TOWARDS REGAINING LEARNING AND CORRECTING LEANINGS IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Legal education in Nigeria consists of academic study in a Law faculty and a year in the Law School. Lawyers in Nigeria are versed in English legal thought but many law graduates know nothing of customary law or Islamic law beyond their ‘repugnant’ aspects. The Nigeria Law School through the Council of Education accredits Law faculties but the criteria for the exercise are not well known. The Council of Legal Education and the National Universities Commission are currently locked in a struggle for control of the academic curriculum of law faculties. The university is all about freedom, initiative, explorations and innovations but the Law School is built on regimentation, formalism, and conformity. The competition between practice and academics is yielding to the glorification of “practical” knowledge acquired in practice over “mere academic” knowledge. Academics need to justify their exulted position by publishing well-researched materials in reputable journals across the world. We should no longer study “law” as an abstract concept. The law must be rooted in the society. In addition, we need to jettison much of the anachronisms acquired from English law.