The Legal Education Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has called for urgent and systemic transformation of legal training in Nigeria in light of backlog, funding and other challenges facing the Nigerian Law School and law faculties across the country.
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These recommendations were made at the Southwest Regional Townhall Workshop on Legal Education held at the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos (UNILAG). Recall that as part of the NBA’s efforts to enhance legal education and practice in Nigeria, NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN inaugurated the Legal Education Committee (NBA-LEC) under the leadership of Professor Damilola Sunday Olawuyi, SAN, Deputy Vice Chancellor at Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), with the mandate to promote and advance functional legal education in Nigeria, especially through training sessions and conferences on modern teaching approaches.
In exercise of this mandate, the NBA-LEC introduced the Regional Townhall Workshop on Legal Education Series led by Prof. Chimezie Kingsley Okorie SAN, Chairman of the NBA-LEC Regional Townhall Workshop Series. With the maiden edition successfully held in South East region at Imo State University, Owerri, this second edition of the workshop at UNILAG aimed to gather perspectives form stakeholders in legal education in the Southwest region on how to enhance the development of practice-ready lawyers that can contribute meaningfully to the social and economic development of the nation.
The workshop recorded a huge turn out of about 200 attendees, including the NBA President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, the host Dean Professor Abiola Sanni, SAN, Prof. Olatayo Kareem, Dean, Faculty of Law, Lagos State University, Professor Ibironke Odumosu-Ayanu, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, University of Saskathewan, Canada, Folasade Abiodun, Alternate Secretary of NBA-LEC, as well as law teachers and students across universities in the Southwest. Five institutions delivered presentations on the state of legal education in Nigeria: UNILAG, LASU, Redeemers University, Fountain University and Olabisi Onabanjo University.
While welcoming delegates to the Workshop, Chairman of the NBA-LEC, Professor Damilola Olawuyi, SAN who was ably represented by Folasade Abiodun, Alternate Secretary of NBA-LEC, highlighted the growing demand to review legal education in Nigeria to meet global standards. He emphasized the need to revise the curriculum and leverage technology to enhance legal education, ultimately transforming it into a more effective law practice that can compete globally.
According to him “We are highly delighted and honoured to have the NBA President himself here with us today, a significant testament to how Mr. President has placed the reform of legal education as a top priority of the present NBA administration. We commend him for his constant support for academic members of the NBA. It is in line with the mandate given to us that we have put together this Workshop to provide a safe space of all stakeholders in legal education to identify areas for innovation and improvement, and to unlock transformational innovation in the teaching and practice of law in Nigeria.”
The Dean of the host institution, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Professor Abiola Sanni, SAN highlighted the need for legal education reformation in Nigeria. In his remarks, he stated that the only legal education reform in Nigeria was done as far back as 1962 when Nigeria began to produce its lawyers in its institutions.
Since then, there has been effort for legal education reform in Nigeria but none has seen the light of the day which is long overdue. He stressed the need for a review of how to support the Nigerian Law School (NLS) as a key institution in legal educaiton, especially the urgent need to address with the current backlog crisis which is a clog in legal education. The Learned Silk noted that although pupilage in legal education is essential it should be limited to students considering a career in law practice.
In his response, the President of the NBA, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN commended the Legal Education Committee and UNILAG for their innovation in organzing the workshop. He x-rayed systemic challenges that must be addressed if legal education and training are to meet the demands and standards of an increasingly globalized world.
He noted that the growing demand of law practice necessitates a legal education reformation, including addressing overlaps in curriculum at university and Nigerian Law School levels to ensure practice-oriented training that adapts to current and contemporary realities. The NBA President assured that suggestions and opinions raised by participants and recommedations by the NBA-LEC would be duly considered for effective implementation.
The ensuing roundtable discussions featured presentations by law teachers on the achievements so far and existing challenges that pose a threat to law teachers and students in law faculties. The reports expressed concern on the need to reform the admission process to prevent external interference, as well as the need to deepend and extend Continuing Legal Education (CLE) training for law teachers to constantly update knowledge and teaching best practice.
Other key issues were raised including infrastructure deficit, poor remuneration of law teachers, excessive workload of law teachers, limited access to legal information, underfunding of law faculties, especially lack of funding to attend international and domestic conferences, as well as the need to address the grading system to reflect greater emphasis on clinical and entreprenuerial training.
While discussing the way forward, the Workshop commended the NBA leadership for providing the innovative platform to reflect on the way forward and called for the workshop to be a regular event. Participants also called for the swift implementation of the NBA Legal Education Endowment Fund which could go a long way in mobilizing financial support for infrastructure and technology upgrade that are urgently required.
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