Justice bigger than legal system, says group

Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja

A non-governmental organization, Haque Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL), based in Netherlands, has insisted that justice for all, in Nigeria, is too big for the legal system to handle alone.

It explained that every Nigeria is affected directly or indirectly by justice problem, and for the nation to be better again, everyone must be involved in the fight against injustice.

HiiL Country Representative in Nigeria, Ijeoma Nwafor, took the position at a press conference, in Abuja, on Thursday, to intimate journalists on the forthcoming visit of the organization to Nigeria next month.

Nwafor said the event will be focused on educating Nigerians on the need for easy access to justice for everyone, irrespective of social or political status, gender or religious beliefs.

She said: “We believe in people centered justice that should be user friendly. We conducted a research in 18 states of Nigeria in 2018, three per geopolitical zones, and discovered that only 8.4 percent of Nigerians actually go to court when they have a justice need.

“There is no particular group or gender that is mostly exposed to justice challenges. It is not about any particular social class. On daily basis, masses are faced with challenges that leave them dissatisfied. And because of the gap between the justice needs and the justice system, people walk around dissatisfied believing in jungle justice.

“When you look at what is happening around the world, you see that everybody is affected directly or indirectly by injustice. People getting employed not because of what they can offer but because of who they know in the system. Unfortunately, the injustice is being transferred to the service receivers.

“Justice is bigger than the legal system. That is the major message we are passing across to Nigerians irrespective of class. It is a general duty, everybody has a role to play in making justice available in Nigeria. We would have an event in Nigeria on the 5th of March, 2020 to educate the masses on importance of making justice accessible for all.”

She, therefore, urged Nigerians to make the country available for justice or be exposed to the dangers of injustice.