While elaborating on the theme of the conference, “Optimising Alternative Dispute Resolution in Nigeria,” Ajogwu said the institute was working hard towards changing the notorious perception by foreign investors that Nigeria is not a dispute resolution friendly country. He lamented that the country had been losing revenue due to this development and called on the government to create an enabling environment to reverse this trend.According to him, this perception had led to many multi-national companies operating in Nigeria taking their disputes outside the country for resolution while there were many competent arbitrators in the country. He said one of the ways the government could do this was to undertake an amendment to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1988, which he said had become obsolete. Ajogwu said, “The legal framework, our Arbitration and Conciliation Act, is long overdue for an amendment. The current Arbitration and Conciliation Act was passed in 1988 as a decree and we are now in 2016. So much has happened in the world between 1988 and today we need to bring that legislation to be current.” He added, “The impression today is that Nigeria is not dispute resolution friendly especially with ADR; that we set aside arbitral awards so easily; that we frustrate arbitration very easily and because of these perceptions, you will find the major litigants, and when I say major litigants, I mean the big international oil companies, the telecoms companies, the banks, the construction companies, I call them major because the value of their disputes run in double digit millions of dollars, they take their disputes outside of Nigeria, to London, there is a London International Court of Arbitration or the ICC in Paris and in so doing, we here lose a lot of revenue in terms of fees, hotels and other costs associated with ADR plus the experience lost, we ship it out.” He reiterated the commitment of the institute’s president, Are Afe Babalola (SAN), to strengthening arbitration in Nigeria as a way of decongesting the regular courts and easing the judges’ burden. He called on the judges to also throw their weight behind arbitration by not frustrating and setting aside arbitral awards at will. One of the discussants at the conference, Mr. Mike Igbokwe (SAN), identified some of the advantages of arbitration over litigation to include speedy dispensation of disputes, confidentiality, liberty or autonomy of the parties to choose an arbitrator and the applicable laws, finality of the awards among others. The other discussants, who spoke under the chairmanship of the President of the National Industrial Court, Justice Babatunde Adejumo, were the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Mr. Hassan Bello, and a former Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos Court of Arbitration, Ms. Megha Joshi. By: Ramon Oladimeji The Punch News ]]>