‘We Don’t Need More Law School Campuses’

It was quite an engaging weekend with the longest serving Lecturer at the Nigerian Law School, former Deputy Director General & Head of Lagos Campus, Mrs Adetoun Adebiyi. Onikepo Braithwaite and Jude Igbanoi discussed with her, several crucial issues about the Nigerian legal education system, and her responses were frank, honest and bold, including   issues of creating more Law School campuses, the Law School curriculum, quality of Lawyers being called to the Bar, splitting the profession into Barristers and Solicitors, an overview of how the Law School has fared in its 60 years of training Lawyers for the nation, and the need for Nigeria to implement a good gender affirmative action policy, to show commitment to gender inclusiveness, especially in leadership positions where there seems to be a paucity of women

We understand that you are the longest-serving Lecturer at the Nigerian Law School, and also a former Deputy Director General and Head of its Lagos Campus. In fact, most of us were taught by you, at one point in time or the other. Kindly, give us an overview of your career at the Law School

My career at the Law School, has spanned close to four decades. After my LLM at the London School of Economics,  I joined the law firm of Dr Lateef Adegbite & Co. at Unity House in Lagos. I was then employed by the Council of Legal Education, Nigerian Law School, in 1985 as a lecturer Grade 2. I started by teaching the foreign-trained students, Nigerian Land Law, while teaching the Bar Part 2 students Insurance Law and Law of Business Taxation as part of General Paper that’s now restyled Professional Ethics and Skills. I do not have my timelines accurate now, but, subsequently, Insurance was merged with Company Law and Taxation was subsequently scrapped. 

 Anyway, over the years I have taught Civil Procedure (Civil Litigation), Criminal Procedure (Criminal Litigation), Mortgages and Perfection in Legal Drafting and Conveyancing Law (now Property Law Practice), and presently, I teach  Corporate Law Practice (was called Company Law Practice back then).    

In 1997, I resigned as a Senior Lecturer when the Law School was hurriedly moved to Abuja, without the necessary facilities. I recall that late Toyin Doherty and I, my colleague and a very close friend, as Senior Lecturers were paired to share a small flat in Bwari as our accommodation. We both rejected the accommodation. Toyin rented a bungalow in Asokoro, but I resigned. It was a very painful decision for me, but I had no other choice at that time. 

Luckily, Nigerian Law School later started the operation of a multi-campus system in 2001 with Bwari campus, Abuja serving as the Headquarters, and campuses were established in Lagos, Enugu, Kano, Yola, Bayelsa and recently Port Harcourt. I was re-appointed into the services of the Council of Legal Education as a Deputy Director of Academics in 2001, and posted to Lagos campus. In 2013, I was appointed the Deputy Director-General and Head of Lagos Campus for a single term of five years. In 2018, I completed my tenure as the head of Lagos Campus and thereafter, returned to the classroom teaching Corporate Law till date.

So far, the percentage of women in our Legislature (both National and State) and those who hold top Executive positions like Ministers, is rather low. The Judiciary is the only arm Government, that seems to be trying in this regard. How do we get more women into top leadership positions? Do we need to enact affirmative action laws like countries like Rwanda, to achieve this goal? Some say it is anti-democratic to insist on this kind of legislation. What are your views on this?

It does not take rocket science to know that, women are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions.

I am aware that in clamouring for affirmative action, there are many interest groups each claiming superiority. Having said this, there are as many criteria as there are interest groups to satisfy. Even the Federal Character Commission (FCC) at some time, did not comply with the tenets of their mandate. I think it was in 2020 when the Chairman and Secretary of FCC originated from the same region (North).

Again, I was reading the other day that only three females won at the Senate, and 14 won at the House of Representatives, making a total of 17 female lawmakers in the 10th National Assembly.

The federal character principle is also applied to the public education system, through the quota system. Specifically, admission into Unity Schools, where different cutoff marks exist for students, depending on their State of origin. All these point to the need for new governments at all levels, to demonstrate real commitment to gender inclusiveness.

