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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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NBA backs embargo on accreditation of law faculties
The Nigeria Bar Association has expressed support for the decision of the Council on Legal Education (CLE) to embargo accreditation of law faculties in universities for the next 10 years. CLE had, in a statement a few days ago, said it would no longer accredit new university law faculties during the period to enable existing ones to be properly equipped and qualified for accreditation. The NBA President, Chief Wole Olanipekun, said in Lagos that the development was welcome. �The ones we have now are not adequately equipped in terms of lecturers, libraries and classrooms, and there is no point accrediting new ones when we are having problems with old ones,� he said. He said the only university in the country qualified in every respect to offer degree programmes in law was the University of Lagos. The NBA president said a minimum of three professors in every faculty of law was the expected standard, �but only very few faculties can currently boast of even a professor�. Olanipekun, who said the country currently had a population ratio of around 1,000 persons to one lawyer, stressed that though there was a need for more lawyers in the society, standards must not be compromised. He explained that the council would not prevent any university from establishing and running a law faculty without accreditation and that its graduates could proceed to the Nigerian Law School. He urged both old and new generation universities to fortify their law faculties to ensure standards in legal education. In his reaction to the development, a former Minister of Education, Professor Babatunde Fafunwa, said such a decision would not be in the interest of legal education in the country. He said though some of the existing law faculties were not properly equipped, emphasis should have been on how to equip them rather than outright embargo on accreditation. �I will advise the council to reconsider its stand. There are more important areas to address, including ensuring that faculties not accredited are well equipped to qualify for accreditation,� he said. At the moment, 25 universities in the country offer degree programmes in law and produce around 4,500 graduates yearly.
Monday, June 28, 2004 |
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