Jay Lit Review 2
Jay Lit Review 2
Jay Lit Review 2
EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
BAMIDELE IKUSIKA
Hon. Justice Onalaja is reputed to have said that lawyers can only be as good
as the system of legal education that produced them.1 Admittedly, legal education
in Nigeria, since its establishment in 1962, has been confronted with a lot of
challenges.2 These challenges have been exacerbated by the fact that the legal
education system in Nigeria is not adequately equipped to produce lawyers that
are able to meet the demands of the profession. As the system responsible for
producing knowledgeable, skilled, and ethical legal practitioners, it is expected
that quality standards and innovation must be maintained, particularly in
equipping lawyers with the technical know-how and values in addressing legal
issues, emerging trends and challenges in a globalised context. Sadly, these
seem farfetched as severe criticisms have trailed the system over its failing
standards. Most employers are frequently dissatisfied with the quality of lawyers
who have been licensed to practice: lawyers who are out of touch with current
economic and legal realities; lawyers who are unable to use basic ICT resources;
lawyers who struggle to speak clearly and write simple drafts, to name a few.
Clearly, this demonstrates that there is a fundamental flaw in the system, which
is the standard of legal education. Against this background, this essay proposes
solutions to the myriad of issues confronting legal education in Nigeria.
1Hon. Justice M.O. Onalaja, “Problems of Legal Education in Nigeria” (Alimandco, 26 September
2015)
<https://www.alimiandco.com/publications/ACCREDITATION%20AND%20LEGAL%20EDUCA
TION%20IN%20NIGERIA.pdf> accessed 6 June 2022
2 Jonathan Fabunmi and Ademola Popoola, “Legal Education in Nigeria: Problems and
Prospects.” (1990) 23(1) Law and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/43109931> accessed 6 June 2022
1|Page
In light of the clamour for legal reforms, the following solutions are proffered:
August 2019)<https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/08/repositioning-legal-education-for-
national-development-2/> accessed 6 June 2022
6 As established by the National Universities Act, cap N81, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004
7 As established by the Legal Education (Consolidated, etc.) Act. Cap L10, Laws of the Federation
of Nigeria 2004.
8 Supra, n.2 and n.3
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Over the years, the legal education curricula have remained static and
unchanged. It is extremely restricted and non-futuristic as it does not give room
for emerging fields of study contrary to globally accepted standards.9
Furthermore, there are no courses in the curriculum that will teach students
practical skills like legal research, good business writing, and so on.10 Even the
Clinical Legal Education (CLE) program, which was established in 2004, is poorly
structured and difficult to implement in universities.11
9 Elaine McArdle "A Curriculum of New Realities:Harvard Law School proposes new answers to
the question 'What do future lawyers need to know?'" (Harvard Law School, 2 September, 2008)
<https://today.law.harvard.edu/feature/a-curriculum-of-new-realities/ > accessed 6 June
2022
10 Felicia Anyogu, et al, “Appropriate Curriculum for training 21st Century Lawyers” (2020) 7(1)
3|Page
12 Lawrence Trautman, "The Value of Legal Writing, Law Review and Publication" (2018) 51(3)
Indiana Law Review
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329720763_The_Value_of_Legal_Writing_Law_Rev
iew_and_Publication> 10 June 2022
13 Ahmadov Anar, “When Great Minds Don't Think Alike: Using Mock Trials in Teaching Political
profession in Nigeria by tackling its unemployment and unemployability problem; and whose
vision is to create lawyers who are able to compete globally, and to support organizations in their
4|Page
Law lecturers' poor work attitude and lack of required qualifications are
devastating as they impact students’ learning and development. The
