Abuja: The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL), a civil society organisation, has reported that 30 per cent of Nigerians experience domestic violence, highlighting a significant gap in access to legal protection. Ms Zainab Malik, Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor of the institute, made this known at a one-day conference titled ‘Implementing People-Centred Justice: The Nigerian Story’ in Abuja. This finding, she said, comes from HiiL’s 2025 Justice Needs and Satisfaction (JNS) report.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the report also indicates that many Nigerians, despite facing such issues, are deterred from seeking justice through formal channels due to factors like cost, complexity, and distance. Ms Malik stated that the event was a coalition of stakeholders, from the judiciary, traditional institutions, civil society, government, and international partners, aimed at exploring data-driven pathways for making justice more accessible.
She also noted that in HiiL’s 2025 Justice Needs, Satisfaction (JNS) report, over 90 per cent 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.
Malik reaffirmed HiiL’s commitment to action, pledging to blend the insights and recommendations from the event. Mr 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. He emphasized that justice must reflect local realities, human dignity, and cultural context, suggesting that a true just society may require better designed, not more, courtrooms.
Justice Olugboyega Ogunfowora of the Ogun Judiciary shared his evolving perspective on access to justice through engagement with HiiL. 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 panellists, spoke about her award-winning innovation to reduce monetary disputes through basic contracts in local languages, emphasizing the importance of non-digital, practical solutions and creating welcoming court environments for vulnerable populations.
Mr Michael Ikoku shared a personal story of how his family’s experience of injustice fuelled his determination to find community-based solutions. He started with free radio-based dispute resolution programmes and is now championing the Community Justice Centre model supported by HiiL, becoming its first social impact investor in Nigeria. Bashir Maidugu, a lawyer and 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 reports that there were other panel sessions that included a tour of the People Centre Justice Booth Tour where participants engaged with the panellists. It highlighted HiiL’s methodology, spanning data collection, innovation support, legal strategy, and guidelines development, and set the stage for collaborative breakout sessions. These sessions brought together justice stakeholders to co-create practical recommendations around four key pillars: Guidelines, Justice Strategy, Innovation, and Data.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, emphasized that while the government holds constitutional responsibility for the welfare of its people, it cannot improve the justice sector in isolation. Represented by Mr Fernandez Marcus-Obiene, the SSA to the President on Justice Sector Reform and ICT/Digital and Innovative Technology, he stressed the need for collective effort, stating that meaningful reform requires involvement from civil society organisations, traditional leaders, private sector partners, and ordinary citizens.
