The Association of Professional Negotiators and Mediators (APNM), has called for a self-regulatory body to enhance transparency and efficiency in the demand and supply of Alternative Disputes Resolution (ADR) services in the country.
They said such institution would be best positioned to address user demands, in ADR similar methods of resolving international commercial disputes.
They spoke in Abuja at a colloquium organised by APNM in honour of their late member and lecturer at the Nigerian Law School (NLS), Mr. Kevin Nwosu.
Founder of the Negotiation & Conflict Management Group International (NCMG International), Mr Kehinde Aina, who spoke on ‘The Twilight Years of ADR: A call for self-regulation”, justified the need to set up such institution.
Aina said: “There have been recent calls in international arbitration circles for greater transparency in provider performance and some calls for change from the supply side. To avoid government regulations, self-regulation is fundamental.
“A credible institution is needed to address the global user demand, particularly in arbitration, mediation and similar methods of resolving international commercial disputes.
“That institution should preferably not be a service provider. Ideally it should be a new entity, without an historical footprint, established as a collaboration of the demand and supply sides of arbitration field – similar to how IMI (International Mediation Institute) is set up successfully in the mediation field.”
Aina, founding Partner of Aina Blankson, LP, said such an institute could be affiliated to leading institutions to share funding and overheads and secure an early momentum.
He added: “Funding could be drawn from all those with an interest in greater access to information and higher quality of ADR – meaning: users, ADR provider organizations, law firms and individual ADR practitioners.”
Chairman of the occasion and judge of the Delta State High Court, Justice Roli Harriman, cast her vote for ADR because it would “always fast-track the resolution of commercial disputes and thereby reduce congestion of our courts”.
Acting Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), Mr. Paul Idornigie (SAN), who was a special guest at the colloquium, described the late Nwosu as “a renowned ADR practitioner, very innovative, very creative and had no apologies for his scholastic prowess. He was a scholar in the proper sense of the word and we sorely miss him.”
On efforts to immortalise Nwosu, Idornigie said: “I think that the event we had on Saturday should be a yearly event, we should do that yearly to immortalise him because he did a lot for ADR, he was like an evangelist, in fact he was an evangelist winning souls for ADR.”
APNM President, Dr. Dorn Cklaimz Enamhe, stated that “There is no alternative to ADR as a quick, fast, economic and friendly way of resolving commercial disputes.”
According to him, “ADR is a sine qua non to good governance and development of the economy using the industrialisation programmes of Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State as a case study.”
He highlighted the “benefits of good governance” in Cross River State “where Governor Ayade is busy creating jobs by industrialising the state through the garment factory, noodles factory, banana plantation, Calapharm, the building of the deep sea port, the rice seedlings, the cocoa processing and the Ogoja rice plantation, among other things.”
The event was attended by the President of Pan African Lawyer Forum (PALU) Chief Emeka JP Obegelu, former IGP Solomon Arase, former Registrar Institute of Chartered Mediators and Concilators (ICMC), Dr. Elachi Agada among others.
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