Concern over falling standard of law education

Stakeholders have raised fresh concerns over the falling standard of law education as the Nigerian Law School prepares for the 2015 final Bar examination. The latest criticism was made by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a Professor of Law. At the inauguration ceremony of the Ultra-Modern Sir Adetokunbo Ademola Dinning Hall of the Law School, Lagos […]

Stakeholders have raised fresh concerns over the falling standard of law education as the Nigerian Law School prepares for the 2015 final Bar examination.
The latest criticism was made by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, a Professor of Law.
At the inauguration ceremony of the Ultra-Modern Sir Adetokunbo Ademola Dinning Hall of the Law School, Lagos last week, Osinbajo called for reforms of the law profession in the country to meet international standards.
Stakeholders including judges, lawyers and members of the public have in recent times made similar complaints about poor law education in Nigeria.
In the last five years, with the exception of the 2013 set that posted impressive performance, results of the Law School examinations have returned high number of failures, raising serious questions on the curriculum, teaching methods and capacities of individual students.
For instance, in 2010 out of the 5,178 candidates, who enrolled from the various local and international institutions, 1,228 failed while 2,426 graduated with passes. About 180 candidates got second class upper, 1,118 second class lower with only two making first class.
The 2011 set witnessed the worst performance as out of the 4,268 candidates who wrote the exam, 1,378 failed. 717 made second class lower while 132 made second class upper grade. Five made first class.
In 2012 with 1,562 failures out of 5,449 candidates, 2, 783 passed and 900 made second class lower with 195 making second class upper. Nine candidates however graduated with first class.
In 2013, 4, 200 candidates wrote the examinations out of which 81.82 per cent passed, meaning that failures are18.18 per cent.
The decline worsened in 2014 when out of a total of 5,841 regular candidates that took the exam 1, 932 failed. Four candidates had first class honours, while 96 candidates had 2nd class upper division and 620 had 2nd class lower division. A total of 2,610 passed while 501 had conditional passes.
This situation must have informed Osinbajo’s warning that the law profession might lose its relevance in the country if urgent reforms are not done.
“This is an institution where we teach the law, teach character and teach discipline. But the declining rate of law education in the country calls for concern,” the VP, who served as Lagos State  Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice form 1999 to 2007, reportedly said.
“The Council of Legal Education (CLE) is a statutory body charged with the responsibility of ensuring standards in the teaching and learning of legal education.
“I urge members of the council to ensure that the necessary restructuring and reorganisation of the legal education sector is put in place to promote the Nigerian legal system, until it is at par with international standard,” he said.
Meanwhile at a recent proceeding at an Abuja Federal High Court, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Salisu Maikyau, apparently miffed by the attitude of some of the law students on court attachment in refusing to stand up for senior lawyers, expressed his disappointment to the presiding judge.
“My lord, this is not what we were taught in our time,” he had said.
Similarly, Barr. Julius Atanawhemera said the situation is not just the devalued character of recent law graduates but also their competence.
On his part, a legal practitioner and lecturer Sylvester Imhanobe blamed the falling standard of law graduates to lack of discipline on the part of the students.
“The digital age has reduced the level of concentration. Law requires a lot of maturity and discipline. The Law School is a vocational institution where they test your intelligence more than memory and our students of today prefer to work on things to do with memory,” he said.
To address the situation, the General Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mazi Afam Osigwe, urged review of the curriculum of the Nigerian Law School, adding that the association is coming up with recommendations to the CLE.
However, a recent attempt by law academic and consultant, Kevin Nwosu, to bridge the learning gap between law graduates from the universities and the Law School was not well received by the school.
Nwosu had set up the Kevin Nwosu Law Institute to offer tools that will improve the capacity of students to understand and pass Bar examinations.
But the CLE and Nigerian Law School issued a disclaimer dated July 10, 2015 warning parents, guardians and the general public that the institute did not have the “competence to determine the requirement and expectations of prospective students of the Nigerian Law School.”
Also speaking on the standard of law education, Secretary of the Law School, Elizabeth Max-Uba, pointed out the difficulty in attempting to cure the defects in the country’s education system in just nine months that the students are trained at the Law School.
Nwosu, however, maintained that those opposed to his intervention were not well informed about its objectives, adding that a lot could be achieved if efforts were devoted to improving the study skills of Law School students, instead of buck-passing.
He added that the programme and tools he developed were based on his personal experience teaching law for over 25 years.
Efforts continue on how to address the issue. Ultimately, stakeholders would agree on how to bridge all the gaps including demand and supply while retaining the quality of graduates who move into the legal profession.