Restorative Justice, an Antidote For Insecurity and Underdevelopment in Nigeria: A Philosophical Approach

Abstract

This paper explores how restorative justice can be used as antidote in regaining Nigeria's lost glory of being the giant of Africa. No nation can ever develop to meet up with United Nation's vision and target of sustainable development goals by 2030 without peace and sincere disposition of justice that is aimed at repairing harm, settling disputes in a community between two warring parties. The paper demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that injustice, trivial sentiment of religion, ethnicity, social class and political affiliation has been the divisive agents among people in Nigeria thereby bringing about mistrust and animosity among citizens. The paper also argues that, if Nigeria will know peace and development, a holistic approach to handling justice between victim(s) and offender(s) by relevant stakeholders must be adopted. Exploratory research design was used and the paper concludes that restorative justice should be the preferred justice system in Nigeria since it geared towards repairing harm and genuine commitment toward building free and fair communities.