Caleb University Reaffirms Readiness to Produce Lawyers Sensitive to Environmental Issues

The Dean of the College of Law, Caleb University, Lagos, Prof. Foluke Dada Lawanson, has reiterated the institution’s commitment to producing law graduates with a passion for environmental rights.

According to her, environmental issues, as one of the most contemporary across the world, need to be checked headlong to avoid the chains of devastating effects that come with it.

The dean stated this during a visit of students of the Law College to the  Erejuwa-Makoko Community in Lagos to uncover the remote cause/causes of the flooding and environmental degradation that had plagued the community over time and its social, cultural and economic impact on the lives of residents. 

Prof. Lawanson explained that the visit was sponsored by the  Advocates for Community Alternatives (ACA) in the US and the  Public Interest Lawyering Initiative For West Africa (PILIWA).

She noted that the initiative by the collaborating agencies was in a bid to further push for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on the environment.

The dean added that the initiative would give the students a better understanding and appreciation of environmental health issues and rights in society and the more affected states.

According to her, exposing the students to communities ravaged by environmental challenges will give them first-hand information on issues ranging from flooding and pollution to living standards and how residents cope with such challenges.

“In all, we are trying to balance the educational interest of the students with our own community responsibilities and that is, to produce lawyers who will not only know the law on environmental issues, but those who see, feel and work it,” she said.

She noted that with the effect of global warming in communities around the world, there is a need to put up enough sensitisation to highlight further the dangers inherent in mistreating the environment.

Also speaking, Mr. Courage Nsirimovu and Mrs. Gloria Aigbadon, both representatives of PILIWA, in collaboration with the Law Clinic students of the institution’s College of Law, said that information from the community residents revealed that cholera, malaria and tuberculosis spiked after the road construction failed in 2016.

According to them, this happened two months after construction. The locals said indigenes of the community are dying of cholera, incessant malaria and typhoid. The economic impact is that some businesses around the affected area have closed up, and some residents had to relocate when their houses became inhabitable. 

The Baale of Erejuwa-Makoko, High Chief Samuel Erejuwa, revealed that the major cause of the flooding and stagnant, polluted water is bad civil engineering work done by the contractor that constructed the road eight years ago.

The baale said the part of the road that sank was filled with only sharp sand before tarring or flooring instead of filling first with hardcore and then sharp sand before the interlock tiles. 

He also stated that the canal was not properly channelled, and it is blocked already, holding the stagnant water.

Members of the ACA-PILIWA Network amplified the community’s appeal to the Ministry of Environment and the federal and Lagos governments to come to their aid urgently.

They stated that the ACA-PILIWA believed that a case for a healthy, clean and sustainable environment could be brought against the Lagos government in favour of the community if the state failed to act as soon as possible.

Dr. Bamisaye Olutola, a senior lecturer at the College of Law, said that the purpose of the visit to the community was also to showcase the institution’s community engagement.

He added that it was also meant to bring the students face-to-face with the environmental sites.

“We have students who are members of the PILIWA Law Clinic at the College of Law at Caleb University as well as students offering Environmental Law. They will be able to see first-hand what it is like to pollute an environment and what it looks like to degrade it. 

“Now, I must say that law clinic like PILIWA Law Clinic in Caleb University strives to see how we can come from the NGO angle to bring a public awareness that can bring about solution to the problem.

“So, what we have made them understand about this firstly, is that we shall start by engaging stakeholders such as the Lagos State government, the Ministry of the Environment and its Works counterpart, to see what we can do to ensure that the problem is fixed and life returns to normalcy in the community,” he said.