Innovation: The need for human rights education to be incorporated into the academic curricula and the training of government officials. The innovation I have brought is the teaching of human rights education through performance poetry to effect mindset transformation through value reorientation.

Sector/Industry Application: Education; Human Rights

Description: Education, which is a human right recognised under the Africa Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is an effective and indispensable tool towards the actualization of all other human rights. This is important to note because Nigeria has a dismal human rights record as evidenced by the most recent renowned global human rights reports. This can undoubtedly be linked to low school enrolment at all levels in Nigeria and the even lower budgetary allocation to the sector. The most that has been done is that Universal Basic Education (UBE) free for all. The aim of this doctrinal research paper was to have a deeper understanding of the importance of education, and as the research more deeply showed, human rights education, in the actualization of human rights in Nigeria. The objectives of this research were to examine what concepts, standards, procedures and mechanisms have been developed over time by the United Nations towards the actualization of human rights through human rights education and to identify just what success, if any, Nigeria had achieved in line with the UN recommendations. The paper considered the recognition of education as a right to be enforced, elements required for the actualisation of the guarantee of the right to education and the role of education in the actualization of human rights. The research went deeper to also dwell on the human rights based approach to education and Human Rights education as a distinct concept. Our findings revealed that virtually nothing had been done in Nigeria over time towards improving Human Rights education. It was recommended that the National Human Rights Commission and the Federal Ministry of Education immediately seek to fulfil their international obligations starting by crafting a human rights education curriculum to be implemented across board.

Problem: The research sought to find out the reason for low level of human rights education in Nigeria