NUDE PICTURES, SEX TAPE, AND OTHER OBSCENE MATERIALS PUBLIC SHARING AND THE NIGERIAN LAW - Q. T ODEWALE

Introduction:

  From the ancient period, the morality of the society is a pillar respectively protected by ethics, rule, and code of conduct of the society, to the civil society where positive law has equally been stationed to averse any acts considered immoral. To that end, any acts which are perceived immoral has always been rejected and punished by society, this is evident as early as the 60s by Lord Reid while dissenting on a question of immorality in the case of Shaw vs D.P.P wherein he held 'a conspiracy to corrupt public morals is an offense'. However, the prevalence of nude pictures, sex tape, and other obscene materials, sharing in our society today, especially on social media is calamitous, combating the moral standard the society has grown with and the most appalling part is the silence which did not condemn this barbaric act. 

Detailed Analysis of the Topic:

Though this act hangs among people of all ages from children as young as 12,13 to much older adults, however, the most commonly reported incidents have come from young children of teens to adults in their mid-twenties. This can no longer be adjudged to be due to lack of information regarding the consequences of sharing explicit images but the magnitude of the moral decadence of the age. And one might assume that our positive law is raw to the extent that morality is not her business, which if be, it will be right to adopt the position held by Lord Coleridge in R vs. Dudley Stephen that "the absolute divorce of law from morality would be of a fatal consequence. 

   Though our laws have not been stagnant, they have been directed to address the dynamism and as such the prohibition of any acts considered barbaric and immoral to the sanity of the society has been prohibited and sanctioned.

  A principle of law "Ignorant jurisris non excusat' that did not permit its ignorance will propel us to a brief examination of Nigerian legislations on this. As the internet is the most common medium of sharing this material, Cybercrime Act 2015 which is of national application in section 24 provides thus;

(a) Any person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer systems or network that is grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or causes any such message or matter to be so sent; or

(b) he knows to be false for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message to be sent: commits an offense under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7, 000,000.00 or imprisonment for a term of not more than 3 years or to both such fine and imprisonment.

 Also, section 170 of the Criminal Code Act provides;

Any person who knowingly sends, or attempts to send, by post anything which;

(a)encloses anything, whether living or inanimate, of such a nature as to be likely to injure any other thing in the course of conveyance, or to injure any person; or

(b) encloses an indecent or obscene print, painting, photograph, lithograph, engraving, book, card, or article, or which has on it, or in it, or on its cover, any indecent, obscene, or grossly offensive words, marks, or designs; is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment for one year.

  

The demystification of the above provision is that by the effect of the Cybercrime Crime Act, the streaming, posting of pornography,  revenge porn, nudes, and other materials anywhere or from anywhere into the cyberspace of Nigeria is a criminal offense punishable with imprisonment for three years or lesser or payment of seven million naira ( #7,000,000.00) fine, when prosecuted and found guilty by a  competent court of jurisdiction in Nigeria. Notwithstanding, whether one is in Northern or Southern States, the provision of the  Cybercrime Act is applicable to him. 

  Moreover, on the effect of the ditto Criminal Code provision, it communicates that any persons tried thereunder and found guilty by any competent courts in any  Southern States in the country will be sentenced to one year imprisonment. It should be noted that the provision of Cybercrime Act is enormous to punish any kind of obscene materials including revenge porn, which refers to " the sharing of explicit or sexual, images or videos, without the consent of the person in the image," a malevolent by growing up boys against their female sex mate today. While the Criminal Code is not extensive like the former, both jointly punished immorality. 

Conclusion

Due to lack of orientation, the primitive belief  and the unresponsiveness of government and system with enforcement of law, Nigerian have to endure the threat to their upright by the prevalent posting of nude pictures, sex tapes, pornograhic etc by social media users, this has gone so far to affect the well-being of individuals and morality of the society; children have been corrupted via this nocuous act and the stress of responsible parenthood increases. Unfortunately few people hold this as barbaric and vice that needs to be addressed, and on this lane is the law that short instrumentality of human person, hence if we must get there all hands must be on deck. 

Reference: 

  Omoregie, P.

      Revenge Porn and The Nigerian Law (2018) https://www.manifieldsolicitors.com/2018/12/12/revenge-porn-and-the-nigerian-law/

  Written By:

 Q.T ODEWALE,

A final year student of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria.

For any advertisement, banner placement, publicity, press release, personality promotion, special report, featured article, event coverage, conference, interviews, and so on, please CONTACT US on WhatsApp/Call +2349025914229. Or you may click here.