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) in 2020, approved an updated national gender policy, which sets a minimum standard expected of the Nigerian government to meet its mandate for gender equality. Women groups went to court to enforce this affirmative action, what became of the outcome of the case? 

The House of Representatives voted against a Bill, that seeks provision for affirmative action for women in political parties’ administration.

Section 147[3] of the Nigerian Constitution mandates that the President appoint a Minister from each State of the Federation to reflect the federal character of Nigeria in appointments to public offices. The issue of gender or any other vulnerable sector, is only sporadically mentioned. All this points to the need for new governments at all levels, to demonstrate real commitment to gender inclusiveness.

Until we have a holistic solution that mandates strict compliance and also prescribes consequences of non-compliance, we are still not serious in its enforceability. I will say that, until the Law explicitly says that an appointment that does not strictly comply with the prescribed criteria for representation is to be automatically declared null void and ineffective. Unless, of course, it can be shown that nobody else exists for the position or the person does not have an interest in the position. I am not unmindful of what this kind of policy can do, especially the recurring argument that this might promote mediocrity, I say this kind of argument is not sustainable. 

In Rwanda, 30% of all representatives, including those in Parliament, must be women. Rwanda’s quota is different from many other systems, in that it’s not a quota based solely on candidates, but rather reserves a minimum number of seats for women (often known as Equality of Result quotas). In the case of women-only seats, only women are eligible to vote.

Nigeria will advance by borrowing some form of affirmative action policy, from countries that apply the policies.

Some people have complained that the curriculum of Universities and even that of Law School are outdated, and the standards have fallen. That Law School’s curriculum hasn’t really been changed in over 30 years. 

It is not correct to say the curriculum of the Law School is outdated, or that it has not changed in over 30 years. We started the new curriculum (Clinical teaching) in the 2007/2008 academic session, under the leadership of Professor Tahir Mamman, SAN, the current Minister of Education, when he was the Director General of the Law School. We had very intensive training, on the adoption of the new curriculum. The old system of teaching was the method adopted by most Nigerian schools, Dictation of notes with minimal practical content. We had three one-hour classes, in each course undertaken at the Law School. I recall that students would ask you to spell every other word or name especially English names like Donoghue v Stevenson, and if a lecturer as much as suggested that they ought to have learnt this basic case law or principle at the LL.B level, there would be an orchestra of hisses from the students. Once a week, we had “tutorials in each course” purportedly preparing the students for the Bar Final Exams. What we noticed then was that the students would only take the main lecture seriously, and would not bother to attend the tutorial classes. Even at tutorials, we noticed that the same sets of students prepared for and participated in the tutorial classes. Essentially it was always time-wasting. Our emphasis then, also was the teaching of law and its principles. I recall that when I taught Mortgages, my emphasis was always on the principles, and only mentioned in passing the procedures for perfection.

We had many academic retreats where experts in clinical legal education from within and outside Nigeria, trained the Lecturers. Professor Ojukwu (then the Head of Enugu campus) was in the forefront, and would not tolerate any slack from any Lecturer. We had sessions lasting from morning till late, every day for weeks. It is interactive in approach, and the Law School, being a vocational institution, we knew we had to make them learn by “doing”. 

Let me give an example: 

This year, in Corporate Law Practice, the subject that I teach. We had Annual General Meeting (AGM) simulation. From that simulation, every student participant had to memorise his/her lines and read up on the legal principles. A student who prepared well is unlikely to ever forget that topic, because we had more than eight rehearsals. If you misquoted the law or facts, the audience would laugh at you. After the rehearsals, we had the simulation, with every participating student fully in the character. And, as the simulation was going on, the relevant sections of the law were projected on the auditorium screen, for everyone to follow the law and the facts.

Another notable change is the Law Clinic. We partnered with Lagos Public Private Interest Law Partnership (LPILP), an NGO that is a partnership between Lagos State Government and Big law firms offering pro-bono services to the indigents. The students took this innovation very seriously. They used their money, sometimes to visit inmates they were defending in prison. When I was the head of Lagos campus, we also operated a pro-bono clinic as part of the innovation that I introduced at the Lagos Campus. We had many clients, and the students were always eager to meet with prospective clients to offer legal advice. If the case involved litigation, they would transfer the matter to LPILP to assign the case to any of the participating law firms.  

