Inheritance Adjudications in Non-Sharī‘Ah Territories: An Assessment of the ’Ijtihād of the Independent Shari‘Ah Panels of Lagos and Oyo States, Southwest Nigeria.

Abstract

For over a century, Yoruba Muslims of Southwest Nigeria have been agitating for the recognition and enforcement of Sharī‘ah, the Islamic law in both colonial and post-colonial Nigeria but to no avail. Though Sharī‘ah is recognized as a source of law under the Nigerian Constitution, its application has been elusive in the Southwest while conscious Yoruba Muslims have continued to devise peaceful and legal means for its statutory recognition. In the absence of this, some Yoruba scholars and legal practitioners for over two decades have used the platform of independent arbitration to settle cases of succession, marriage, divorce and others aiming at dowsing the tension of protracted lawsuits and non-compliance with the Sharī‘ah provisions often witnessed by Muslim litigants; hence, the birth of Independent Sharī‘ah Panels. These non-conventional courts of law are found in Lagos, Oyo and Osun States, Southwest Nigeria respectively. Thus, this paper examines the judicial expertise of these independent juries on inheritance cases according to Islamic law as extracted from two prominent arbitrated cases. It was revealed that the arbitrations made by these panels in Lagos and Oyo State align with the provisions of Islamic inheritance law. It was then suggested that to enthrone peace and justice as enshrined in Islam and the Nigerian Constitution, Muslims of the two states under review should intensify issue-based and non-violent agitations for the statutory application of Sharī‘ah in Southwest Nigeria.