Character is a requirement for law – Mamman

How has it been at the helm of affairs of the Law School?It’s been a very exciting experience for me in the sense that our work here is not a routine work, it’s something very practical. You see the outcome of your work. If you do well you will see the result, if you don’t […]

How has it been at the helm of affairs of the Law School?
It’s been a very exciting experience for me in the sense that our work here is not a routine work, it’s something very practical. You see the outcome of your work. If you do well you will see the result, if you don’t do well, the result is there for you to see. So for me, it’s been a very challenging experience to be in charge of the production of lawyers for about eight years now.
Has there been any significant change in the institution within the period of your tenure as the DG?
Well I’m not quite comfortable answering that question because I believe you should be judge. However, broadly speaking, yes, we have been able to discharge the mandate of the office in terms of the running of the school.
What are your thoughts on jurisprudence in Nigeria now and in the future?
We still have some work to do because we seem not to be focusing too much on the component of our law in terms of the customary laws, indigenous laws, every day laws which we have in the society as different from most of the important laws which we have in the country. I remember up to the early 80s there was very strong literature on African customary law which we don’t have now unfortunately and we’ve been complaining and raising this issue. Then of course globalisation to a large extent has affected our values which in turn have also affected our laws and our legal system generally speaking.  So we have a lot of work to do there and our academics have a lot of work to do to resurrect it and give life to our local domestic laws.
What in your opinion should be done to improve the standard of legal education in the country?
From my experience on accreditation, we haven’t seen so much of innovations with regards to curriculum development of the universities. Most professors and teaching staff get stock on the BMAS, which is the Basic Minimum Academic Standard that will be simply adopted. So we have a lot of work to do which is the reason why the Council on Legal Education recently set up a committee to review the LLB programme of universities. I hope that will work. I believe very soon that committee will be set to work.
As I’ve earlier said a lot of work is already going on to strengthen the programme of the Law School and ensure that it is up-to-date to distill lawyers who are conscious of their values and responsibilities to the society and clients; lawyers who are conscious of their duties of justice generally speaking. So this has been the focus of our programme at the Law School. We believe that by the time the council’s committee on curriculum review finishes its work, it will come up with a very good curriculum for the universities. That will go a long way in ensuring that the standards are as good as they can be anywhere.
What should be done to curtail the activities of some institutions of higher learning that operate legal education without appropriate accreditation?
It’s a very serious problem actually because it underscores the impunity which seems to prevail in our country. I don’t expect a right thinking person to go and set up an academic institution without getting clearance from the relevant regulatory bodies because there are so much that go into the setting up and running of an academic institution. It’s not just like any other business. Now what to do is a challenge to the regulatory bodies – National Universities Commission, Council on Legal Education in case of lawyers, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria in the case of the doctors, pharmacists and the medics – to ensure that products from that kind of system are not recognised anywhere. We in the Law School don’t recognise them.
I know of a couple of universities whose products cannot come to the Law School for further training because the schools are not certified. So these are the things which regulatory bodies can do. Then down the road, get the law amended so that there will be some criminality in it and some punitive measures against the proprietors and anybody who is working in an institution which is not recognised. The culprits should suffer criminal penalty and heavy fines if possible.
What would you say about the character and learning of the 21st century lawyers?
At any period in time, character and learning are the whole essence of education because if somebody is simply lettered and then he cannot apply his knowledge with some ethics, then that knowledge doesn’t profit that person; it doesn’t profit the society. So it will continue to be relevant; it will continue to be demanded because there is so much of moral decadence in the society now. We will need to continue to advocate adherence to strong virtues by the young and people who are going into the profession, because that is really what gives society confidence in what they do. That they will do the right thing; that they would not go behind to be smart and cut corners.