The Council of Legal Education, Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and some Senators have opposed the move by the upper chamber of the National Assembly for the creation of additional six law Schools in addition to the existing seven.
Opposition to the move came to the fore on Monday at the Public Hearing Session organised on a bill seeking for its establishment and two others by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.
The legislative proposal titled: “Legal Education ( Consolidated etc, Amendment ) Bill 2021,” which the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters sought input by stakeholders, was stiffly resisted on the excuse that the existed ones are grossly underfunded.
While other senators kicked against the move, Senator Ike Ekweremadu (PDP Enugu West), specifically said, “establishment of new campuses or law schools should be left at the discretion of Council for Legal Education as empowered by the Act that set it up in 1962.”
The National President of Nigeria Bar Association ( NBA), Olumide Akpata ( SAN), said the move was unnecessary as the existing six are grossly underfunded before the intervention of Rivers State Government with a well-equipped campus in Port Harcourt.
He said: “With required infrastructure, the existing law schools across the country are enough to accommodate thousands of law students graduating from the various Universities.
“The Council for Legal Education is the institution empowered by law to set up a new campus on the basis of need assessment and not political considerations driving the move for the establishment of additional six across the six geo-political zones.
“Besides, resources of the Federal Government which are wearing out, cannot help in putting in place such campuses let alone, sustaining them.
“What is required from the Senate and by extension the National Assembly, is by way of Appropriation, team up with the executive for adequate funding of the existing law schools.”
The Chairman of the Council for Legal Education, Emeka Ngige, who said the council is 100% opposed to it, lamented the deplorable condition of most of the existing ones, which he said are due to gross underfunding.
“For instance, the deplorable condition in which students at the Yenagoa law campus are studying is worse than what prisoners in Ikoyi Prison are experiencing,” he said.
Explaining the condition of most campuses, Ngige said the lawmakers will shed tears if they visit some of the existing campuses and see the deplorable conditions in which students and lecturers are living.
“The move by the Senate through this bill is a more or less subtle usurpation of the functions of the Council for Legal Education.
“Any need for the establishment of a new law school campus, are by law, be routed through the Council for Legal Education as exemplified by the Rivers Model,” he explained.
The position of the senators on the move for more campuses was for accessibility of legal education by concerned knowledge seekers.
