ANALYSIS OF THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF INSURANCE UNDER THE NIGERIAN LAW OF INSURANCE

ABSTRACT

Every human being is faced with the possibility that one or more of the hazards which form part of life will sooner or later befall him and which may cause him pecuniary loss. This misfortune is uncertain as to time or period it will occur and this among others include: fire outbreak, accident or even death. It could be seen that all those are beyond human control as their occurrence cannot be controlled by the individual. For example, the family bread winner knows it is beyond his control to prevent death from coming his way. This therefore necessitates the need to take out insurance policy which suites every occasion.

Very few persons really take the trouble to read through their insurance policies in order to ascertain and note the terms and conditions of the insurance well in advance of a claim. Of the few who bother to read through the policies, only a small proportion of them actually understand them. The result is that when a claim arises and it is found that the particular loss is not covered by the terms of insurance contract, there is always the tendency to blame it all on the insurance company. There might, of course, be some ‘black sheep’ amongst the insurers, but a lot of this unpleasantness is due to a lack of understanding of the terms of insurance contracts generally.

The essence of this study therefore is to eliminate or at least to minimize such misunderstandings by stating the ‘rules of the game’ not only for the parties to the transactions but for those who may in the future decide to take an insurance policy.