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A Critical Evaluation of the Customary Justice System in Nigeria: A Human Rights Approach for Integration
No full textThis thesis critically evaluates the traditional justice system (TJS) in Nigeria from a human rights perspective, with the overarching aim of determining its potential for meaningful integration into the formal justice system (FJS) to enhance access to justice. Although traditional justice mechanisms are widely recognised and utilised across Nigeria, they are not statutorily codified or formally legislated as in other jurisdictions such as Ghana. Their existence and legitimacy derive from historical continuity, social acceptance, and judicial recognition, rather than from constitutional enactment. This research examines how such systems function in practice, their relationship with state law, and their capacity to uphold fundamental rights and legal standards.
At the heart of this research lies a normative and empirical inquiry into whether the TJS, in its current form and practice, upholds or undermines fundamental human rights, and how it may be reimagined to promote a more inclusive, responsive, and equitable justice system. Adopting a human rights-based approach (HRBA) as the primary analytical lens, the study centres on core principles such as participation, accountability, non-discrimination, equality, empowerment, and the rule of law to interrogate the compliance of traditional justice practices with regional and international human rights principles, especially concerning equality, due process, and protection of vulnerable populations. These principles serve both as evaluative criteria and as normative goals for justice reform.
The research draws on qualitative fieldwork conducted in eleven communities (Egi clan, Rivers Sate, Owerri, Isiala Mbano, Mbaise, Obowu in Imo State and Enugu and Nsukka in Enugu State and Ibadan, Ogbomoso in Oyo State, Ife in Osun State and Egba clan in Abeokuta, Ogun state) of Nigeria between April and June 2022. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 60 participants, including traditional rulers, chiefs, elders, youths, members of customary courts and councils, women leaders, legal practitioners, and human rights experts. The study focused on gathering rich empirical data on the structure, process, values, and perceived legitimacy of the eleven selected traditional justice systems. These data were analysed using a triangulated approach, combining qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis, to assess perceptions of justice, fairness, procedural safeguards, and access to remedies within the TJS, especially for women, children, persons with disabilities, and marginalised groups.
Findings indicate that traditional justice institutions are often the first and only recourse for dispute resolution for many Nigerians, particularly in areas where the formal legal system is physically, financially, or culturally inaccessible. These systems are valued for their participatory nature, proximity, flexibility, speed, and rootedness in local norms. However, significant human rights concerns persist. These include gender-based discrimination, lack of procedural safeguards, limited opportunities for appeal or redress, exclusion of women and youth from dispute settlement roles, and the absence of formal oversight or accountability mechanisms. In many cases, TJS practices conflict with constitutional guarantees of equality and international human rights obligations under instruments such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), both of which Nigeria has ratified.
Despite these tensions, the study demonstrates that traditional justice systems are not inherently incompatible with human rights norms. Rather, it offers a culturally resonant and socially legitimate foundation upon which human rights principles can be localised and operationalized. The research advocates for a transformative approach that does not seek to abolish or assimilate the TJS into the formal system, but rather to strengthen its legitimacy, capacity, and compliance with human rights through institutional reform, capacity building, legal education, and participatory dialogue. This includes the development of human rights-aligned traditional justice standards, community-led monitoring mechanisms, gender-sensitive training for traditional adjudicators, and formalised interfaces between the traditional and formal systems without eroding their indigenous foundations.
This thesis contributes original empirical insights and theoretical reflections to legal scholarship. First, it generates original empirical data on the structure and function of TJS in Nigeria, filling a significant gap in academic and policy literature. Second, it deepens understanding of how plural legal systems operate in postcolonial African states, particularly that where customary law is recognised but not constitutionally entrenched, thereby contributing to ongoing debates on justice reform, legal modernisation, and postcolonial legal transformation in pluralist societies. Finally, it challenges binary assumptions that place traditional and formal systems in opposition, recommending instead for an integrated, rights-respecting, and contextually grounded justice framework that would enhance legal pluralism in Nigeria in a manner that promotes access to justice, protects fundamental rights, and affirms legal diversity.