performance of many lecturers is below par, both in the classroom and at
management levels.15 Some do not know the course well enough and do not
adequately prepare for their lectures, with rote learning, handouts and class
notes – that have been used in years – being the normative teaching methods.16
In this respect, Hutchins Harry rightly suggests that:
2013) <https://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/12/lecturers-underdeveloped-universities-4-2/>
accessed 10 June 2022
16 Funke Adekoya, “The Problems of Legal Education In Nigeria – Setting The Tone For
Discussion”. Being a presentation at the Summit on the Future of Legal Education, Nigerian
5|Page
The chart above depicts the total number of students who pass the Bar Exam per year
in the last 5 years
Bar Association, Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Abuja 2nd - 3rd, May 2006. Cited by Adegbite,
n.31
17 Hutchins Harry, "The Law Teacher--His Functions and Responsibilities" (1908) 8(5) Columbia
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One reason for this is the fact that the cut-off points for admission to various
universities vary. It is unfortunate that students who perform poorly in O-levels
are admitted to study law because they come from less developed educational
states (referred to as ‘catchment area policy’ or ‘quota system’).23
The same compromise for low-performing students occurs at both the University
and Law School. As a result, the Council of Legal Education must develop a
unified admission procedure for law students across the country. Corrupt
lecturers should be sanctioned in order to prevent grade-doctoring and other
unethical practices that allow low-performing students to advance without the
requisite qualifications. This ultimately contributes to the problem of half-baked
lawyers the system produces.24
18 Lesi Nwisagbo, "Law school releases 2021 results, 1,326 fail" (Punch, 8 July 2021)
<https://punchng.com/law-school-releases-2021-results-1326-fail/> accessed 10 June 2022
19 Unini Chioma, "JUST IN: Nigerian Law School Releases August 2019 Bar Final Results, As
147 Students Bag First Class, 894 Fail" (Thenigerialawyer, 6 November 2019)
<https://thenigerialawyer.com/just-in-nigerian-law-school-releases-august-2019-bar-final-
results-as-147-students-bag-first-class-894-fail/> 11 June 2022
20 Unini Chioma, "Nigerian Law School Releases Aug 2018 Results, Sets Dates for Call To Bar,
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/10/nigerian-law-school-releases-bar-final-exam-results/
22 Olusegun, "Nigerian Law School Bar Final Exam Results Statistics – Aug/Sept 2016"
Area Policy on the University Admissions in North Central Nigeria.” (2016) SAGE Journals,
<https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016654951> accessed 11 June 2022
24 Lesi Nwisagbo, "Law teachers raise concerns over ‘half-baked’ lawyers" (Punch, 13 May 2021)
<https://punchng.com/law-teachers-raise-concerns-over-half-baked-lawyers/> accessed 11
June 2022
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Employers have expressed serious concerns that the vast majority of new wigs
are unsuitable for employment. Some lawyers are unable to prepare application
materials and ace job interviews. These lawyers are not, altogether, blameworthy
because they are not adequately trained in this regard. Only a few law faculties
require students to do internships during the summer to gain a practical
understanding of the law and to build networking skills. The training provided
on employability at the Nigerian Law School is shallow and inadequate given the
demands of the current legal industry. Bayo Ojo (SAN) concurs with the fact
that there is a need to reposition the legal profession to meet the unique
challenges of the 21st century.25 Only a handful of ambitious and serious-
minded students attend employability trainings or seminal, for instance, those
offered by Legally Engaged26 on preparing application documents, acing
interviews; thus, increasing their employability prospects.
