Yoruba law,Yoruba identity

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By Olusola Oni

Their Yoruba identity enabled the survival of the Yoruba people who were forcibly transported to the Americas as slaves. Their language and songs gave them hope on the long arduous sea journey. Their custom and traditions gave them strength over the degrading and inhuman treatment meted out to them by their white slavers. Today, the 30million or so Yoruba of Nigeria need their Yoruba identity to get them through these very difficult and trying times. The Yoruba law provides that vehicle.
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The ancient Yoruba practised a system of law (Akosọ) that the colonialists, and Nigerian governments since independence have recognised as a distinct body of law. The Yoruba law is secular law as distinct from religious laws, such as, the Ecumenical Law of the Christians and the Sharia Law of the Muslims. The Yoruba law is based on conventions (Ajọ) and custom (Asa). The conventions governed the way that the Yoruba interacted with one another (private law), with their communities (public law), and with their rulers (constitutional law).

The philosophy of the Yoruba law was simple: firstly, it aimed to guarantee personal freedom and secondly, it sought to ensure social order, without the use of coercive forces. In Yoruba law, the type of problem – dispute (Iyan), cheating (Iya) and quarrel (Ija) – dictated the adjudicative process, and the solution to the wrong that had been committed. The primary goal of Yoruba law was not punishment but resolution. Yoruba Law was inquisitorial not adversarial. Litigants represented themselves or were represented by litigation friends. Hardly anyone left a court dissatisfied with the decision.

In the ancient times, adjudication occurred at two levels, namely, the ‘kith and kin’ court (ie the first instance court) and the Baale or Oba court (ie the second instance court). By contrast, English law was delivered via a multi-layered monster involving different courts arranged in a hierarchy from the first instance court to the Supreme Court. The arrangement gave the appearance of fairness but in fact, fairness was illusory. A case was judged and decided by the same group of professionals, that is, lawyers. Lawyers argued the case for you, lawyers argued the case against you, and lawyers judged the case for you. The self-interest of lawyers is pervasive; they make and police the rules to the exclusion of the rest of society. Litigants are spectators. Hardly anyone leaves a court satisfied with the decision.

The Yoruba law has been made subordinate to English law only because the Yoruba did not write. The Yoruba law was unwritten, but it was practised. I have now recorded the Yoruba law in my book: ‘The law as practiced by the ancient Yoruba: a book to remind us of the world we lost’. Our academic lawyers can build on the start that I have made. There is therefore no good reason now not to treat the Yoruba law at the same level as we now treat the English law. The Yoruba are entitled to practice their own law independently within Nigeria.

There is no constitutional or legal impediment to the incorporation of the Yoruba law into the laws of the 8 Yoruba Sates. Nigeria’s 1999 constitution gave States the power to establish their own internal courts, in addition to those listed in the constitution. First, Section 4(7) gave any House of Assembly of a State the ‘power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the State or any part thereof…’ Second, Section 6 (4)(a) gave the House of Assembly the power to establish ‘courts, other than those to which this section relates, with subordinate jurisdiction to that of a High Court.’ Finally, Section 6(5)(k) gave the House of Assembly the power to establish ‘such other court as may be authorised by law to exercise jurisdiction at first instance or on appeal on matters with respect to which a House of Assembly may make laws.

Section 14 of the 1999 constitution says: ‘(1) The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice. (2) It is hereby, accordingly, declared that: (a) sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority; (b) the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government: and (c) the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.’

In 2000, the Governors of the 12 Arewa States exercised their Section 6 right to establish Sharia Criminal Law together with its own police and judiciary. Although the 1999 constitution prohibited such religious laws, the Nigerian government tacitly approved of what the Arewa States did. The Arewa citizens instituted the Sharia law to establish their distinctive identity as well as their separate sovereignty.

The Governors of the 8 Yoruba States too are entitled under the same Section 6 to institute the Yoruba Law in their states together with its own police (perhaps Amotekun) and judiciary. Indeed, such an arrangement existed in my hometown in the 1950s when the ‘naïve’ police were called Akọda. Incorporating the Amotekun into a Yoruba judicial system immediately removed politics out of internal policing in the Yoruba States.

The newly elected governors of Ekiti and Osun States have a unique opportunity to write their names in history by instituting the Yoruba Law in their states. Some of the army of unemployed law graduates could be recruited as Judicial Office Holders to apply the Yoruba Law. I am willing and able to organise their training along the line of he training that I received as Judicial Office Holder for the UK Tribunal Service

It is within Nigeria’s domestic law to promote Yoruba identity. The Yoruba Law shows that a belief in the Yoruba identity is as cogent as it is cohesive. Belief in the Yoruba identity does not interfere in any way with the rights of others.

From the Facebook page of Olusola Oni,writes , Leceister, United Kingdom

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