A Historical Re-Examination of Customary Arbitration and the Administration of Justice in Nigeria

As a phenomenon, dispute has become an integral part of human existence,and dispute resolution has also become an essential requirement for peaceful co-existence of members of a given society. It provides opportunity for the examination of alternative pay-offs in a situation of positioned disagreements, and restores normalcy in a society by facilitating discussions and placing parties in dispute institutions in which they can choose alternative positive decision to resolve differences. Dispute exists on many different levels including international, intra-group, inter-group, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. It does also exist in relation to different subject matters namely, ideational or beliefs, values, material resources, emotions, roles and responsibilities. Dispute varies in terms of the social contexts in which they are located, and the traditional societies had always found solution to such conflicts by way of arbitration, subject to the native Laws and Customs of the particular society, with a view to engendering social harmony and equilibrium. This paper thus examines the role of customary arbitration in the administration of justice in Nigeria, putting into consideration the historical origin and relationships therein. The paper however derives it strength from both primary and secondary materials.