Who Owns Your Face? Ownership, Consent, and the Fragmentation of Image Rights Under Nigerian Law

Abstract

This paper examines the legal treatment of a person's photographic likeness under Nigerian law. It argues that Nigeria does not recognize a unified right of image or publicity and that protection against the unauthorized use of a person's likeness is instead distributed across several distinct legal regimes: copyright, contract, the tort of passing off, constitutional privacy, and data protection. Drawing on four judicial decisions, Ubom v Globacom Nigeria Ltd, Banire v NTA Star TV Network Ltd, Portland Paints & Products Nig. Ltd v Olaghare, and Nwabueze v Nigerian Breweries Plc, the paper demonstrates that each regime protects a different interest in the same photograph and that the correct outcome of any dispute depends on identifying which interest is actually engaged. The paper closes by considering the doctrinal gap exposed by AI-generated derivative images, an area in which no Nigerian court has yet ruled.

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