Indegenous Judicial System and Governance in the Old Ondo Province, Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

The Indigenous judicial system and governance in the Old Ondo Province, like other Yoruba communities, evolved during the long process of the people’s historical, political, economic and other social evolution. In other words, the people evolved a system of justice and governance that was relevant to them despite the complexity of justice before the advent of the British. The indigenous system of governance recognized that judicial function was an essential part of government and it was divided into three major levels: the king (oba), the chief or village head (ijoye/baale) and the family head. The people’s traditional structure of governance with its judicial system, as a key element, was unique and judgments were adhered strictly to. But recently, our societies had reached a stage where the courts are no more respected, most especially owing to cases of disobedience to court orders especially by the prominent citizens. Therefore, this study is imperative to the positioning of our judicial system for better justice delivery. This study is approached from both historical and legal perspectives. This work is justified in the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower, that though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn on external peace. Thus this work enables us to know the efficacy of a good judicial system and governance as the bedrock of the survival of any nation all over the world, particularly on the socio-political dispensation of such nation. This paper argues that indigenous judicial administration strategies are still in existence today; they had not remained static for all time. To an extent, the evolution of modern judicial system can be achieved with the fusion of indigenous and foreign experience by changing circumstances such as increase in the population, the interplay of the economic situations, contact with different peoples, cultures and modernization. This paper concludes that indigenous judicial system and governance will, for a long time, continue to function complementarily in contemporary socio-political imaginary.

Keywords: Ondo, Indigenous, Province, Judicial and Nigeria