By Jennifer Amarachi
The Nigerian Council of Legal Education has advocated for law to become a second-degree program as part of efforts to improve legal practice and solve the growing issue of lawyer unemployment in the country.
This was revealed by the council’s chairman, Emeka Ngige (SAN), at the 2024 grand reunion of Nnamdi Azikiwe University’s 1989 law class, which was held over the weekend in Enugu.
Ngige emphasized that many renowned Nigerian lawyers who have made major contributions to the legal profession previously studied other subjects before pursing law.
“What we’re seeing is a disturbing trend: many lawyers are unemployed. A crucial aspect is that many of them were pressured by their parents to study law despite having no genuine interest or comprehension of the subject.
“We need to encourage people who are genuinely interested and mature enough to study law, rather than those who are simply following their parents’ wishes,” Ngige said.
Ngige went on to say that younger students, frequently as young as 19, who are pressured into studying law may graduate only to discover that they have no desire to practice law.
According to him, many end up pursuing other careers, contributing to the large number of unemployed lawyers. He mentioned renowned personalities like Justices Chukwudifu Oputa, Nnaemeka Agu, and Fidelis Nwadialor, who studied other topics before becoming lawyers, as examples of successful legal practitioners who benefited from this method.
He stated that the Council is already in conversations with the National Universities Commission on how best to implement this move, which according to them, will boost Nigeria’s legal profession.
During the event, which also honored
Prof. Christian Okeke, the first Dean of the Faculty at UNIZIK, Ngige identified several challenges to legal education in Nigeria, including inadequate funding, a lack of dedicated law faculties, frequent strike actions, and universities offering law programs without proper accreditation.
Ngige addressed the issue of law lecturers working several jobs at different institutions, stating that this practice was damaging to teaching quality and productivity.
In his remarks, Prof. Gozie Ogbodo, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Godfrey Okoye University in Enugu, complimented Prof. Okeke for his substantial contributions to legal education in the country, noting that the celebration reflected his long-lasting legacy.
