FROM ENFORCEMENT TO MEDIATION: EVALUATING THE NIGERIAN POLICE'S ROLE IN ADR UNDER THE NIGERIAN POLICE ACT 2020

Abstract

Police establishments around the world are undergoing a resolute shift from a policing model defined by coercive and enforcement-based forms to a mediative and collaborative model. This shift is necessary to reform the age-old narrative of the police being henchmen to those in power. Accordingly, this reform is set out in the Police Act, 2020. The Police Act represents a legislative attempt to tailor this shift; the world as we know it is marked by transformations, and the law is no exception. Thus, a major innovation procured to replace a ‘force-centred’ approach in enforcing the resolution of disputes is mediation. The Act’s provisions ascertain the legal basis, scope, and the police’s role in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). The Act also implicitly establishes a statutory groundwork for police involvement in ADR, primarily through its community policing framework. Furthermore, while this Act is an attempt to placate the public’s trust in the police as a legal alternative for enforcement, it fails to provide a clear regulatory structure, creating risks of abuse and inconsistency.  Thus, an imminent proposal for a normative framework of safeguards and procedures to legitimate and regulate this emerging function.