By Ebere Agozie
Ms Zainab Malik, Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor of the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (Hiil) says 30 percent of Nigerians experience domestic violence, pointing to a significant gap in access to legal protection.
Malik said this at a one-day conference titled `Implementing People-Centred Justice: The Nigerian Story’ in Abuja.
She said that the event was for a coalition of stakeholders, from the judiciary, traditional institutions, civil society organisations, government, and international partners, to explore data-driven pathways for making justice more accessible.
She also noted that in HiiL’s 2025 Justice Needs, Satisfaction (JNS) report, over 90% of Nigerians experience at least one legal problem in a four-year period.
“Challenges such as domestic violence, land disputes, and employment conflicts continue to impact millions, many of whom lack clear pathways to resolution.
“While trust in the judiciary remains relatively high, barriers like cost, complexity, and distance drive people to informal channels, family networks, traditional leaders, and community negotiation.
`People are not asking for miracles.They’re asking for justice that works, justice that is fast, fair, effective, and affordable”.
Malik reaffirmed Hill’s commitment to action, and pledged to blend the insights and recommendations from the event.
“The goal is clear: to ensure these conversations lead to tangible improvements in justice delivery, she said.
Prince Adewole Adebayo, a legal practitioner, in his keynote address challenged the audience to rethink assumptions, saying that justice is not the law.
Adebayo described justice as a pathway to tackle broader societal challenges such as poverty, corruption, and social exclusion.
“The law is merely a tool that can lead to justice or not do so, it must reflect local realities, human dignity, and cultural context.
“A true just society may require a better designed legal system, not more, courtrooms’’.
Justice Olugboyega Ogunfowora of the Ogun State Judiciary during the panel session shared how his perspective on access to justice evolved through engagement with HiiL.
Ogunfowora said that he introduced Ibi Isadi, a justice hub embedded in health centres, reframing justice as a local, community-based service.
Magistrate Rebecca Kuwot Suku, one of the panelists spoke about her award-winning innovation to reduce monetary disputes through basic contracts in local languages.
Suku emphasised the importance of non-digital, practical solutions and creating welcoming court environments for vulnerable populations.
From a different angle, Mr Michael Ikoku offered a deeply personal story of how his family’s experience of injustice, losing land and pensions without recourse, fueled his determination to find community-based solutions.
Ikoku said he started with a free radio-based dispute resolution programme, but is now championing the Community Justice Centre model supported by HiiL, becoming its first social impact investor in Nigeria.
Also speaking, Bashir Maidugu, a lawyer and a Senior Special Assistant to the President, highlighted the need to reform legal language, increase accessibility, and ensure community-based justice complements the formal system.
He called for inclusive policies, especially for women and persons with disabilities.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there were other panel sessions that included a tour of the People Centre Justice Booth Tour where participants engaged with the panelists.
It highlighted HiiL’s methodology, spanning data collection, innovation support, legal strategy, and guidelines development, and set the stage for collaborative breakout sessions.
The sessions brought together justice stakeholders to co-create practical recommendations around four key pillars: Guidelines, Justice Strategy, Innovation, and Data.
Rather than abstract brainstorming, participants focused on actionable priorities rooted in community needs and institutional realities.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, earlier emphasised that while the government holds constitutional responsibility for the welfare of its people, it cannot improve the justice sector in isolation.
Fagbemi was represented by Mr Fernandez Marcus-Obiene, the SSA to the President on Justice Sector Reform and ICT/Digital and Innovative Technology office of the minister.
“It shows that the government alone cannot make things work. We need involvement of individuals and corporate organizations both local and international.
“One of the most significant things is implementation; let us all deliberately take positive action, to improve our justice sector.
“Meaningful reform requires collective effort, from civil society organisations and traditional leaders to private sector partners and ordinary citizens, every actor has a role to play in translating policy into impact’’.
