…calls for stakeholders summit

…condemns proliferation of Appeal Court divisions

Hon. Justice Umaru Farouk Abdullahi is the 4th President of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal. He was also a former Chairman of the Body of Benchers. His Lordship spoke with Lillian Okenwa.

My lord could you give some insight into the roles of Law Faculties, Council of Legal Education and Body of Benchers in the training of lawyers in Nigeria?

Let me start from the beginning about the perception of the generality of Nigerians about Nigerian lawyers. There is this perception that the standard of practice has gone down, and you can hear this from even lawyers themselves. Discipline has become a shadow of itself from what it used to be. Some attributed the issue to the large number of people that study law as a profession. Some say it’s not necessarily the large number, because there are countries that are producing a lot of lawyers but their standards still remain high, and their standard of discipline also remains intact. So, maybe it is a reflection of our society itself. But can the law profession afford to fold into the circle of the general indiscipline that pervades the society? Isn’t a lawyer supposed to lead the way that people should follow? Should the lawyer melt into the society and adopt all the maladies that the society is grappling with? I think not.

The legal profession is specifically designed to serve a purpose. In a society where lawyers are in short supply, it becomes an archaic society. The rule of law is very fundamental to the existence of the society and where the rule of law is weak; the next thing that follows is anarchy. Leaders who have found themselves with a weak legal framework, ineffective conveyance of sustaining the principles of rule of law, do what they like and get away with it at the expense of the welfare of the society.

I think we have to look at the legal profession as a whole. The role it plays and the responsibility the society expects lawyers to perform in the day to day activities of the society. From the lawyers that are produced in the country, we have the by-product of magistrates and judges who are administering justice. If these people don’t come from a solid base, can they really perform optimally for the benefit of the society? There are lots of implications in the way you take the legal profession. Now, of course legal training has stages. You start with your Senior School Certificate Examination.; having the right combination of subjects that will entitle you to study law at the university.

Now if the universities are lowering their standards and limiting the number of brilliant students from studying law, right from that stage, there is going to be a problem. If you lower standards or give preference to some people who have not met the standard, then you are beginning to mess the system up. And the profession will be the loser at the end of the day.

Having passed through the university and gone through the necessary trainings and so on, you graduate from the university with a degree in law and then the next stage is to go to the law school. The law school has its own period and curriculum; its method of teaching and imparting knowledge. If the curriculum is up and doing, it will produce quality lawyers.

As far as I know, the law school over a number of years has been doing very well in trying to shape the capacity and the quality of the legal profession on the lawyers that are passing through it. Some years back we had a problem of backlog of students who passed through the universities, but could not get admitted into the law school. This came up because of the indiscipline. Ordinarily, the National Universities Commission, (NUC) which accredits law faculties normally, gives certain numbers that the universities will accommodate. They are not meant to exceed this number but they do. If they are given a quota to admit 35 students for instance, the university admits 120. You can imagine the number of universities offering law courses. Unfortunately, even universities of agriculture have faculties of law. It is part of the indiscipline of the society. What has a University of Agriculture got to do with the faculty of law? But we have them in this country. Yet, the NUC has not asked them to stop it.

It then became a problem for the law school because they cannot go beyond a certain number of students per session and you would see products from various universities, both private and public. The number became overwhelming. Naturally, there was a lot of anxiety from parents who sponsored their children to study law when after five years of studying law they cannot be called lawyers because they didn’t go to the law school. There was no space in the law school; it became a very chaotic and frustrating situation.

Therefore, the law school had to go extra-mile to increase the number of sessions. Instead of the two, we increased to three sessions so as to absorb the spillage. But you can see right from there a situation been created where the supervision, lecturing and the preparation of students will have to go down because instead of two sessions, we have to do three sessions. Obviously there are consequences as a result of that. Lecturers are overburdened and the facilities are overstretched.

Be that as it may, the Council of Legal Education, which is the regulatory body for legal education in the country, the Body of Benchers responsible for calling students to the Bar as well as the Law School eventually had a talk with the NUC to see what can be done to restore sanity in the system.

At the end of the day, it was decided that NUC should notify the institutions that any university which exceeds the quota of students given to it, stands the risk of those excess not being admitted into the Law School. I think that has helped in some way. After clearing the backlog, the Law School was able to come back to its traditional two sessions.

We must also take note of the attitude of the students themselves, right from the university. If they are not serious students, if they just want to study law or go to the law school without putting their best into it, they’ll be substandard. Some of them think it is just to pass and then be called by the title of Esq, but it’s far beyond that.

