ARE STATUTES LITERARY WORKS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT IN NIGERIA?

Abstract

In an effort at legislative response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria’s National Assembly introduced a widely criticised Infectious Diseases Bill that is an exact replica of the forty year old Singaporean Infectious Diseases Act, 1977.2 This is against the background of previously touted ethical issues about the plagiarism of foreign laws or Bills introduced by previous legislators, that were not passed. Nigerian legislators are sometimes ranked by the number of Bills they introduce to the National or State Assembly, or the Bills which eventually are passed into laws. To meet this ranking, some legislators simply comb the archives of the Assembly, insert their names and present old Bills that were not passed by previous sessions of the State or National Assembly. Calls have arisen for the passage of a Code on legislative plagiarism and copyright infringement relating to Bills and legislation from previous sessions of the National Assembly and foreign jurisdictions.