By Afe Babalola
I AM a good beneficiary of quality primary education as my formal classroom education ended at primary school. Everything I am today is due to the quality education inculcated in me by my teachers at Emmanuel Primary School, Ado-Ekiti in those days. It was this that made it possible for me to read at home to pass my GCE Ordinary Level and GCE Advanced Level and went ahead to obtain my B.Sc (Economics) of the University of London in 1959 and LL.B of the same university in 1963, both by private studies.
Everywhere in the world today, education is seen and perceived as the panacea to lack, ignorance, diseases and all forms of extremism. It also enlightens and invigorates the souls of men because it is the platform that makes them to become whatever they aspire to become in life.
Primary and secondary school education: The first step at repositioning legal education for national development is for policy makers to rejig elementary and secondary school curricula to include such subjects as Geography, History, Literature, Economics and Information Communication Technology, ICT. The reason for this is not far-fetched: while Geography teaches us about the existence of man, both in the past and in the present, History teaches us about the lives of important personalities, how they made it in life to the extent that we adopt many of them as our role models even without meeting them.
On its part, Literature teaches us about great men and women in the literary world and how to weave words together, while the place of ICT in the contemporary world cannot be wished away or over emphasized. When we look at the history of our great men and women today, most of them went to schools where the aforementioned subjects were taught. It was at that level they were taught how to harbour a strong abhorrence for corruption and all other ills that are afflicting our society today. They were taught the virtues of discipline, honesty, integrity and punctuality, and all of that have become part of them since then.
Another way of repositioning Legal Education is for the NUC to make it mandatory for students who want to study Law to have a minimum of Credit Pass in English Language, English Literature, Mathematics, Geography, History, Economics and Computer Education because of the central roles these subjects will play in the practice of the would-be lawyers in future. It is a well-known fact that in the United States of America and Germany and many other countries of the world, the standard of law practice is very high unlike what obtains here.
Law degree as a second degree: One of the factors responsible for the high standard is that a candidate must have a degree before he/she would be admitted to study Law. And that is why they have ensured over time that Law is studied as a second degree to ensure that those to be admitted into law colleges are really mature before coming to the Law College. On the contrary, in Nigeria, students who are admitted to study Law need only to pass School Certificate and JAMB examinations. Time it was when students must pass GCE Advanced Level or Higher School Examination, HSE, before they were admitted to universities. However, that the Federal Government in its wisdom somersaulted and lowered the admission standard to universities remains baffling and a mystery.
Nigeria should, therefore, take a cue from what obtains in Germany and the United States where a student to be admitted to their Law Colleges must have earned a degree in some other disciplines or at least G.C.E Advanced Level as obtained in England and as it was before in Nigeria.
Universities to prepare students for Bar Examination
The current trend whereby Law graduates go to the Nigerian Law School for their Bar Examination is commendable. But Government should go a step further by making the Central Law School an Examining Body only with power to screen quality and reputable universities for the training of lawyers for 18 months after their LL.B and conduct and moderate common examination preparatory for their final Call to Bar Examinations at the Law School. With this proposed arrangement, Law graduates from Nigerian universities will proceed to these reputable universities with up-to-date facilities and faculty members of international repute for their post-LL.B training and only go to the Law School to write their Call to Bar Examinations without having to be residential students in the Law School and only take the common Bar Examination. This will enable the Nigerian Law School to concentrate on supervision of the universities instead of proliferating Law Schools all over the country despite its lean pause.
It must also be mandatory for Law students to go through clinical training during their undergraduate days in their respective universities. This will make their training more robust and all-encompassing. Likewise, undergraduate Law students must be attached to some selected reputable law firms during holidays like we do in ABUAD to keep them busy, enable them acquire relevant experience and familiarise themselves with law processes.
Post-Call experience: In our days, the norm was that green wigs must be attached to reputable and seasoned law firms before they could set up their own practices. But all of that would appear to have changed. It is my belief that we must go back to that time-tested practice. Green wigs must be made to serve a period of a minimum of one year under reputable and experienced lawyers. This will certainly enhance the standard of practice.
The role of practitioners: The Practitioners have a big role to play in repositioning legal education for national development. The starting point for practitioners is for them to appreciate the place and import of partnerships instead of running one-man Law offices. Indeed, one-man Law offices should be discouraged while Law firms should be encouraged just as lawyers should team up as Law firms.
Specialisation by Law firms: In addition to the above, lawyers should specialise in different areas of Law such as Constitutional Law, Human Rights Law, Jurisprudence and International Law, Commercial Law, Litigation and Arbitration, among many others.
JAMB, NUC & Council for Legal Education: In view of the different admission rules and guidelines for admission into Law degrees among the above three bodies, there is an urgent need for the three bodies and or government to take urgent steps to harmonise the different admission rules and guidelines in the interest of repositioning legal education for national development. Also, the different cut-off marks for different universities would do more harm to the quality of education in the country. To correct this malaise, cut off points for admission into Nigeria universities should be the same. A situation whereby some universities admit candidates who scored 140 or less out of a total mark of 400 is ridiculous. In our days, a child who scored less than 50% would incur the wrath of his teachers and would be caned for his indolence. But now, indolence is being encouraged by agreeing to admit people who scored as low as 30% in their qualifying examination.
Common Final Examination for all universities: Deriving from the above, all final year students of Nigeria universities, be they private or public, should be made to write the same final examination as it is being done by the Council for Legal Education for law graduates. It is through this method that Nigerians and indeed the whole world will appreciate the quality of our education. Under this condition, universities would be forced to raise the standard of students they admit as they will only admit candidates who are fit as university materials.