Geographical Spread and the Assessment of Critical Issues in Restorative and Transformative Justice in Nigeria: A Review

Abstract This paper examines the issues confronting restorative and transformative justice (RJ/TJ) in Nigeria. It described RJ/TJ as approaches in the justice system that focus on healing harm done, restoring the victim to their previous condition, restoring broken relationships as a result of harm, rehabilitating offenders, involving community members in justice delivery and the reconciliation process. The approach considers the society as a whole, and identifies problems inherent in its structure, such as inequality, poverty, broken homes and other defects that allow crime to thrive, and it seeks ways of resolving these problems to prevent the crime from occurring in the future. The paper explored the legal and policy framework of restorative and transformative justice in Nigeria. The paper also identified excessive discretion, punitive culture and institutional resistance, lack of cultural and historical context and poor implementation as some of the core issues that confront RJ/TJ in Nigeria. The Transformative Justice Theory and Braithwaite’s Reintegrative Shaming Theory were used as the theoretical framework to demonstrate the practical application of the RT/TJ in society. The paper concludes that if properly, fully, and effectively adopted and applied to justice delivery, RJ/TJ would significantly improve the justice system in Nigeria, and have a positive ripple effect by reducing the crime rate in society and increasing general development in Nigeria. The paper recommends, among others, that all states in the country should fully implement RJ/TJ, and the law should be modified to reduce or remove the discretionary power granted to justice officials in the application of RJ/TJ