The Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has said that access to justice is a cardinal need of every human being in a society.
Aregbesola said this on Monday in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, during the inauguration of Osun Citizens Mediation Centre.
The governor stated that when the people are denied the right to express their grievances and resolve their dispute amicably, this usually tantamounts to inviting chaos, lawlessness and disorderliness.
He said: “When we deny the landlords and tenants; creditors and debtors; complainants and respondents the opportunity to ventilate their grievances in a structured manner and with a view to mutually acceptable resolution, we would have an explosion of court cases and more frustration with the judicial system as cases may not be attended with the anticipated dispatch the parties desire.
“This is aside the possible resort to self-help which always leads to break-down of law and order.”
He averred that the mediation method of resolving dispute is not alien to Yoruba and African cultures.
According to him, village and palace squares have been in existence since time immemorial and are veritable avenues of dispute settlement, adding that many disputes at these levels have been settled through conciliation and mediation in these squares for a very long time.
He said this manner of peaceful resolution of conflict is in tandem with the “Omoluabi” ethos that is being espoused by his administration, explaining that the concept goes to the root of “our very existence.
“It is what we are as a race, and it transcends our dialectal and communal boundaries as widespread Yoruba people.
“It is the essence of the totality of our culture, beliefs, values and mores.
“Even in this modern age and time, the most elegantly drafted Memorandum of Understanding and other legal documents creating contractual obligations always have the “arbitration clause”, the reason for this is not far-fetched – it is the best way to resolve a dispute.”
Aregbesola said his administration thought of establishing this method because the courts are over-burdened, which explains why a lot of people are dissatisfied with the adversarial system of dispute resolution and would rather prefer to quarrel, settle and continue life as they had always.
The governor disclosed that for effectiveness of the centre, government will open branch offices in the nine Federal Constituencies in the next quarter.
He noted that the objective of this is that the Centre should process 60 per cent to 70 per cent of rural litigation, leaving the regular courts in our judicial divisions and districts to devote their time to complex civil and criminal matters.
Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism, he continued, should ensure that no more than 15 per cent of the cases go for final adjudication.
He stressed that this method is the trend in the legal systems of developed countries where most of the cases are resolved by alternative dispute resolution mechanisms like conciliation, mediation and arbitration and pre-trial conciliation, which accounts for the disposal of a large number of cases in these countries.
Aregbesola said: “As a matter of fact, the Citizens’ Mediation Centre will not charge money for services rendered; its services are free. It also helps the parties to adopt a problem solving approach to find a “win-win” outcome.
“When a dispute is resolved through this process, there is no winner or loser, for the parties agree to the solution, whereas in litigation there is always a loser and even the winner of the litigation goes back home at times feeling fully exhausted physically, mentally and also financially.”
Also speaking at the occasion, the Commissioner for Regional Integration and Special Duties, Hon. Ajibola Bashiru, described O’ Mediation as fulfilling the social contract as contained in his Green Book.
Bashiru noted that the Alternative Dispute Resolution will assist in amicable resolution of disputes, thereby relieving the regular courts of burden.
In his words: “The centre that we are commissioning today will go along way in removing the bureaucratic bottleneck that is being encountered in the conventional court. It will remove the toga of officiadom the courts are noted for in adjudicating cases.”
Also, the acting Chief Judge of Osun State, Hon. Adepele Ojo, gave kudos to Aregbesola for moving the state judiciary forward as demonstrated in sponsoring judges to seminars in the United States of America in 2012.
Ojo said: “As important as courts are, mediation occurred where the parties agreed for amicable settlements, this is a good development as our courts will now have less cases to deal with because some issues would have been resolved at the mediation centre.”
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