Babatunde E Adebiyi

Towards the Perfect Law for Heritage Protection and Management in Nigeria Babatunde E Adebiyi

The National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) Act Cap. N19 2004 Vol.10 (commencement 28.9.1979) The Laws of the Federation of Nigeria is the governing law for heritage protection and management in Nigeria. This law as it stands today can hardly take care of the basic requirements for heritage protection and management in this country. There is a clear and immediate need for a better law. It would be splendid to have a law that could cater for all facets of heritage protection and management and even give legal backing to efforts at generating funds by heritage authorities in Nigeria. That is my hope and dream. And it is on this note that I took a study of the heritage laws of other nations with the mind of identifying the strong points in each law, finding aggregates and then distilling them to form general provisions of law to replace provisions in the present Nigerian law that are considered obtuse or weak or impracticable and more importantly, using these provisions in the laws of other nations to fill the many lacunae in the present Nigerian law.