Another method we adopt now, is to send tasks to the students ahead of a class. So, before a Corporate law class that is held on Wednesdays, we would send a practice-based task to the group leaders on Monday. Students are divided into 10 groups at the beginning of the session, each group has a leader. The students are supposed to meet to discuss the task, and on Wednesday we will call on them to make a presentation of their answer. Each group is assessed on the answer they would have sent to us electronically, before the class. 

Other innovations are: 

•Snap Tests – This was an assessment method introduced to the Lagos Campus by Professor Fabian Ajogwu, SAN, when he came to deliver a lecture to the students on Career Choice in 2005. Without warning, we assess the students at intervals individually to test their understanding of the courses. The test covers all the subjects taught. 

•Electronic handbook – If you recall, students are given handbooks of all subjects at the beginning of the session. Around 2009, I converted each course to an electronic book. Each referenced section of the law or full judgement appearing in any course, was hyperlinked to the source. This was an innovation embraced by Professor Tahir Mamman, but was discontinued by Professor Lanre Onadeko in 2013.

•Pre-Bar Tests – This is done just before the Bar Final exams, and its meant to replicate the Bar Final Scenario-based Questions

Today, there are widespread concerns over the quality of law graduates and new wigs. With your wealth of experience in legal education, kindly, share your views on this with us 

I ponder over this a lot. Sometimes, I try to find answers to questions like why Nigerian-trained law graduates tend to perform better in Bar final Exams than their foreign-trained counterparts. Why do women consistently perform better than men in class and in exams? One thing that I know is that, some universities do not thoroughly train their students before passing them to the Law School for vocational training. From the same university, you find an extremely bright and dedicated student, while another student from the same university is looking for a person that can help change or swap his marks for a fee. It’s like a Nigerian epidemic. In every class, you will identify those who are in Law School because they love Law, and those who are there because they need to please their parents and have no motivation to learn, so any way out of Law School is welcome. This latter category is students who cram their notes, and regurgitate them with no understanding. These are students who will ask questions, only for the “purpose of Bar Final Exams”.

Truth be told, the content and courses being undertaken now at the Nigerian Law School are more detailed when compared to what it was 40 years ago.  Students now are exposed to more learning materials.

There are more courses, and a more clinical approach to the study and understanding of Nigerian law and practice. The standard of the Nigerian Law School, is still admirably high; this explains why other African countries continue to send their law graduating students to Nigeria for their Law School programme. 

Do you support the creation of more campuses of the Nigerian Law School, given the serious logistics challenges involved, or do you believe that what exists presently is adequate? 

There is no reason why there should be an influx of Law Schools everywhere, when the existing ones seriously lack basic infrastructure. I have not been to Port-Harcourt, but I understand it’s the model Law School. I cannot say the same for the others. The cost of establishing or maintaining a new school can be utilised in upgrading the existing ones, so the students can enjoy their one-year vocational training wherever they are posted, It’s heartbreaking for parents and their wards to beg not to be posted to a particular campus, and having to skip Law School for a year or two to avoid going to particular campuses, because of the living condition in those campuses. It is really disheartening.

It has been suggested by a few on numerous occasions that Law should be made a second degree like in USA, or in the alternative, Law School should be made a two-year programme, or even that Law School be scrapped and replaced with a system that would allow big and well established law firms train law graduates and present them to take Bar. exams in various locations across the country. Other professions like Accounting do it. What is your view on this?

There is nothing wrong in self-examination, and in seeking to improve our institutions. But, truth be told, the Law School has not done too badly. Take a look at the various sectors of our national life, and you will see products of the sectors contributing their quota. Some countries have come to learn from our system of vocational legal education. What we need to do, is to strengthen the institution and reposition it to better serve the purpose envisioned for it by the founding fathers.There is no need to scrap the Law School. I support the view for the establishment of private Law Schools operating parallel with the Nigerian Law School, with a strengthened Council of Legal Education to conduct examinations for all to control the standards of professional legal education.

