Stakeholders in legal education in Nigeria are worried by the rising proliferation of law faculties in the country's universities and are seeking urgent reforms to redress this trend. FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary discusses this challenge and the need to enhance the dignity of legal profession.
Legal education is a vital ingredient that affects the quality of the justice system in the country. It is against this backdrop that a former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Salihu Moddibo Alfa Belgore recently raised an alarm over the proliferation of law faculties in the nation's universities.
Belgore, who spoke as the chairman of the opening ceremony of the just- concluded Annual General Conference of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in Calabar, Cross River State, two weeks ago, deplored the trend with its attendant effects in churning out poor quality lawyers that would not stand the test of time. To the CJN, an urgent reform of legal education was necessary to correct the obvious inadequacies in the system in a bid to salvage the deteriorating state of legal education in the country.
He was not the only one concerned by this unhealthy development. Several stakeholders had earlier expressed similar reservations about the wobbly state of the country's legal education.
For instance, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Adoke (SAN), had at a meeting of the Nigerian Law School Class of 1988 in Enugu in November last year, lamented the decline in legal education in the country.
The AGF said, "It is a matter of grave concern that even the conduct of examinations for the bar finals is no longer free from irregularities and malpractices''.
Adoke called on the NBA, the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Council of Legal Education to restore sanity in the system.
In an apparent confirmation of the AGF's remarks , the Nigerian Law School recorded the poorest performance ever in the August 2012 Bar final examinations as about 4,000 students failed when the results were released in September last year.
It was learnt that the results had been so poorly rated in the history of the school because out of over 6,000 registered students, about 1, 625 passed the Bar part two examinations.
Indeed, it is worrisome that legal education in the country is drifting towards an appalling state even as over 25 universities are offering degree courses in law. Of this figure, 10 universities' law faculties have been adjudged the best in the country.
National Mirror gathered however that some of the law faculties with poor rating often faced challenges of inadequate manpower and facilities to run the law programme. In some others, their shortcomings stem from dearth of the basic and fundamental tools and facilities for the realisation of high level and functional legal education.
It was also learnt that some law lecturers lacked teaching methodology and hence require re-training and exposure to conferences, seminars and workshops on continuing legal education in the country. Interestingly, some top lawyers, law lecturers and stakeholders in the administration of justice barred their minds to National Mirror on the issue.
Former Chairman, Body of Benchers (BOB), Chief Idowu Sofola, (SAN) said ''In our days, we were not many, therefore we knew ourselves and everybody was very careful with what he did. But these days' lawyers are being produced in thousands. The type of scrutiny we went through before we were admitted into the Bar is not the same thing today. So, there are some people who are not fit to be in the profession and until they are detected they will continue to be there. So, to that extent I will say the standard regrettably is not what it used to be. It is not the type of standard that we met?
Prof. Fidelis Oditah, (SAN) also agrees that, "I think the standard of education generally has declined and I believe this is not peculiar to law, it is something that cuts across all sectors of education in Nigeria. But I think the standard of legal education has declined.
According to him, ''It will be simplistic to attribute the decline in the standard of law education to the quality of lecturers or the lack of quality lecturers; I believe that it is a combination of factors.''.
Prof. Uche Uko Uche said, "Everybody is complaining about the deteriorating state of education generally and legal education is one of them. The one that pains us most is the legal one because that is where we should make things look excellent. So, it is true that there has been this complaint about deteriorating standard of legal education in Nigeria.''
He advised that it was necessary to raise law to the status of a second degree adding that it would help in making a lot of people more knowledgeable, more mature and it would help legal education and legal practice.
Chief George Uwechue (SAN) argued that what is required is not the making of law as a second degree but a high standard for admission of people into the profession.
He said ''It is not everybody who reads law in the university that is expected to become a legal practitioner at the end of the day. Law is a degree like history, geography, and economics.
Uweuche said it was the duty of the Nigerian Law School and the Council of Legal Education to increase the quality and standards of people who go into legal practice in the country.
A former law lecturer, University of Lagos, Dr. Muiz Banire admitted that the training of lawyers these days was a bit challenging.
According to him, ''This is due to several reasons such as lack of infrastructure, lack of quality personnel and even the environment. So, there is no doubt about the fact that the standard has fallen because what makes for quality of education are not readily available. I want to believe the standard is declining.
"Many of our universities are faced with problems of classrooms, libraries, laboratories, students' hostels and staff quarters, ICT facilities and so forth. Even in schools where some of these facilities are available, they have been overstretched and therefore, no longer meet the standard required in the 21st Century academic environment."
On the way out, he advocated massive investment in the training of lawyers, and lecturers that would impart knowledge into the students. ''Today, most libraries in our universities are obsolete. So, how would they get themselves acquainted with recent developments?''
Another senior lawyer, Chief Guy Ikokwu in a recent interview queried, ''Why should we train lawyers who are half-baked?
He said, "the lawyers we have today are about 4, 000, most of them have not read a law report. Our new lawyers don't read law reports; they don't know what is there.
Mr. Zik Obi also agreed that the standard had declined tremendously. He regretted that most of the students at the law school these days lack knowledge on how to go to the library and bring out a book or even a law report.
The Council of Legal Education (CLE) as one of the regulatory authorities appeared to have risen to the challenge of tackling the decline in legal education. For instance, its chairman, Chief Onueze Okocha (SAN), had declared that law graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) should forget the idea seeking admission into the Nigerian Law School.
Legal education in the country has gone through the trials and thrills of a developing concept in the Nigeria society.
The solution according to some stakeholders lies in the need for the adoption of a wide range of measures through which legal education in Nigeria could be revamped, restructured and restored to its previous glory.
How to attain this feat should involve a reappraisal of the various stages of training of legal education in the country. Such training of the Bar must be sufficiently profound and varied.
It is in this regard that the introduction of mandatory period of one year pupilage to be served by a new wig becomes relevant in the contemporary society.
The importance of training and retraining of law teachers' through the compulsory participation at the annual conference of Law Teachers' Association should also be embraced by the Deans and law lecturers in all Nigerian universities.
The provision of up-to date materials in the libraries of the law faculties and the law school with current texts, journals and facilities for research in law would equally aid the development and advancement of jurisprudence in the country.
Given the location of the Law School headquarters in Bwari, Abuja and its campuses in Lagos, Kano and Enugu, and more recently, the establishment of two new campuses in Yola, Adamawa State and Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, it behooves on the Federal Government to fund these campuses adequately.
This call becomes compelling due to the neglect of the Lagos campus whose new hostel complex has been an abandoned project for the past 15 years.
