples of these intrinsic aids are-

1. Long Title

2. Preamble and Preamble to Constitution

3. Headings Marginal Notes

4. Punctuations, Illustration

5. Proviso

6. Explanation and Non Obstante Clause.

Examples of these extrinsic aids –

1. History Facts and Circumstances

2. Statements of Object and reasons

3. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)

Following the decision in Pepper v Hart (1993) AC 593, if a primary legislation is ambiguous or obscure the courts may in certain circumstances take account of statements made in parliament by the Ministers or other promoters of a Bill in construing that legislation. Previously, using Hansard in this way would have been considered a breach of Parliamentary privilege.

However, the legislative drafting principle can improve the use of these intrinsic and extrinsic aids to interpretation of statues in the following manner. That it must be done by a person having the basic legal knowledge

1. Proper use of English language or the language in which the legislation is drafted.

2. Ability and competence of draftsmen combined with imagination and plenty of practice in doing the work.

3. Terms chosen should be absolute. It should not give rise to differences of opinion.

Research Questions

This research work intends to answer the following research questions:

1. What are the intrinsic and extrinsic statutory interpretation aids?

2. What is the attitude of the Nigerian courts to the use of intrinsic and extrinsic aid in interpretation of statutes?

3. To what extent are the existing aids of interpretation effective?

4. Which approaches if any, are available for improving the effectiveness of statutory interpretation in Nigeria?

​​​​​​​Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this research work is to analyze the Attitude the Nigerian Courts to the use of intrinsic and extrinsic aid in the interpretation of statutes in order to determine whether and how best to improve their effectiveness through good legislative drafting practices. The research has the following objectives:

1. To understand what are intrinsic and extrinsic aids to statutory interpretation.

2. To examine the attitude of the Nigerian courts to the use of intrinsic and extrinsic aids in interpretation of statutes.

3. To examine the extent to which the existing aids of interpretation is effective

4. To highlight possible approaches if any, to improving the effectiveness of statutory interpretation in Nigeria.

​​​​​​​Significance of the Study

The outcome of this research work will be of a huge importance to the Nigerian legislature especially with regards to legislative drafting. After a detailed analysis and recommendations have been made on this subject matter all ambiguities that have been previously posed by the various aids to interpretation of statutes can actually be foreseen by prospective drafters. It will assist the Judges while performing the function of interpreting provisions of a statute. The court can get help from within the statue or even outside the statute for interpretation based on the recommendations contained in this dissertation. This research is also significant as it will expose how the courts unravel the intention of the legislature. This research will also help to highlight some of the impacts and failures of the Nigerian Courts in the use of the intrinsic and extrinsic aids to interpretation of statutes.

​​​​​​​Scope and Limitation of the Study

It is pertinent to know that schools of statutory interpretation vary on what factors should be considered, nevertheless, all approaches begin with the language and structure of the statutes itself. The research work is limited to the intrinsic and extrinsic aid to the interpretation of statute in Nigeria.

Apart from the limitations given above, the researcher is also concerned with the requirement as to volume given as regards the research work and will be cautious not to exceed the prescribed maximum page limit. Notwithstanding the above limitations, the researcher is committed to giving the best for a robust examination of the research topic.

​​​​​​​Organizational Layout

This research work is organized into five Chapters for better comprehension of the research topic. Chapter One discusses preliminary issues on the research topic such as Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Aims and Objectives of the Study, Research Questions, Significance of the Study, Scope and Limitation of the Study and Research Methodology and Chapter Outline. The essence of this chapter is to lay a proper foundation and basis for the research work such that a reader would easily decipher the components of each chapter as they read through the work. Chapter Two is the literature review covering Conceptual Framework, Separation of Power, Historical Development of Aids of Interpretation of Statutes, and Theoretical Framework: Intrinsic and Extrinsic and Research Methodology. Every research work adopts variety of terminologies and concepts. The relevance of this chapter is to ensure that every ambiguous term is given its conceptual meaning with peculiarity to the subject matter of the research. Chapter Three makes Comparative Analysis with other Jurisdictions on the use of Statutory Interpretation. In this chapter reference is made to other jurisdictions such as Ghana, United Kingdom, and a few other jurisdictions. Also, this chapter looks at how drafters should take cognizance and make use of the aids to statutory interpretation. Chapter Four gives an in-depth look at the attitude of Nigerian courts to the use of intrinsic and extrinsic aids in the interpretation of statutes. This chapter is more or less the crux of the research work. Here emphasis is laid on conduct of the Nigerian courts towards the application of the various aids of interpretation through a detailed analysis of some selected decided cases. Chapter Five is the Summary of findings, Recommendations and Conclusion. This chapter further states the findings, the contribution that this research has made to knowledge and suggests areas for further study.