A human-right lawyer and managing partner of Silverblack Solicitor,  Yakub Fadare, has said the delay in getting justice is occasioned by the individual's right to fair hearing; "a due delay in the interest of justice," he says.

Mr Fadare, also one of the registered trustees of Legal Right Awareness and Protection Organisation (LERAPO), regards the situation in Nigeria as usual, though given unnecessary attention. “It is not easy to start a case and conclude it almost immediately whether it is civil or criminal," he says.

“Considering the provision of section 36 of the constitution, this expressly provided for fair hearing and if for whatever slightest reason this provision is breached, the whole of the proceeding will be a nullity and in a bid to ensure that this provision of the constitution is well guided, you are likely to exercise some patience that is what we consider as delay.”

While some Nigerians have said there are too many cases in the court that should not be in court, but should be resolved outside the courtroom, Fadare says, “The trend in Nigeria and other parts of the world is through arbitration, but we are not appreciating it so much in this part of the world."

“There is provisions to that effect in the federal high court rule in 2009 and few of the courts make provisions of this amicable settlement, but how well are we employing it and how well are we litigants appreciating it?”

Fadare on change of orientation to justice delivery in the country, he says, “You can only force a horse to the river, you cannot force it to drink. The system is not too bad, but it is we the operators of the system and the stakeholders ... which cuts across to the litigants."

On the part of the legal practitioners, he says, “There is a law that mandates a lawyer to give certain duty and that informs duty of honesty to the court and failure not to do that will amount to professional misconduct.”

On the part of the litigants as well, he urged the need to imbibe settlement heartedly: “A matter settled is a matter well litigated in the interest of justice.”