Abstract

Housing is one the basic necessaries of life. Housing is a structure that provides a place of living for individuals or groups. It is a home, a residence or a dwelling. Housing is so important to human life that without it, life becomes miserable, undignified and hopeless. It is the primus inter pareshuman right. Unfortunate, as important as thehuman right to adequate housing is in the global space, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) failed to expressly make provision for the human right to adequate housing in Nigeria. What seemed to be provided under the economic, social and cultural rights in the Nigerian Constitution is the directive to the state to work towards ensuring suitable shelter which by its meaning is distinct from housing. In other words, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (asamended) is silent on the provision of human right to adequate housing. This paper became necessary in order to unearth the irony of human life without right to adequate housing. The paper became imperative because of the importance of the human right to adequate housing in the realization of other human rights. The paper adopted a doctrinal method of research through the review of primary and secondary materials such as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, international and regional instruments on human rights, among others. The paper found that the negative impacts of none inclusion of the human right to adequate housing in Nigerian constitution made access to housing a luxury rather than a necessity. The paper therefore recommended among others, the overhaul of the legal framework on human right in Nigeria for the purpose of the inclusion of the human right to adequate housing in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and other enabling laws. The paper concluded by arguing that the fundamental human right to life and dignity of human person cannot be adequately realized in Nigeria in the absence of right to adequate housing. There is no dignity in a man who does not have a place to sleep during nightfall or a place to run to ata close of work or during rain or sun