Over the years, stakeholders have continually lamented the steady decline of the standard of legal education in Nigeria, giving a pessimistic view of its future in relation to the law profession and practice. What does this portend and how can the council turn around this trend to give more redeeming qualities to lawyers being called to the bar? Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare reports.

Few weeks back, the Nigerian Law School called to the Nigerian Bar 3,600 students after successful completion of this year’s final bar examinations. This number includes 14 candidates from the previous bar final examinations that were allowed to resit for the examinations after two months of compulsory intensive revision exercise. Out of the 3600, four students came out first class, 109 obtained the second class upper grade, 418 fell in the second lower division and 1, 422 attained a pass grade while 815 failed.

The 2014 bar examination results were a complete disaster as those that failed ran into thousands. The situation rather than improve is worse as suggestions of reducing cut off marks become more pronounced.

And this is a strong indication that all is not well considering the illiterate lawyers that emerge on a daily basis despite having the required qualifications. This continuous embarrassment is indeed a wakeup call to the legal profession and many stakeholders now see it as a serious matter.

Few weeks back, the Vice President of Nigeria, who is also a Professor of law, Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), lent his voice to the outcry of many other legal luminaries and stakeholders to call for a renovation and reformation of the law profession in the country in order to bring it to par with international standards. He explained that the legal profession may continue to suffer a decline and lose its pride of place if the needed reforms aren’t implemented and called for the required restructuring and reorganization of the legal education to stop the obvious decline in standard and promote the Nigerian legal system.

The Vice President’s call reiterates the assertion of many others that have over time publicly decried the condition of the Nigerian Law School and the continuous decline of legal education in the country.

The immediate past Governor of Lagos state and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola also recently at the inauguration of the ultra modern Sir Adetokunbo Ademola dining hall of the Law School, Lagos, called for a reformation of legal education in Nigeria. Fashola, who was represented by Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, stated that the reformation of legal education cannot be overemphasized.

Also, Senator Daisy Danjuma, the Executive Vice Chairman of South Atlantic Petroleum Limited, SAPETRO, a company founded by her husband, General Theophilus Danjuma, stated that the company was moved to repair and renovate the dining room as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility because what she saw on a visit was different from the standard that she left at the school.

“I went through this school and I know what it used to be. We continue to do more where we can to contribute to the infrastructural building of the legal education,” she said.

The myriad problems facing legal education in Nigeria however goes beyond the issue of physical infrastructure or a conducive environment for learning as many established practitioners of the gown and wig profession often claim that lawyers that are being released into the sector now have few redeeming features to uplift the profession or maintain the erstwhile high standards expected.

Our investigations revealed a lot of factors responsible for the obvious steady decline of the quality in legal education in Nigeria. Diverse issues were raised by many legal practitioners and stakeholders, including students and issues raised ranged from assertions of drop in admission standard to the belief that too many lawyers are trained every session leading to excess supply of lawyers.

Other factors raised include inability to cater for the multitude of law students being turned out of universities regularly, the lack of willingness to put time and efforts into serious study by students, lack of critical thinking, study as well as writing and verbal skills, indifference to genuine learning as many just cram reports to pass examinations, waste of time on frivolities and socializing than study, ambition to graduate without the prerequisite hard work.

The blame was not put on the shoulders of the students alone; issues like obsolete curriculum of study, poor work condition for administrators, lecturers and instructors, dearth of academic standards, grade inflation and too many lecturers lacking commitment and competence while many demonstrate technical skills but no passion. Also raised as factors are societal influences, disciplinary problems due to weakening standards, lack or poor level of parental guidance and issues of student bodies encouraging mediocrity.

The list of factors responsible for decline in legal education is enormous and the consensus is that the problem is not going away except aggressive and proactive steps are taken to turn things round and save the legal profession from impending doom of becoming a body of unprofessional; inadequate and irrelevant practitioners.

What is the way out of this quagmire? Many reasons were adduced but there is a meeting point for every diverse opinion, and the bulk in most cases is put at the door of the students. The first to absolve itself of any shortcoming is the Nigerian Law School with the argument that students were taught what they needed to be taught without any deviation and consequently, the students are expected to come out in flying colours.

Professor Ernest Ojukwu, the Deputy Director General of the Nigeria Law School, Enugu campus was more succinct. He believes the law school has no reason to defend itself because the process of examinations in the law school had always been rigorous and students were prepared for this since the first day they entered the school. He said the students were taught as prescribed and the failure rate is simply a reflection of their performance and not the school’s fault.

His stance was supported by Barrister Taoheed Asudemade, the Principal Counsel at Ade Asudemade & Co. For him, there’s no reason for the decline in the quality of legal education as everything is in place at the law school to give the students the best. According to him, a great percentage of the problem can be found in the students and their attitude to academics.

“There is no reason for the decline. The law school standard is still as high as it used to be and students are taught the required subjects and are given everything they need to succeed. If there is any problem or blame, it is with the students themselves. Most of them are not serious or committed to their work, they avoid classes or get late to lectures. And a great percentage of those that go for classes do not concentrate, they fiddle with their phones for a great percentage of lecture time. Yet, it is not for academic purposes, it is to watch pornography and other unprofitable sites”

Another lawyer that spoke on the dismal performance of law students traced it to the quality of graduates turned out of universities and the quality of students that are admitted into universities. He explained that poor standard of education in Nigeria, which leads to universities reducing cut off marks and admitting low performing students who continue with their unimpressive performance till graduation and until they enter law school is a major factor.

He explained that this may be the reason why law schools in some countries admit only people that already have a degree in other disciplines to ensure that those admitted will be able to competently cope with the rigors of the law school curriculum.

At present, performance of students at the law school is generally lackluster and the quality is sliding down a steeply and slippery slope characterized with a hoard of students with unimpressive skills expected of them with their level of education.

The crop of parboiled lawyers being produced today is a clanging alarm sound and it is time stakeholders come to the realization that there is a need to treat the situation as an emergency in order to return quality more than quantity to products of the Nigerian Law School.

"Exciting news! TheNigeriaLawyer is now on WhatsApp Channels 🚀 Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest legal insights!" Click here! ....................................................................................................................... Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material and other digital content on this website, in whole or in part, without express and written permission from TheNigeriaLawyer, is strictly prohibited _________________________________________________________________ [Register Now] ILA Nigeria Branch Marks 10 Years With Infrastructure Financing As Theme For 7th Annual Conference The International Law Association - Nigeria Branch 7th annual conference on public-private partnerships for sustainable infrastructure financing, April 4-5 in Abuja. Details: https://ilanigeria.org.ng/conference _________________________________________________________________

NIALS' Compendia Series: Your One-Stop Solution For Navigating Nigerian Laws (2004-2023)

Email: info@nials.edu.ng, tugomak@yahoo.co.uk, Contact: For Inquiry and information, kindly contact, NIALS Director of Marketing: +2348074128732, +2348100363602.