Author(s)

Isaac Olawale Albert¹, Yejide Teslimat Olarinde², Olumayowa Oreoluwa Albert¹

¹Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
²National Assembly, Abuja, Nigeria.

This paper showcases amnesty as an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism in Nigeria: focusing particularly on the use and misuse of the system. It presents the Niger Delta amnesty programme as a necessity given the way the crisis in the oil-rich region directly affects the Nigerian economy. It was needed for boosting oil production. However, one does not see any evidence of remorse in those that the country claimed to have given amnesty. The system puts money in their pockets but fails to address the reasons for the youth militancy. Hence criminal and political violence persists in the region. More worrisome is the decision of the government to extend the amnesty programme to career criminals outside the Niger Delta region. Once the government is unable to defeat a criminal group in the country, it dangles amnesty to it. This paper problematizes this as clear evidence of state failure in Nigeria.

Amnesty, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Nigeria

Albert, I. , Olarinde, Y. and Albert, O. (2019) Order outside the Law? Rethinking Amnesty as an ADR Mechanism in Nigeria. Beijing Law Review, 10, 913-925. doi: 10.4236/blr.2019.104049.