By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja
The Hague Institution for Innovation of Law (HIIL), has revealed that 81 percent of Nigeria’s population currently has prevailing legal and justice related challenges.
According to the report unveiled yesterday, in Abuja, the legal problems are a frequent reality for many Nigerians, with 81 percent of adults having experienced at least one legal problem in the last one year.
Also, the report was conducted between November and December 24, 2022, with data collected and analyzed.
Presenting the reports, the Executive Director of HIIL, Dr Sam Mauler, noted that issues bothering neighbors, 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.
Also, the HIIL reports stated that, only 55 percent are resolved, while 82 percent of issues resolved are considered fair and 35 percent completely resolved.
The report, titled,’ Justice Needs and Satisfaction(JNS) Nigeria 2023 Report’ , stated that in most instances, the escalating community crises in Nigeria forced residents to embrace People Centered Justice (PCJ) rather than the modern structured justice system.
Responding, the stakeholders and experts at the session called for collaborative efforts to improve the justice delivery in the country.
They emphasized the need to embrace community justice by giving the desired teeth to the informal justice system in the country to enhance justice delivery.
Prof Nnandi Obiara of the faculty of law, Imo state university, Owerri called for the de-emphasizing technicality in the Nigeria justice delivery in Nigeria.
He stressed the need to allow an informal justice system to aid justice dispensation in the country and further called for more claim courts in rural areas to resolve community based issues.
While the Director General of the Nigerian Legal Aid Council, Aliyu Abubakar, faulted a situation where the Supreme Court only emphasized 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 the People’s Central Justice (PCJ) to enhance justice transformation.
Also in his remarks, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association(NBA), Mr. Yakubu Maikyau (SAN) called on lawyers to go beyond taking fees from their client 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 sectors to partner with NBA for greater results in justice delivery.
It was gathered that 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 Justice Needs and Satisfaction(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.
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 that the process of getting justice in the country is often slow, difficult and costly.
