Nigeria: Nigerian Law School Campuses to Go --FG

[Richard Akindele]

THE Federal Government has concluded plans to scrap all the four law school campuses in the country, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Adebayo Ojo (SAN), has announced.

Chief Ojo told newsmen in Abuja that he would also effect a major shake-up in all parastatals under his ministry. He said he would start with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) which he said was now in shambles.

The four campuses to be shut are those in Lagos, Enugu, Kano and the headquarters located in Bwari, a suburb of Abuja.

In their stead, individual universities offering law programmes would run their own law schools and prepare their products and law graduates from other universities for common bar examination conducted by the Council of Legal Education.

He was, however, quick to add that the fact that a university runs law programme does not automatically qualify it to run a law school, adding that a university would only be allowed to run law school only if it has the wherewithal.

According to the Justice Minister, the new arrangement will terminate the recurring problem of backlog of law graduates awaiting admission into the Nigerian Law School. Besides, he said the Federal Government had no business establishing law school campuses in the country.

His words: The Nigerian Law School has been battling with the problem of backlog of law graduates awaiting admission into the Nigerian Law School. We have just solved that problem by introducing the current two-streams in the school. But I want to find a permanent solution to it. I want to deregulate the school. I want the Council of Legal Education to set standard, set examinations for those who want to be lawyers in Nigeria.

"We intend to scrap all the campuses and allow individual universities to establish their own law schools but the Council of Legal Education will accredit them and set standard for them. If you train your students (universities), you can come for the law school examination. Government has no business in creating law campuses.

"This is the next major project we are doing now. We have concluded plans. I am using one law school abroad to do the fine-tuning.

"Legal education in Nigeria will be brought to the 21st century standard. The curriculum will be affected too. I don't have to amend the law to do this. Under the enabling law, I can do it," he said.

But the decision to scrap the four campuses of the Nigerian Law School has begun to generate controversy in the legal circle. Many lawyers including members of the inner bar like Prince Adetokunboh Kayode (SAN) have hailed the plan while some others including Chief Chris Uche (SAN) condemned it.

According to Uche (SAN), "with due respect, I believe it will amount to gross abdication of governmental responsibility to concession practical legal education being handled by the Law Schools to the same University law faculties that have been found not only deficient in theoretical legal education, but defaulting by consistently exceeding quota restriction which in the first place led to the backlog of students waiting to attend the Law Schools. I think it will not be in the interest of legal education in this country to do that just because government wants to evade responsibility for the provision of necessary logistics for the expansion of facilities for the Law Schools.

"We are grappling with the problem of falling standards, and rather than solve it, any attempt to delegate law school education to University faculties will exacerbate the problem. To resort to private studentship which is the implication of the proposal is to eliminate the character contents of legal education."

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[Richard Akindele]

THE decision by government to scrap the Nigerian Law School, NLS, extends the frontiers of deregulation to legal education and training. University education is being deregulated. Private universities are springing up in different parts of the country - more are said to be on the way.

Chief Bayo Ojo, SAN, Minister for Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, said the decision to place legal training in private hands is almost concluded. It is a commendable move for it could open up the platform for training of lawyers which for seven years has been stalled by inadequate infrastructure as evident in the back log of Law graduates awaiting their one year professional programme.

The NLS was established in 1962. It moved to Abuja in 1997 and runs three other campuses in Enugu, Kano and Lagos. The multi-campus innovation has not solved the problem of backlog of Law graduates which began in 1997 with the movement of the NLS to Abuja which had inadequate facilities to train lawyers. The Council for Legal Education introduced the two-tier system last month to accommodate more Law graduates in the NLS programme.

Projected gains of deregulation aside, we call for caution in the planned legal training. There is no evidence of existing private sector infrastructure that could be ploughed into aiding immediate commencement of the programme. Why the hurry?

The universities are deficient in personnel and infrastructure. They would not be very helpful. Where would the new teachers come from? The National Universities Commission, NUC, recently withdrew accreditation of Law courses from most of these universities. Can such institutions be saddled with additional task of vocational training? These are foundational ingredients for maintaining quality and high standard of legal education in the country. A law to establish this new method of legal training is imperative.

Hints that unified examinations would be taken at the same time by students of all licensed Law Schools is gratifying. This, however, would not solve problems associated with facilities and teaching staff. The Council for Legal Education has a major role to play. The Council should set the Bar examinations and dates for all aspiring lawyers to participate in them. In addition, the Council should accredit and regulate prospective and existing Law Schools to ensure that standards are maintained.

Proper planning would be needed to save legal training from another round of confusion in the manner of the 1997 movement of the NLS to Abuja that created the problems this initiative is meant to solve.