Advocating for ADR as panacea for court decongestion

The figure of pending cases in Nigeria is undeniably alarming. According to statistics from the Nigeria Correctional Service as of January 6, 2025, no less than 52,903 individuals remain in custody, languishing in their facilities and this is a figure that would have increased in the last five months.

And this has brought to the fore once again, the importance of alternative dispute resolution.

Although ADR mechanisms are legally recognised as vital tools for addressing challenges of over-bloated court files, the limited adoption has compounded the strain on regular courts and limited access to justice by the poor who could not hire legal representatives.

ADR, which encompasses arbitration, mediation, conciliation, and negotiation, is embedded in Section 19(d) of the 1999 Constitution as a legitimate means of dispute resolution.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kekere-Ekun once agreed with the situation when she said, “We must be deeply concerned by the increase in pending cases and low disposition rates. As of the 1st quarter of 2024, we had 243,253 cases pending in our superior courts of record, exclusive of the Supreme Court.”

From the backlog of 155,969 cases pending at the Federal High Court in the last legal year to 6,992 cases pending at the National Industrial Court, the volume of unresolved matters in Nigeria’s judiciary remains significant. In the Court of Appeal, records show that 39,526 cases were pending as of the 2023/2024 legal year.

Over the years, various institutions have sought to institute ADR as an alternative to litigation. For instance, the Federal High Court established an ADR Centre to encourage parties to resolve disputes amicably. Also, the Court of Appeal’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre (CAADRC) began operation in 2021, facilitating the settlement of civil appeals, including matrimonial causes, land disputes, inheritance cases, and tort claims.

Experts note that the purpose is to seek a restorative justice approach for truth-telling or real facts, for the healing of the victims of the violence and: all these initiatives and committees were designed to foster quicker and more peaceful resolutions, some through traditional justice, reconciliation and mediation and to reduce the overwhelming caseload in the judiciary.

Despite these constitutional and institutional frameworks, ADR mechanisms have yet to gain the traction required to ease the burden on the courts significantly. According to lawyers, one of such challenges is a lack of awareness among the populace, particularly in rural communities where formal court judgments are often perceived as the ultimate authority.

They noted other factors such as cultural biases against traditional justice systems, coupled with an over-reliance on modern litigation. All of those undermine the potential of ADR to act as a bridge between informal and formal justice processes. Institutional challenges have also played a significant role in the limited success of ADR and judicial reluctance has compounded these issues.

If the courts are to be decongested, experts say there must be a conscious effort to implement fully the provisions for Alternative Dispute Resolution.

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