The Hague Institution for Innovation of Law (HIIL) has decried the costly and slow nature of getting justice in Nigeria, saying about 81 per cent of Nigeria’s population currently have prevailing legal and justice related challenges.
In a report unveiled, yesterday, in Abuja, it explained that the legal problems are a frequent reality for many Nigerians, with 81 per cent of adults having experienced, at least, one legal problem in the last one year.
Presenting the reports, HILL Executive Director, Sam Mauler, noted that issues bordering on neighbours, domestics, land and housing crises dominated the legal challenges in the country.
The reports further revealed that land and domestic violence are even more prevalent among rural residents in the country.
HIIL reports stated that only 55 per cent are resolved, while 82 percent of issues resolved are considered fair and 35 per cent completely resolved.
The report, entitled: ‘Justice needs and satisfaction (JNS) Nigeria 2023 Report’, stated that in most instances, the escalating community crises in Nigeria forced residents to embrace People Centred Justice (PCJ) rather than the modern structured justice system.
Responding, stakeholders and experts at the session called for collaborative efforts to improve the justice delivery in the country.
They emphasised the need to embrace community justice by giving the desired teeth to the informal justice system in the country to enhance justice delivery.
Nnandi Obiara of the faculty of law, Imo State University, Owerri, called for the de-emphasising technicality in the Nigeria justice delivery.
He stressed the need to allow an informal justice system to aid justice dispensation in the country and further called for more courts in rural areas to resolve community based issues.
Director General of the Nigerian Legal Aid Council, Aliyu Abubakar, faulted a situation where the Supreme Court only emphasised on the high profile cases to the detriment of community and rural cases that directly affected those dwelling in the rural areas.
According to him, this had led to a situation where a lot of community-originated cases suffered calling on stakeholders for collaborative effort in the justice delivery.
He also urged for support of PCJ to enhance justice transformation.
Also, President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Maikyau, called on lawyers to go beyond taking fees from their clients but rather, be committed to justice.
The NBA also charged lawyers to create intimacy with their clients in resolving their legal challenges.
He, however, charged HIIL and others in justice’s sector to partner NBA for greater results in justice delivery.
The HIIL report represents the experience of 6,573 randomly selected Nigerian adults, outlining the legal problems they encounter, their impacts and the steps they take to approach them.
The report, which is the second phase of JNS was conducted across the six geopolitical zones of the country, using a simple distribution in line with urban-rural split from the National Population Commission.
The report was conducted between November and December 24, 2022, with data collected and analysed.
Highlights of the report showed that all the socio-economic classes were randomly targeted. It is a household survey of justice from the users perspective, which revealed the process of getting justice in the country is often slow, difficult and costly.
