An International non-profit organisation, Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL), has stressed the need for Nigerian government to formalise the African traditional dispute resolution system to increase citizens’ access to justice.
The Country Representative of HiiL, Dr Ijeoma Nwafor, made the call while featuring on NAN Personality Interview Series yesterday in Abuja.
Nwafor said that available data showed that only 15 per cent of Nigerians seek redress in court, while 85 per cent go elsewhere.
According to her, three factors are responsible for the low percentage of people seeking justice in court.
“Three factors why 85 per cent of Nigerians don’t go to court are: high cost, low accessibility and ease of the system.
“For increase in access to justice, HiiL discovered that African Traditional Dispute Resolution Module, now rebranded as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), needs to be formalised,” she said.
Explaining the concept of ADR, Nwafor said that the system simply means that people are seeking justice and may not necessarily want to go to a formal system.
“If these parties believed they would get fair hearing and their matter resolved, it is necessary that the outcome get documented and archived,” she stated.
The HiiL’s county representative noted that the gap in the African Traditional Dispute Resolution Module was its non-integration into the formal system.
“To address this gap, HiiL recently partnered Ethiopian Government and now, they have a law that makes it possible for traditional rulers to resolve land matters, and this is documented and archived within the formal system.
“If you look into most of our villages, that is what we are lacking. A traditional ruler might resolve