The recent mass failure recorded at the last Final Bar Examination of the Nigerian Law School has remained a source of worry for two reasons. Firstly, it shows a serious decline in our legal education. Secondly, it symptomatic of the rot in the nation’s educational system. Startling figures by the NLS indicate that 57 per cent passed while 33 per cent failed meaning that the students would have to attend at least eight weeks of compulsory revision classes, to make up for the poor performance.
The NLS on its part had insisted that the poor outing actually reflected the performance of the students. To some of the students, the school’s Director-General, Dr. Olanrewaju Onadeko-led management had failed them en masse, as they called for a review of the entire results. Many legal practitioners are also divided on the issue.
Already, the Nigerian Bar Association has indicated its willingness to carry out an investigation into the matter. Without prejudice to the outcome of such an effort, it is useful to examine a few factors that could be responsible and justify why legal education should be accorded priority and revamped. To begin with, the unfortunate development is a reflection of the quality of graduates being churned-out by our universities caused by the persistent problems of poor funding, inadequate manpower and non-adherence to extant admission and academic guidelines.
Apart from these, enrolling students that are not passionate about the course could be a big problem. Again, universities without the necessary human resources, capacity and strategic goal needed to run such courses began to offer law programme lately for pure commercial reasons. Another factor could be the students’ addiction to the use of the social media. This point was affirmed by the Chairman of Council for Legal Education (CLE) and a former National President of the NBA, OCJ Okocha (SAN), who blamed the dismal performance to social media abuse by the law students.
Both the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the CLE should monitor universities more closely to ensure that they adhere strictly to stipulated academic standards. As suggested by some lawyers, integral courses being taught in the law school be transferred to law faculties. For now, what is being taught in the university is just the substantive law like the law of torts, labour law, family law, criminal law, customary and non-customary law and so on, while the law school curriculum is designed for the procedural law. No doubt, a good knowledge in courses like the criminal procedure codes and acts, and law of evidence would be useful to law faculties. Secondly, there is the need to review the existing admission policy. As obtainable in developed countries, only graduates of other disciplines are allowed to enroll for LL.B. While we may not have a complete shift to this policy, we could settle for an arrangement such that a certain number of admitted students should basically be mature candidates.
There is also the need to get more experienced and practicing lawyers to teach students. This would be of immense help because law – being academic and professional in nature – should strike a good balance of the two in imparting the requisite knowledge. While most academic staff in law faculties are mostly engaged in teaching, research and writing of papers for publication, legal practitioners engage more in the actual legal practice. Therefore, the senate of universities offering law should relax the stringent conditions in appointing academic staff such that brilliant lawyers can be allowed to teach various aspects of law programme.
This could be on a part-time basis while local branches of NBA should assist in this regard with special emphasis placed on the sound teaching of substantive law courses like the Nigerian legal system, constitutional law, legal methods and law of contract. The NLS should ban the use of social media devices in class. Moot court proceedings should be made more regular. It is troubling to note that many students fail to abide by simple instruction of dressing properly using the official dress code. Most times, future lawyers are sent away from the lecture and examination rooms for bad and indecent dressing! Let me quickly add that with the system adopted by the NLS, it will be extremely difficult to deliberately either fail or victimise any student, as being insinuated.
The law school should also review its curriculum to ensure that what operates in the 21st century is imparted on the students. And for the teachers, they should de-emphasise the common practice of merely dictating notes because there is a limit to what students can write and comprehend within a short space of time. By virtue of their unique training and job, lawyers are equipped to have sound problem-solving skills that are useful to providing good governance in diverse areas such as the promotion of accountability by helping citizens check the excesses of leaders, establish and sustain effective and viable institutions, process the framework that engenders constitutional democracy. Therefore, serious attention should be accorded to the training of lawyers in the country.
