The Deputy President of the Senate,
Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has advocated Alternative Resolution as a panacea for various
shades of tension and crisis bedeviling the country.
He also said the Senate would continue
to support every organisation that preached peace and provided workable
modalities to ensure that Nigerians live in peace with one another to fast-track
the nation’s progress.
Ekweremadu spoke when he received the
Governing Council of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators,
which paid a working visit to him at the National Assembly on the fringes of
the weekend.
He said the nation was passing through a
very difficult phase of rough relationships on many fronts and needed the
services of trained professionals in Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR.
“I am sure you are aware of the growing
ethnic tensions all over the country- tension between the herdsmen and farmers,
tension between different communities in different parts of the country, which
we have to resolve, not through the right of might, but through some
alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
“We believe that these are not matters
the courts can easily and effectively deal with. They require alternative means
of dispute resolution”, he told the mediators.
The Senator called on the Institute of
Mediators and Conciliators to deploy its resources, intellect, and skills to
ensuring that some of the tensions were dealt with effectively, noting that the
Senate was ready to work with the Institute and its likes in promoting ethnic,
religious, economic, and political harmony and justice.
He added: “The upper legislative chamber
also has a standing committee dealing with pubic petitions. So, for us in the
Senate, we receive and deal with petitions from our constituencies in a
non-judicial manner, but through a kind of mediation and conciliation to ensure
that disputes are resolved and justice is done in a way that leaves parties
involved satisfied. So, we are on the same page with you and I believe we can
work together in this regard.”
While assuring them of the willingness
of the Senate to pass legislations that strengthen ADR in the country,
Ekweremadu, however, stressed the need for collaboration among various ADR
practitioners and organisations in the country for a more effective and
harmonized legislation.
“I observed that there are also other organisations,
such the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators, that appear to be doing
exactly what you do. You need to find a way to liaise with one another so that
there can be a harmonised legal architecture for alternative dispute resolution
in the country rather than separate legislation for each separate organisations”
he advised.
Earlier in his address, the leader of
the delegation and President, Institute of Chartered Mediators and
Conciliators, Mr. Emeka Obegolu, said the Institute was at the National
Assembly to canvass support for the Bill for an Act for the Establishment of
the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators.
He said although the Bill was passed by
the 7th National Assembly, it was, unfortunately, not assented to by
former President Goodluck Jonathan. He, therefore, pressed for “a little push
to help the bill become an Act” to boost its work.
He said the Institute boasts of over
6,000 members, consisting of Fellows, Associates, and Members, and was also
working in the North East of Nigeria where it had trained 56 community
stakeholders on mediation and communal dispute resolution.
Mr. Emeka added that the Institute,
which was conducting its 116th regular training, was working with the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, to explore electoral dispute mediation, while it
had additionally set up the Ogun State court-connected Multi-door Court,
working with the government of the State and its judiciary.
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