THE RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN IN NIGERIA: EMERGING LEGAL NORM OR ILLUSION? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS UNDER THE NIGERIA DATA PROTECTION ACT 2023 AND COMPETING PUBLIC INTEREST

Abstract

The belief that individuals have that legal entitlement to demand the deletion of their personal information is one that currently occupies a troubling space in contemporary legal systems. The practice of this entitlement in Nigeria, christened the right to be forgotten, has become a problem that is constitutional just as it is statutory. This paper interrogates whether the right to be forgotten constitutes an enforceable legal right within the Nigerian legal framework or a chimera disguised as a right. To situate the inquiry, the paper examines the doctrinal foundations of data protection law, drawing from the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), particularly Paper 17, as well as the landmark decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Google Spain SL v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos. The analysis then turns to the Nigerian Data Protection Act 2023, assessing whether it provides an express or implied equivalent of the right to erasure. The paper argues that although the NDPA 2023 contains fragmentary provisions from which a limited form of the right to be forgotten may be inferred, these provisions fall short of establishing a coherent and enforceable legal right. The absence of explicit constitutional recognition and the lack of doctrinal clarity render the right normatively present but legally underdeveloped. The study concludes that the right to be forgotten in Nigeria is neither illusory nor fully realized; rather, it exists within an uneasy normative space, pending the legislative and constitutional consolidation necessary to give it full juridical expression.