Legal Profession Threatened As Council Accuses Varsities Of Running Unaccredited Law Programmes

The Council of Legal Education, Nigerian Law School, has raised the alarm that undergraduates are undergoing unaccredited programmes across a number of Faculties of Law in some universities in the country.

This was disclosed in its Statutory Report submitted to the Nigerian Bar Association (during its 62nd Hybrid Annual General Conference on 25th August, 2022), obtained by our correspondent.

Without naming the affected faculties, the council accused them of not sticking to the approved admission quota thereby jeopardizing the quality of law graduates they produce for the law school.

Admission quota has to do with the number of candidates that should gain admission into the tertiary institutions in one academic year from each state.

The Nigerian Law School is the last training programme that graduates must pass through to be qualified to become barristers and solicitors.

The Director-General, Nigerian Law School, Prof. Isa Hayatu Chiroma, SAN told the conference in the report that the issue of accreditation and quality control is becoming a concern to the legal profession.

“An emerging challenge for the profession is the proliferation of Law Faculties with tendencies to start Law Programmes amongst others without proper accreditation from the Council of Legal Education as a regulatory body, faculties violating their approved admission quota, etc,” he said.

To curb this anomaly, Chiroma added that the Council of Legal Education has approved new guidelines for accreditation of new and existing Law Faculties while sanctioning the faculties involved.

“We are currently working with the National Universities Commission to address these worrisome issues.

“I am to bring to your attention that the Council of Legal Education has in line with his extant laws sanctioned some universities for starting law programmes without approval of the Council.

“The Nigerian Bar Association is also invited to assist in this regard for the preservation and protection of our profession,” the council said in the report.

The disclosure is coming days after the outgone first Vice President of the NBA, John Aikpokpo Martins, told THE WHISTLER in an interview, that universities reducing cut-off marks for gaining admission, should be blamed for the massive failure rate at the 2021/2022 Bar Final Examinations.

Furthermore, the council prayed that the activities of the Nigerian Law School will not be disrupted by threats of attack by terrorists.

It states, “Let me respectfully bring to the kind attention of the Leadership and members of the Nigerian Bar Association a significant area of serious concern worthy of mention at this assemblage, which is the case of heightened security in our dear country especially around the host cities of our headquarters, Bwari and campuses.

“To the glory of God, and as reported in my last Call to the Bar address on July 27, 2022 to the distinguished Body of Benchers, all the orchestrated fears and rumours of imminent attacks on the Nigerian Law School community never and will never see the light of the day.”

THE WHISTLER reported that the school was forced to move its call to bar ceremony from Bwari, Abuja, to the Body of Benchers Secretariat in Jabi also in Abuja over terrorist attacks in surrounding areas.

The Body of Benchers Secretariat, Jabi is closer to Abuja city centre than the Law School which is located in the outskirts of Bwari in Abuja.