In conclusion, this thesis advocates for a reimagined justice system that embraces the lived realities of its people, acknowledges reforms, and integrates the traditional justice system through a human-based approach. It argues that bridging the divide between state and traditional justice institutions is essential for promoting a more inclusive, equitable, and culturally relevant access to justice in Nigeria. By aligning traditional practices with regional and international human rights standards, the research highlights the potential for a pluralist justice model that enhances legal empowerment, democratic governance, and social cohesion. The study ultimately calls for a shift in perspective of viewing justice not as a solely state driven mechanism, but as a participatory process rooted in the lived realities, dignity, and rights of all Nigerians
Generating continuous multi-objective benchmark problems by the object-oriented method
No full textThe file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Designing multi-objective benchmark test functions is an important topic in the field of evolutionary multi-objective optimization because it can help researchers identify the strengths and weaknesses of algorithms and contribute to improving their performance. However, existing methods for constructing multi-objective test problems exhibit certain specific limitations, such as the homogeneous structure of objectives, regular shapes of the Pareto optimal sets, and so on. To address these issues, this paper proposes an object-oriented construction method that abstracts components of a multi-objective optimization problem’s fitness landscape into classes. By designing attributes of these components, such as size, shape, position, and quantity, diverse test classes can be generated. Through a combination of these attributes, test cases with varying difficulty levels and distinct characteristics can be constructed. Based on this generator, several novel features are displayed. Moreover, five classic multi-objective evolutionary algorithms are tested on them. The results show different behaviors of these algorithms on the constructed test cases. At the same time, these generated features pose significant challenges to the tested algorithms
Sonification Mappings for Sensing Tree Stress: A DIY Approach
Full text linkTree stress data is commonly obtainable through costly hardware devices, often requiring interpretation by scien- tists with existing background knowledge. However, such data can benefit laypeople’s tree management practices and raise climate change awareness. This work aims to discover suitable tree and climate data mappings to sound, for mean- ingful interpretation by non-specialists, using a low-cost, Do- it-Yourself (DIY) approach. A budget-friendly custom tree- talker prototype was created, streaming dendrometer, soil moisture, temperature, and humidity data to a web-based backend. A frontend web application explores differing com- plexities of sonified data mappings to users through the Web Audio API. We propose that distinct mappings will be re- quired for clear data parameter interpretation, and inclu- sivity for users of diverse backgrounds. This initial explo- ration suggests that sonification presents a promising solu- tion, with future work required to identify the most suitable environmental-to-sound mappings
Being and Becoming: British Muslim Students’ First-Year Journeys in Higher Education
Full text linkA range of intersecting issues impact the lived experiences of British Muslim students in higher education (HE), including: a lack of religious literacy from staff and peers, which often leads to isolation and alienation; support for the representation and expression of faith on campus; access to appropriate funding for study; Islamophobia and normative truths about Muslims (amplified recently in relation to Gaza/Palestine); surveillance and the Prevent strategy; the relationship between universities, students unions, and Islamic societies; and, the availability of and access to appropriate, faith-based spaces and environments. Moreover, there has been a tendency towards limited opportunities for institutions to engage productively and generatively with the complexity of the student experience, and to enrich that experience through faith-based analyses.
This is important for individual institutions, precisely because context matters, in how they create, share and celebrate generative and generous narratives about the student experience. In this, it is important to reiterate that the Muslim experience of HE is not homogeneous, and that experiences are richly differentiated. In working with this reality, the De Montfort University (DMU), Muslim-Friendly Universities audit focuses upon the student experience of British Muslim, first-year undergraduate students. It situates this experience against those students’ conceptions of their faith, and also draws out emergent relations to ethnicity, gender and disability. The primary intention of this audit was to understand how these students experience their Muslimness in HE. A secondary intention was for this research to impact, materially, the ways in which universities can recognise intersectional and faith-based complexities in the undergraduate student experience.
The project team included four experienced academic researchers, at a range of career positions, and with a range of identities, committed to social justice and a politics that celebrates diversity. However, crucially, it also included five second-year British Muslim students as advisers, able to co-create the project’s research design. This partnership was designed to enable voice and agency, through authentic and meaningful partnerships with students, facilitated with support, advice and guidance from the Aziz Foundation. A primary gain was enhanced engagement with the richness of British Muslim student identities, in order to support students' sense of belonging and positively impacting attainment, retention, progression and engagement
Advancing the visual turn in tourism, hospitality and leisure studies
No full textopen access articlePurpose
This conceptual paper aims to inspire further advancement of the visual turn in tourism, hospitality and leisure studies. It offers an updated overview of the implications of different philosophical positions for visual data and provides insights into both big and small data studies. Future research possibilities within the visual turn in these fields of studies are also discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the conceptual nature of this paper, the lines of arguments are largely informed by existing literature in both the wider social sciences and humanities as well as the multidisciplinary fields of tourism, hospitality and leisure studies. While not attempting to provide a systematic review, this paper critically discusses both the wide variety of visual data types used in tourism, hospitality and leisure research, as well as the relevant, philosophy of science informed, theoretical framing of visual research.
Findings
This paper offers insights into possible futures for the visual turn in tourism, hospitality and leisure, while being neither prescriptive nor favouring a particular philosophical position or methodology. Some of the key directions for the future of the visual turn in fact, are expected to be influenced by the very diversity of approaches. Namely, both big and small data studies are expected to play a significant role in visual tourism, hospitality and leisure studies in the future, in much the same way the studies underpinned by the broad umbrellas of paradigms belonging to a variety of different paradigms will.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in its offering of an updated meaningful synthesis of relevant literature which spans across disciplines and fields of studies to offer both an overview of the current state of the visual turn in tourism, hospitality and leisure studies and visions for its future. This is supported through an updated table outlining the key paradigms and their implications for visual data, and an emphasis of the important roles both big and small data studies play in knowledge production in these fields of studies
Exploring the Politics of Large Infrastructure Projects: A Case Study of Collaborative Governance Failure in the Amman Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
No full textopen access articleThis paper explores the complex governance challenges underlying the contested delivery of Amman’s BRT project, drawing broader implications for developing contexts. The BRT, intended to upgrade Amman's deteriorating transport infrastructure, faced significant delays, construction halts, and stakeholder disputes despite public demands for improved transport. Through a diachronic timeline analysis of public documents and statements from 2009-2022, the paper traces how issues within policymaking culture and stewardship disrupted the BRT’s development. The analysis problematizes simplified narratives of project mismanagement, highlighting instead the political costs underlying transport policy failure. While the BRT reiterated management pitfalls found internationally, governance limitations in Jordan evidently amplified such challenges. The study explains the complexity of factors that disrupt large-scale infrastructure delivery, arguing that decontextualized policy borrowing and absent political stewardship fundamentally undermine project trajectory. Ultimately, it finds that strengthening collaborative governance and institutional capacity are instrumental for facilitating efficient infrastructure development in contexts facing similar constraints
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