Customary Law Arbitration in Nigeria: An Appraisal of Contentious Legal Issues

It is an established fact that disputes and dispute resolution mechanisms have been a recurrent decimal in human society. Customary law arbitration is one of the modes of settling disputes in Nigeria. This paper has examined the concept of customary law arbitration and the peculiar conditions precedent to its validity. The paper also dissected relevant issues relating to corroborative evidence, pleading and proof of customary law arbitration. It examined the issues as to whether a document containing customary arbitration proceedings is a public document that requires certification and whether affidavit evidence can be used to establish the existence of prior customary arbitration over a disputed fact. The authors adopted the analytical research approach wherein relevant statutory and scholarly materials were assembled, analysed and critiqued. The authors have proffered recommendations which, if adopted, would encourage Nigerians to embrace customary law arbitration in resolving disputes.