By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA — Far-reaching proposals capable of overhauling the nation’s legal education system dominated discussions at the 2026 Legal Education Summit organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
Prominent among the proposals were demands for the Nigerian Law School (NLS) to be scrapped, as well as calls for a reduction in the number of years required for the study of law.
The Council of Legal Education (CLE) is the statutory body responsible for regulating legal education and professional training for aspiring lawyers in the country.
Established under the Legal Education (Consolidation, etc.) Act of 1976 (re-enacting the 1962 Act), the Council oversees the Nigerian Law School and ensures standards for bar admission.
In addition to managing the one-year vocational training programme at the NLS for law graduates from approved universities, the CLE also accredits law faculties and issues qualifying certificates for call to the Bar.
The Attorney-General of the Federation oversees the Council, which currently operates seven campuses across all the geopolitical zones, with Abuja as the headquarters.
At the summit, the President of the NBA, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, was among those who argued that the five years students spend studying law at the university is unnecessary and should be reduced to three.
According to him, proposed reforms must “consider the desirability of the present five-year length of study for the law degree, the course content of the university education, the course content and thrust of the Law School, the possibility of licensing private law schools or legal education practitioners, the requisite qualifications for sitting for a Bar Finals examination, etc.”
He adopted the position that keeping a person in a law faculty for five years will not improve the quality of legal education.
“It is generally said that a lawyer can only be as good as the system of legal education that produced him.
“The imperativeness of a system of legal education that can produce lawyers with the necessary skills and capacity to meet the evolving needs of society has always been emphasised.
“The practical and focused content of university education will achieve better results even if it lasts for three years.
“In fact, some of the courses offered in universities are, in reality, subsumed under some courses that are of practical relevance to legal practice,” the NBA President added.
He equally agreed with a suggestion that the only subjects in the LLB degree, or equivalent, that should be compulsory for eligibility to sit the Bar examination should be the core subjects, namely: constitutional law; administrative law; criminal law; tort; contract; land law; equity and trusts; and the Nigerian legal system.
He maintained that reducing the length of the LLB programme will help poor students, drawing references from England, where the programme usually lasts three years, and the University of Buckingham, which offers a two-year programme.
“This will no doubt be a welcome relief for many law graduates who are increasingly finding it difficult to pay the Law School fees, not to mention clothing, feeding, and shouldering other financial burdens of the other mandatory requirements of the Law School.
“The increasing number of law graduates, coupled with the inability of the Law School to admit them, may force a review of the system,” the NBA President added.
The summit took a controversial turn when the Vice-Chancellor of Imo State University, Prof. Uchefula Chukwumaeze, SAN, cited prevailing realities to argue that the Law School has outlived its usefulness and should be scrapped.
It was Prof. Chukwumaeze’s recommendation that the CLE’s functions should be limited solely to establishing the standards and requirements for Call to the Bar, while law faculties at accredited universities be permitted to undertake the training of prospective lawyers.
“If we are to talk about legal education, we must examine its foundation.
“Take the United States of America, for instance — the difference between them and us is that there is no Law School. There is also no Law School in the UK.
“Universities teach while the relevant law bodies accredit and examine. In which of the professional courses does the council set up an institution?
“The Council of Medical Associations in Nigeria conducts external examinations. Likewise the Council of Nursing and Midwifery, COREN for engineering, and the rest.
“The Council of Legal Education should abandon the idea of teaching. The Law School has served its useful purpose.
“Let us return to reality — and that reality is that the Council should abandon the idea of teaching and concentrate on setting the standards and requirements for Call to the Bar.
“In view of this, I make the following recommendations: The minimum requirement to study law in Nigeria should be reviewed. The mandatory requirement of Literature in English should be abolished.
“Subject combinations in JAMB should be abolished. To read law, credits should be required in English and any other three subjects in JAMB.
“The Council of Legal Education, in conjunction with the National Universities Commission (NUC), should perform the role of stipulating the minimum requirements for legal education in Nigeria.
“Third, the Nigerian Law School should be abolished as an institution, and the responsibility for legal education should be taken over by faculties of law in universities.
“In other words, this responsibility should mirror that of other regulatory bodies, such as the Council for the Regulation of Engineering, the Medical and Dental Council, and so on.
“Legal education, which should be taken over by universities, should span a minimum of seven years.
“The first five years for Bar Part 1, the sixth year for Bar Part 2, and the seventh year strictly for internship.
“The Bar Part 2 examinations should be supervised and conducted by the Council of Legal Education.
“It should be noted that WAEC conducts exams — it does not teach. NECO conducts exams — it does not teach. The Medical and Dental Council, COREN, ICAN, and others conduct exams; they do not teach.”
Prof. Chukwumaeze’s proposals drew the ire of the leaderships of both the Nigerian Law School (NLS) and the Council of Legal Education (CLE), who were also in attendance at the summit.
The Director-General of the NLS, Dr. Olugbemisola Odusote, dismissed the campaign for the school to be scrapped as misplaced and against the interest of legal education in the country.
“It would have been good if everybody attending this summit were able to say that the call was made objectively and in the interest of the nation and the profession.
“You will find out that some universities accredited by the NUC are not given the go-ahead to start by the Council of Legal Education.
“If such universities start law and train students for seven years, or whatever is being proposed, and then call them to the Bar, it does the profession more disservice, and that is not in the national interest.
“I believe that the call, with due respect, is out of place. The Council is regulating and doing what it should do,” the Law School DG added.
The Chairman of the CLE, Chief Emeka Ngige, SAN, did not mince words in dismissing the proposal as balderdash, insisting that the coordination of legal education should not be an all-comers affair.
He flayed the Imo State University VC for comparing the Council, which is statutorily recognised, with WAEC and JAMB.
“Legal education is not an all-comers affair. That was what the NBA stated at Ado-Ekiti in 2022.
“Let us be more concerned about things that will enhance legal education. You cannot compare becoming a lawyer with taking WAEC.
“WAEC conducts exams for you to have a certificate in order to take further exams, either to enter university or to go for other courses.
“In England, the Inns of Court is where you can study before you are called to the Bar. That is part of what we are doing here.
“What we are doing is reforming our legal education and not destroying it,” Ngige, SAN, added.
To strengthen legal education in the country, the NBA President, Osigwe, SAN, recommended the use of legal clinic education as a form of instructional teaching that combines substantive law with skills and values, and serves as the laboratory for practice, on the basis that the primary aim of legal training is to prepare students for practice.
He said: “Legal education should assume sufficient responsibility for professional skills training and for exercises requiring the application of knowledge to concrete situations.
“There should be less emphasis on rote learning; rather, students should be encouraged to develop critical thinking and independence of thought.
“I also suggest that we should prepare for a day when the present system of in-campus training for law graduates at the Nigerian Law School may be jettisoned.
“The increasing number of law graduates, coupled with the inability of the Law School to admit them, may force a review of the system.
“Not to be forgotten is the increasing cost of in-campus training: fees and living expenses. We may have to consider having law graduates admitted into the Barrister-at-Law (B.L.) programme, being provided with the course materials and allowed to prepare for the examinations without having to undergo in-campus training.
“We should develop physical (in-person), virtual, and computer-based training modules which incorporate practical aspects.
“The computer-based training modules should be developed in such a way that a lawyer can register for the course whenever he or she chooses and then take an examination at the end of the programme.
“The reform of legal education must look at legal education both as part of a broader and better-planned educational framework, while also recognising its critical role in the development of the legal system and society at large,” the NBA President added.
Meanwhile, both the Law School and the CLE have yet to respond to the agitation for a reduction of the five-year period for the study of law.