Could the scenario you painted above be responsible for the abysmal performance of law students in the last few years?

To be a successful lawyer, you have to have the culture of reading. A lawyer should be a master of all. He should read everything and every aspect of life is important including medicine. But some of them just read to pass. Even the law that they have read is not quite stable, let alone the other aspects of the training they are supposed to have. Naturally if you have that kind of product, you will not achieve the best in the system. And when people get to that level, they should not expect anybody to sit them down and tell them what to do and what not to do. They should be able to have focus and be sufficiently enlightened to know what they want and address their mind to it. That will probably guarantee success. There are still a lot of people in the legal profession that can be taken as role models. They did not become what they have become by idling around. They were reading. If you don’t want to read but wear your wig and gown and float around, then you will never get anywhere. You would be called a lawyer, but a lawyer for what?

What are your thoughts on the suggestion that Law should be studied as a second degree in Nigeria as it is being done in the United States?

The performance of lawyers in court these days is not only embarrassing but shameful. This matter of having a first degree before you make law a second degree has been in the country for quite a while. There has been a serious debate on it. I think one of the arguments of the opponents to law as a second degree is that they look at the parents; the struggles parents go through to train their children from the secondary school to the university and then to the law school. Some of them have been waiting to see the fruit of their labour. Opponents think it’s an additional burden on parents to sponsor a child to study a first degree, then come to study law as second degree. I think it’s on that ground that the argument has not been really taken up seriously.

However, if you observe, there are some students who have been following that pattern. If look at the Bar final exams, those who had gone to acquire first degree and making law second degree, have been found to perform better. But the argument of forcing everybody to study law as a second degree has not been grounded in this country because of this argument of overburdening of the parents and so on. I think the time will come whether we like it or not. We have to adopt that if we want good products and if we want the legal profession to survive.

We have to look at other alternatives, because we can’t continue to have lawyers who just go to the university and come out without anything in their heads, and they are called lawyers. That is why you find some of them, the kind of documents they prepare and the file is disgraceful. They don’t even know how to prepare a simple writ of summons, let alone write letters to clients. The English language which is supposed to be the tool for a lawyer is lacking. So, you start with a faulty kind of foundation and a collection of these problems has affected the standards of the profession itself.

There are some chambers that go through a lot of process to pick junior lawyers. It is not every lawyer that can work in those kind chambers, how can he perform? What is he expecting from the future of the legal profession? That is why you find a lot of them roaming around with no chambers to work in.

You would recall that there used to be a rule that you must be five years post-call before you can establish your own chambers, but somehow that rule disappeared. Nobody seems to care. There is no enforcement of this very good foundation rule. That gave room for some crooks to call themselves lawyers. Maybe they have done some chambers work somewhere or clerk in court. I think the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is working on that. It has also introduced a lot of checks to ensure that quacks are removed from the profession through the introduction of the Stamp and Seal for lawyers.

On the issue of pupillage, junior lawyers have argued that senior lawyers don’t pay good salaries, thereby forcing them to set up their law firms.

It is very clear that these issues are there and the juniors have been complaining about them. The NBA and the body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria should listen to these complaints, because those juniors wouldn’t lie about such issues. The legal profession and the country should address these issues squarely.

I think the time has come for all the stakeholders in the legal profession to sit down and look surgically the things that are going wrong in the profession. The standard of the profession is going down to the detriment of everyone. If the senior lawyers are succeeding today, what about the future of their children and grandchildren who are coming up? They too will be caught up.

Like I said, the Bar is the foundation or platform from which you find or engage judicial officers from magistrates up to the Supreme Court level. If you don’t have good products from the word go, then you will be in serious trouble. If you hear what people are saying about the courts, it is disheartening. And this is as a result of the failure and collapse of the system in the legal profession. I think the time has come when there should be all stakeholders summit to address this issue. The NBA is not addressing the issues.

Who are the stakeholders that should convene the meeting you are referring to?

The senior lawyers themselves. Those who are reaping the benefits of the profession.  The NBA as a national body with state branches, and the judiciary cannot afford to insulate themselves from these problems, because eventually the issues are creeping into the judiciary. The educational system starting from the universities; the kind of curriculum they offer in the training of lawyers. Then, the Council of Legal Education, which is the regulatory body for legal training and then the Body of Benchers that gets the ultimate products of all these activities. Sadly, we are watching all these things happening and nobody is making any move to solve the problems.