To address this issue, law faculties should begin preparing students from the
onset on how to prepare job application documents and processes including
interview trainings. They should also receive training in effective business
writing, legal research, legal drafting, and workplace ethics. Business skills
should be integrated into the legal education because it makes prospective
lawyers employable in an increasingly competitive business ecosystem.27
Regulators must enforce internship programmes within undergraduate study,
as an avenue for students to get real-world experience that can help them
25 The Summit was put together following the Statements of Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) on the 31st
March of that year, that “unless fundamental reforms are introduced, the profession may suffer
more serious decline”. Cited by Adegbite, n.31
26 Supra, n.6
27 David Wilkins, "Educating the 21st Century Lawyer: Integrating business skills with legal
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Further to this, legal education in Nigeria should not only be limited to the four
walls of the university because legal principles are best understood and applied
when they are seen in action. Consequently, law students should be exposed to
legal practice through internships and legal clinics. Internships provide an
opportunity for students to observe how lawyers work, expand their networks,
and understand what it takes to be a lawyer. On the other hand, legal clinics
expose students to actual legal practice by handling real cases under the
supervision of a practising lawyer. This will give students a sense of
responsibility and confidence as well as an opportunity to see how theory is
translated into practice. Students should also be encouraged to take part in
extracurricular activities such as mooting, legal writing, and legal research
Law students are required to take computer learning as a course at the university
level. Even though ICT resources for law practice are taught in Nigerian law
schools, lawyers lack basic knowledge of ICT tools such as Microsoft Office, and
online resource sites such as lawpavilion, Lexis Nexis, and others. This problem
can be solved if computer is taught in a practical manner at the university level
and students are exposed to digital tools that aid learning, because ICT now
plays a critical role in legal education and practice.29
28 John Coleman, "6 Ways to Make the Most of Your Internship" (Harvard Business Review, 11
July 2016) <https://hbr.org/2016/07/6-ways-to-make-the-most-of-your-internship> accessed
11 June 2022
29 Ifeoluwa Olubiyi, Ayobami Olaniyan and Ngozi Odiaka "The Role of Technology in the
Advancement of Legal Education and Practice in Nigeria" Being a paper presentation at the
Nigerian Association of Law Teachers [NALT] conference at Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti,
Nigeria in June 2015.
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Many of the suggestions made in this paper will require adequate funding to be
implemented. When there is a lack of fund, infrastructure suffers, and even basic
teaching resources will be deficient. Financially, antecedent has shown that the
current structure of legal education is overwhelming for the government alone to
bear, evidenced by low budgetary allocation for education yearly.30 To
complement allocation for legal education in Nigeria, public-private partnership
should be encouraged in the procurement of facilities, training and funding of
legal education; albeit, the government retains exclusive powers to regulate its
content and standard.31 Alternatively, faculties of law should be allowed to
generate revenue autonomously.32 This can be accomplished by establishing
revenue-generating enterprises such as consulting services, professional
institutes, and fundraising programs.
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280566346_The_Role_of_Technology_in_the_Adva
ncement_of_Legal_Education_and_Practice_in_Nigeria'> accessed 13 June 2022
30 Romanus Okoye, "Poor funding, teaching methods, bane of legal education in Nigeria –Prof.
Juris Review
32 Supra, n.3
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35 Reginald Aziza, "Towards Better Remuneration for Nigerian Legal Practitioners: A Market-
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The NUC and CLE are the primary regulators of legal education in Nigeria.37 As
such, there is a need to appoint/elect officials in these bodies who are
progressive, dispassionate and committed to resolving the lingering issues
affecting legal education in Nigeria. These bodies should also establish
governance and internal regulatory mechanisms in law faculties across the
country that can be audited on a regular basis. The established regulatory
mechanisms will then create actionable plans that address recruitment criteria,
admission criteria, curriculum compliance, library facilities, and pedagogical
format. Annual compliance reports in a prescribed format should be required of
law faculties.
In addition, other ways to track compliance will include student feedback and
informal visits for compliance officers to law faculties rather than the usual
accreditation period. Erring faculties may be sanctioned through fines,
suspension of law programmes or in extreme cases, disaccreditation.38 Similarly,
colluding with the NUC and CLE to accredit substandard law faculties should
result in severe disciplinary action from these regulators. Strict regulation will
aid in weeding out substandard law faculties across the country; thus,
addressing the deplorable conditions about the proliferated law faculties in
Nigeria and other related issues.
4.0. CONCLUSION
This paper has explored the solutions to the problems of legal education in
Nigeria. Specifically, it gives workable recommendations to the problems of
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