NJI Condoles CJN, Advocates African Dispute Resolution Mechanism

The Administrator of the National Judicial Institute, NJI, Justice Umaru Eri on Monday at the opening ceremony of the Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) workshop for Judges and Kadis in Abuja condoled the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Alloysius Katsina-Alu on the death of his wife.

Justice Eri described the death as a sad one and prayed the Almighty God to grant the family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

The NJI administrator, during the ceremony, called for the use of traditional means of settling disputes as against the present court system which he says, injects bad blood in conflict resolution.

According to him, “before the introduction of the present court system in the country, disputes were traditionally resolved by village elders by way of mediation which was aimed at amicable settlement of such disputes. This system was quick, cheap and did not breed bad blood.

“The colonial masters came and tampered with this tradition. Courts were established in Northern Nigeria and the native ones graded ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’. So it was in other parts of the country. But the colonial masters still retained Elders, District Heads and traditional rulers of all grades as operators of these courts. Performance was undoubtedly appreciative.

“I therefore urge this workshop to have a rethink and come out with a judicial policy for consideration by the authorities. To me, and like minds, Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism is better called: African Dispute Resolution mechanism. The present inherited procedure is the alternative.”

Further more, Justice Eri stated that traditional rulers of today can effectively be engaged to assist in sanitising delay in the administration of justice by amending the constitution to give them powers to resolve minor disputes.

“Rightly or wrongly, that is my personal view and no more. I hope the National Assembly will give our traditional rulers this role in our constitution,” he added.

According to him, the nation’s present court system of dispute resolution “has substantially remained the relic of the British colonial rule in Nigeria as in some other Commonwealth countries.

“Bad blood is injected to the extent that bad relationship became inevitable. No one would forgive another easily for the fact of dragging another to the court…Many of us believe that some of our inherited procedural ways of settling disputes must be revisited if we desire quick and affordable administration of justice.

“It is interesting that even today, stakeholders in justice administration in more advanced countries are having a rethink of the continued utilisation of litigation as a method of resolving all manner of disputes.”
By Nnamdi Felix / Abuja