I think we need the law teachers to come in; the NBA, the judiciary. We need the Body of Benchers, the Council of Legal Education. I think if we are able to come together to sit down honestly and look at these things dispassionately, we will be able to come up with a lot of reforms that will address some of these maladies. Otherwise, the profession will be destroyed and we will all be the losers.

The NBA is always talking about who will become the Bar President, Secretary-General and all that. That is not the issue! What are you doing to better the profession itself, to strengthen it and restore its dignity, because law is a dignified profession? The legal profession is in danger of losing its sense of direction; sense of bearing.

Could you touch on the roles of the Nigerian Law School, the Council of Legal Education and the Body of Benchers?

Well, the Council of Legal Education is established by law. It has the role of modelling the curriculum and regulating the mode of training of lawyers in the country. It’s job is also to look at the review of the curriculum from time to time and the performance of the legal profession while the Nigerian Law School is just an educational institution. It was established to groom law students that have passed through universities law faculties; to upgrade them to the stage of becoming lawyers in the country. The Body of Benchers is called the body of lawyers of high distinction. I know there are functions that the Body of Benchers performs like attending the dinners. The dinners are supposed to inculcate that kind of discipline in you. In the legal profession, you are supposed to be well groomed on even how to sit down and eat. Lawyers need to dress well and avoid noise-making.

Then after students’ results have been published, the Body of Benchers’ screening committee would go through the list one after the other with all the supporting documents. Each student is supposed to have two guarantors from members of the Body of Benchers. These Benchers are expected to sign forms for the intending lawyers about to be called to the Bar certifying that their candidates are fit and proper persons to be called to the Nigerian Bar. This signing of the forms in my opinion has to be reviewed.

Previously, the screening committee would not just bring a book of lists containing the names and number of students that are qualified to be called to the Bar. In the days when things were going on very well, the report of the Body of Benchers would be tabled before all the members of the Body of Benchers. They look at it, and if there is any quarrel, they raised the issue. But that practice has been stopped.

Another issue is that of the title of Esq and Barrister. It is wrong to address a lawyer as a barrister. What is a barrister? The legal system we are following here is the British system, and I believe the NBA has issued a lot of circulars asking lawyers to stop using the title “Barrister”, but nobody cares. This is part of the indiscipline that has crept into the profession. They have polluted the system and we have to take steps to stop this kind of nonsense.

My Lord what is your position on the creation of more divisions of the Court of Appeal?

