The Country Representative of Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL), Dr Ijeoma Nwafor, has canvassed for training of police personnel, traditional and religious leaders in conflict mediation in Nigeria.
Nwafor stated this while featuring on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Personality Interview Series on Monday in Abuja.
She said that the call had become necessary because most Nigerians run to the police, traditional and religious leaders for mediation anytime they had conflicts.
“For instance, most people run to the police to resolve their justice needs before they look for lawyers. The question is: that policeman, is he a certified mediator?
“Some equally run to traditional rulers, pastors and their wives to help resolve their justice needs. That you are a pastor or wife to a pastor doesn’t make you a mediator.
“Since we know that some people meet these people, it will be nice that mediation is included in the curriculum of the Police Academy and traditional and religious leaders trained in this area too,” she said.
Nwafor, who called for more innovation in the country’s justice sector, suggested that lawyers could be assigned to supervise traditional and religious leaders in local conflict resolution activities.
According to her, Nigeria produces more than 7,000 lawyers every year, stating that innovation in the sector can create more openings.
“At HiiL, we borrow a leaf from the medical sector and it is said that a doctor of a hundred years ago cannot practice medicine but a lawyer from hundred years ago can practice law almost 70 to 80 of the times.
“Some people may say that is a good thing; it is consistent. No, it is not, because all things are subject to change and improvement.
“Over time, medicine had devolved to nursing, medical laboratory and other para-medicals, but in Nigeria, it is either you are a lawyer or a judge; there is no para-legal.
“We are saying there are opportunities for community mediators and community arbitrators, and these will create some opportunities and improve the justice delivery system,” she argued.
Nwafor said that though justice administration in the country is improving, there is still the need for accommodating the informal sector since it is doing a lot in conflict resolution.
According to her, HiiL is currently concerned about land justice, family justice, gender-based violence resolution and prevention as well as resolution of farmer/herder conflicts.
Nwafor said that the organisation works in partnership with Nigerian Bar Association, International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria, National Judicial Institute, state governments and some local non-governmental organisations.
She said that though it was not part of the organisation’s mandate to intervene in security-related conflicts, infusion of ethnicity, criminal elements to farmer/herder conflicts had resulted in increase in conflict in the country.
“When you are out there working in the field as an NGO, your main target might be something else, but if you stumble on data outside your target, you won’t ignore it.
“The research we conducted in the year 2018, 2022 and 2025, in which the same respondents were engaged, revealed that crime, land, family and GBV are very high.
“Though family disputes were top in 2018, in the 2025 research, we saw separation of family issues from GBV and that shows that people are beginning to call things what they truly are,” the country representative said.
