Law And Justice In Post British Nigeria

The roles of the native and the foreign English-style justice systems in the administration of law and justice in Nigeria, based on data from Nigeria's Igbo, are examined here. Okereafoezeke uses case studies to look at the nature of colonially imposed justice and the relationship between informal and formal justice. He concludes that the imposed English-style justice system is incapable of dealing with Nigeria's social control problems because it does not anticipate and manage the wide range of issues that the native systems do.

Drawing on data from a cross-section of postcolonial nations across the world and on a detailed case-study of Nigeria, this book examines the experience of recreating law and justice in postcolonial societies. The author's definition of postcolonial societies includes countries that have emerged from external colonial rule, such as Nigeria and India as well as societies that have overcome internal dominations, such as Afghanistan and Iraq. Suggesting that restructuring a system of law and justice must involve a consideration of the traditions, customs and native laws of a society as well as the official, often foreign rules, this volume examines how ethnically complex nations resolve disputes, whether criminal or civil, through a combination of formal and informal social control systems. This book is unique in its concern with how the average citizens of a postcolonial society can play more active parts in their nation's law and justice, and how modern and increasingly urban societies can learn from indigenous peoples and institutions, which are more informal in their approaches to problem-solving. The concluding chapter looks at the possibility of an increased role for civil as opposed to criminal response in the social control system of a postcolonial society.

A pioneering book on prisons in West Africa, Colonial Systems of Control: Criminal Justice in Nigeria is the first comprehensive presentation of life inside a West African prison. Chapters by prisoners inside Kirikiri maximum security prison in Lagos, Nigeria are published alongside chapters by scholars and activists. While prisoners document the daily realities and struggles of life inside a Nigerian prison, scholar and human rights activist Viviane Saleh-Hanna provides historical, political, and academic contexts and analyses of the penal system in Nigeria. The European penal models and institutions imported to Nigeria during colonialism are exposed as intrinsically incoherent with the community-based conflict-resolution principles of most African social structures and justice models. This book presents the realities of imprisonment in Nigeria while contextualizing the colonial legacies that have resulted in the inhumane brutalities that are endured on a daily basis. Keywords: Nigeria, West Africa, penal system, maximum-security prison. Published in English.

The roles of the native and the foreign English-style justice systems in the administration of law and justice in Nigeria, based on data from Nigeria's Igbo, are examined here. Okereafoezeke uses case studies to look at the nature of colonially imposed justice and the relationship between informal and formal justice. He concludes that the imposed English-style justice system is incapable of dealing with Nigeria's social control problems because it does not anticipate and manage the wide range of issues that the native systems do.

This book advances Frantz Fanon's two-revolutionary theory of decolonization and analyzes the changes in law during the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial eras. The author argues that Fanon's model of colonial oppression and its categories of maintenance needs are predictive of the evolution from pre-colonial to post-colonial society in Africa.

Drawing on data from a cross-section of postcolonial nations across the world and on a detailed case-study of Nigeria, this book examines the experience of recreating law and justice in postcolonial societies. The author's definition of postcolonial societies includes countries that have emerged from external colonial rule, such as Nigeria and India as well as societies that have overcome internal dominations, such as Afghanistan and Iraq. Suggesting that restructuring a system of law and justice must involve a consideration of the traditions, customs and native laws of a society as well as the official, often foreign rules, this volume examines how ethnically complex nations resolve disputes, whether criminal or civil, through a combination of formal and informal social control systems. This book is unique in its concern with how the average citizens of a postcolonial society can play more active parts in their nation's law and justice, and how modern and increasingly urban societies can learn from indigenous peoples and institutions, which are more informal in their approaches to problem-solving. The concluding chapter looks at the possibility of an increased role for civil as opposed to criminal response in the social control system of a postcolonial society.

This book explores how notions of justice are negotiated through everyday micropractices and grassroots contestations of those practices.

This study examines the principles and practices of the Afikpo (Eugbo) Nigeria indigenous justice system in contemporary times. Like most African societies, the Afikpo indigenous justice system employs restorative, transformative and communitarian principles in conflict resolution. This book describes the processes of community empowerment, participatory justice system and how regular institutions of society that provide education, social and economic support are also effective in early intervention in disputes and prevention of conflicts.