The Court of Appeal is the second highest court in the land. You don’t take it for granted. You don’t spread it out everywhere. Yes there is wisdom in establishing a division, if there is really a need for it. I established the Yola, Owerri, Ekiti divisions and I emphasised Ilorin that there is a reason for doing that, now people from Yola from Jalingo will travel all the way to Jos division of the Court of Appeal to attend to their case, the lawyers also have to come there before they can take up their appeals, people from Maiduguri had to come to Jos, even from Gombe has to come to Jos, so I felt there is need to reduce that problem of having to travel all the way before you can pursue your appeal, Jalingo, from Maiduguri or Damaturu had to come to Jos, that’s why I proposed establishing divisions in Maiduguri and another divisions in Yola, I also looked at the load work, heavy load work in the South East,, Enugu was the only division there, everybody had to go to Enugu, then I discovered that there is heavy load of cases around Imo, Anambra, Abia and so on and just to help to reduce the burden on counsel and people who want appeal, that’s why I proposed to establish Owerri Division to take care of the (Axis), Ekiti Division was also created to take care  of appeals from Ondo, Ekiti itself. Ibadan was over loaded, appeals take a longer time because of concentration of load that is why Ekiti division came into relieve Ibadan, Sokoto too has to come to Kaduna. All those states, Sokoto, Katsina, Kano, Kebbi will have to come to Kaduna for their appeals, I established Sokoto division to lessen the problem of people having to travel, sometimes, they will come to Kaduna, they have no place to sleep, some of them, their appeal will come up in a day or two, they have nowhere to sleep, they sleep in the court premises, so, I thought it was too heavy to pursue your right of appeal to come  and suffer on the way, so Sokoto Division was created, so these are the basic reasons, but then I think Salami created Akure Division, but fair enough, Benin Division was looking after Akure, but to be fair, there was a lot of over load of work  in Benin. So I had no grudge against establishing Akure Division, it helped in a way to relieve Benin Division but  then you see the time I left, I had started  the construction of court for the divisions, I had gone a long way on constructing the Ibadan Division, Owerri Division, Adamawa and Benue Division, I have not done much before  I left, something was started, then I would have thought before any other new Divisions is to be created, in fact we were just managing, I started constructing of the complex at Ilorin, it wasn’t completed by the time I left, I started Calabar, it was a very small court, a Colonial Court and there was need, as the division was growing, then I started the construction of the complex in Calabar (before I left) but I was not able to finish, some of them are 70% or 80% completed when I left, so I would have thought the best thing was complete those projects, Ibadan, Calabar, Owerri, do something for Adamawa, do something for Maiduguri. I thought that would have been enough, of course, they’ve been working and I am afraid, I think when construction work takes such a long time. They are bound to get problems with financing and review of prices and this and that, so from the documents I have seen, because I was part of the budget committee of the NJC, we looked at the submission of all the courts and we discovered that there are quite a number of unpaid jobs, and court of Appeal was one of the heaviest debtor courts in all the Federal Courts. The allocation was going down, it was not as robust as it used to be, and the job had been done for that reason, I would have thought it was a better idea to pay off your debts before venturing into establishing new divisions. Those were my reasons why I felt I disagreed with the policy of proliferation because the present divisions are functioning, maybe, what we need was increase the manpower, you have to take from the older divisions before you form a panel to go to the new division and that is also depriving those division you have already established.  so  that’s  why  I had  my  reservations about this  new  divisions if I were in her  position on I wouldn’t rush  to go into having  new divisions, I would make sure the old one are functioning properly  by  one adding  others, in  any case, I don’t  think  it’s necessary for her, she’s just about going  away,  why bother  about establishing new divisions with who will she leave  the problem for,  because I  think   is  not a simple  thing,  it takes a  lot  of thing, yes,  politically, there are some political issues, but you  don’t  establish a court  for  political  reasons, you  establish a court  for and  already,  one  other  thing  that  I  probably  have to  say  is  that,  in  view  of the   over  expansion  there is the influx   of  judges  of the  Court  of Appeal  bench,  I  am sorry  to  say,  I  am not  quite   happy with  the  way Court   of Appeal   operates,   brotherhood, working together and  making sure  that  judgments are  delivered  as at when due, nothing  is allowed to  lapse, but, lately,  I am  very  unhappy when  I  realize that judgments  sometimes  lapse,   I don’t  think  it  is a good thing for the  Court  of Appeal.  I  would  rather  like to  see  brotherhood,  intellectual  relationship, producing good  quality  judgment,  holding conferences, if  agreeing, if you don’t agree fine, you area a professional, you are a judge you don’t have to, your  opinion   is your own opinion. But there are too much diversions, so much so that I felt so very worried sometimes  last  year  that INEC made a comment that the Court of Appeal is are  confusing  them,  because  they are coming  out with conflicting judgments, this shouldn’t be in the Court of Appeal, and  to be honest I felt very  worried about  that. And I hope the judges will sit down, the old ones who has been there, they should instil discipline  back  into  the  Court  to take bold step so that the new ones should come and  learn,  listen to their seniors, the seniors would have to carry along with them, the new ones that   come  in, so  that they can come  out with  very  good  judgments  that  people  can  say  yes, this  is the Court  of Appeal, I  have said  my  mind.

I have always said, so that when I came to Court Appeal, I could call  myself a  junior  judge, because I was the youngest in the division. I was posted to Jos in 1982. We opened Jos division. Myself, late Akanbi, late Michael Ogundare and late Agbaje. I was the youngest but they taught me everything, I was always with them. After sittings in Court, we hold conferences for a whole week. We sit and discuss cases and then, take a unanimous decision on each judgment. The Presiding Justice (PJ) will assign someone to write the lead judgment when we finish. Then we all make drafts. You don’t just go and start reading. No. You send it to the PJ. He will look at it and circulate it to the others. After we have cleared out everything and they say okay, a final copy is produced and that is the judgment   of the Court.  I hope it is still happening. It is a must in the Court of Appeal. You must hold conferences.  As a matter of rule, when appeal is taken, there must be a conference. The judges who take the appeal must sit down and discuss it. When you write a judgment, you don’t just go alone and deliver. You produce a draft first and take it to the PJ. The PJ will circulate it to the other members of the panel. Then everybody will make   his own contribution, maybe, on the lead judgment. If there is something that has been left out, if it is considered that the issue is important,  that  needs to be given more attention, you write an opinion on it. That’s how Court of Appeal operates. That’s why we call it the Appeal Court.