Presently, you teach Corporate Law & Practice. Do you think the Companies and Allied Matters Act  2020 has done anything to aid the ease of doing business in Nigeria? If not or not enough, kindly, give a few suggestions of what else can be done to make doing business in Nigeria easier 

Yes, definitely the fact that all processes are now automated at the CAC, including integration of an online payment platform (REMITA).

Others that I can think of are:

•The introduction of single-member companies, that are not mandated to hold an Annual General Meeting. This reduces the regulatory burden, on small and medium-scale enterprises.  

•Private companies are allowed to hold virtual meetings.

•Minimum issued share capital, now replaces Authorised share capital.

•The disclosure by persons with significant control.

•The recognition of electronic share transfers.

•The establishment of a Quasi-Judicial body called the Administrative Proceedings Committee (the “Committee”), empowered to resolve disputes or grievances arising from the operation of CAMA 2020 or its regulations, and impose penalties for any contraventions. The decisions of the Committee are subject to confirmation by the Governing Board of the Corporate Affairs Commission (the “CAC”), and may be the subject of an appeal to the Federal High Court. The composition of the membership of the Committee has raised some eyebrows, because the Registrar General (RG) and five unit heads at the CAC are members of this Committee, which means there is bound to be a likelihood of bias on the part of the accuser, the CAC. 

• In 2017, CAC announced operating 24-hour company registration process, to make the startup of business easier in Nigeria. I am not really sure it is still operational, because CAC has issues with their server all the time. It’s also slow. They do not have accurate records of companies, when they migrated their services from manual to electronic. 

Apart from CAMA, there are many other incentives aimed at ease of doing business. There are many tax reliefs and holidays available to startup and existing companies, not just CAMA.

At 7,000 called per annum, would you say Nigeria is over-producing Lawyers? 

Sure there are up to 200,000 practicing Lawyers in Nigeria. This is a country of over 100 million people, so the number of Lawyers is not what I am worried about. We have hundreds of thousands of cases, that are filed daily in our courts. So, there is work for them to do. My worry is that most of these so-called Lawyers spend almost the first four years taking adjournments and arguing interlocutory applications in courts, without even considering arguing any substantive law. This means that our jurisprudence is not really developing. If you look at the Law reports, two categories of cases are dominant- Election petitions, most of which are either arguments on pre-election matters or time within which to file the petitions. There are not many cases I have come across, that deal with the substance of the petition. The second category, is interlocutory applications and appeals. Whether a party has the locus to sue; Jurisdiction or competence of the court. 

60% of cases involving foreign companies will waste years on preliminary matters whether the foreigner has registered as a Nigerian business, as though only foreigners registered as Nigerian companies can sue in Nigeria. So, to sum it up we are not over- producing Lawyers. Many of our Lawyers are not practicing law, they only report to courts every day with no accountability of the day.

I must say though, that our criminal jurisprudence is well advanced and developing at a relatively acceptable pace. 

Should the legal profession in Nigeria be split into Barristers and Solicitors, as is obtainable in the UK? 

Having frequently interfaced with law students and Lawyers for as long as I have, I will unequivocally recommend the split.

Many Barristers and Solicitors in Nigeria, would rather practice law as either one or the other. Many who prefer to practice as Solicitors are discouraged, and wonder why their choice to offer general legal advice, prepare legal documentation, and sparingly appear in Courts and tribunals should not be acclaimed like their counterparts in advocacy.  Why is advocacy the benchmark to be a SAN? Why do we not have an equivalent for Solicitors? Even the conferment on Academics was reviewed, such that it’s only awarded to Academics in exceptional cases. I think we should sever the title Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. With that, it will be easy to confine the roles of these professionals in their areas of specialisation. Very often you see dedicated Barristers vying for M&A brief for the money, without the requisite skills to back it. We need to look into redefining the roles of Lawyers, rather than this “Jack of all trade” approach we adopt in Nigeria.

Thank you