{"id":2354,"date":"2023-07-23T17:12:05","date_gmt":"2023-07-23T16:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icertpublication.com\/?page_id=2354"},"modified":"2023-11-10T16:28:05","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T16:28:05","slug":"volunteers-justice-scheme-a-framework-for-community-justice-in-the-south-western-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/icert.org.in\/index.php\/edu-mania\/edumania-vol-1issue-2\/volunteers-justice-scheme-a-framework-for-community-justice-in-the-south-western-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers Justice Scheme: A Framework for Community Justice in the South-Western Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Volunteers Justice Scheme: A Framework for Community Justice in the South-Western Nigeria<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Aderogba, Ademola<\/span><\/p>

Department of General Studies, Lagos State University of Science and Technology, Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Abstract\n<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The focus of the study is on how to improve the justice system in Nigeria by reducing court congestion and improving access to justice through community justice system. The issue of court congestion, delay in court processes, and the inaccessibility of the justice system to the poor and uneducated is affecting the sustainable peaceful co-existence and orderliness in Nigeria. The inability of government to sustainably fund the justice system is a clear pointer that there is need for a people-centered approach to reduce the burden on government and to increase accessibility. Therefore, adopting descriptive analysis method, and relying on relevant secondary data, the paper examines the pre-colonial traditional justice system in the Yorubaland (South-west, Nigeria), and post-traditional justice system in Nigeria to identify salient issues responsible for inefficiency and inaccessibility. In the process, the paper identifies community justice as an alternative justice system and proposed the Volunteers Justice Scheme (VJS) committee, which is a non-formal alternative dispute resolution mechanism, that relies on community trust, knowledge of their tradition, with little or no financial cost incurred, no technical legal requirements and time friendly; to be established\u00a0 in each of the wards at the local governments level, as a framework for the operation of community justice in South-western Nigeria. Among the essential for the scheme are enabling law, a coordinating center at the local government, stakeholders\u2019 representatives to serve as volunteers, and identifying a public building in each of the wards as venues for the operation of the committee. Thus, for effective implementation of the Scheme, the study suggests constitutional amendment to integrate the Scheme into the justice system, mass education to mobilize citizens, and training of committee members for efficient operation.<\/span><\/p>

Keywords:<\/b> Community Justice, Court Congestion, Justice System, Volunteerism<\/span><\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Impact Statement\n<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The global year to realize the UN 16th sustainable development goal, which is the promotion of peace and strong justice institutions, is 2030, but according to the World Justice Project\u2019s Rule of Law Index 2021, Nigeria ranked 121 out of 139 countries and 26th of 33 in the sub-Saharan region. A principal indicator is Access to Justice, which according to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) involves legal protection, awareness, aid, counsel, adjudication, enforcement, and active participation of the civil society. However, various indicators reveal that access to justice in Nigeria is greatly hindered by delays, corruption, cost of litigation, ambiguous legal rules and procedures, low awareness and poor legal knowledge.<\/span><\/p>

Therefore, there is a need for community justice scheme as an alternative justice strategy to complement the formal judicial system. To achieve effective justice system, USIP prescribes combining both informal\/ non-state system and formal legal mechanisms. Thus, Volunteer Justice Scheme will serve as a good framework towards instituting effective community justice system in Nigeria, because it involves the civil society volunteers, cost-effective, time-saving, confidence-boosting, and drastically decongesting the court.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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About The Author<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Dr Ademola Aderogba holds a PhD in Public Administration, with research interest in public policy, local government, and rural development. He has authored and co-authored publications in both national and international journals. He is a Senior Lecturer, and presently the Dean of Students\u2019 Affairs, at the Lagos state University of Science and Technology; formerly Lagos State Polytechnic where he was a Chief lecturer and the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship before the transmutation.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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References<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Volunteers Justice Scheme: A Framework for Community Justice in the South-Western Nigeria Aderogba, Ademola Department of General Studies, Lagos State University of Science and Technology, Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria Abstract The focus of the study is on how to improve the justice system in Nigeria by reducing court congestion and improving access to justice through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1656,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"postBodyCss":"","postBodyMargin":[],"postBodyPadding":[],"postBodyBackground":{"backgroundType":"classic","gradient":""},"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2354","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icert.org.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icert.org.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icert.org.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icert.org.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icert.org.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/icert.org.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2354\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icert.org.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icert.org.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}