Opinion
OBSERVED INEFFICIENT AND DISORDERLY PRACTICES IN NIGERIA’S CALL TO THE BAR CEREMONIES – THE 2018 EXPERIENCE, AND THE NEED FOR A DIFFERENT APPROACH IN THE WAY THINGS ARE DONE
By Zik Gbemre
It is imperative for the Body of Benchers, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and the Council of Legal Education – Nigerian Law School, as well as other relevant Stakeholders and Authorities in the nation’s legal system, to adopt a more modern approach on how Nigerian Law Graduates are Called To The Bar and the Ceremony that usually goes with it. This is hinged on my personal experience at the recently concluded Call To The Bar Ceremony For Successful Candidates At The August 2018 Bar Final Examinations, which took place on November 27th, 2018, at the International Conference Center, Abuja.
With the apparent fact that the number of indigenous Universities in the country have increased over the years in number, which has also increased the number of new lawyers that are yearly Called To The Bar, one would have expected that the relevant Authorities of the legal profession and the Council of Legal Education, ought to have come up with better innovative ways that are in line with modern trends, on how to handle and manage its affairs as it relates with its candidates. There are many issues one has observed in this aspect, which we would try to highlight here and also proffer solutions for the way forward.
The first thing that they need to address, is the way and manner the Call To The Bar Ceremony For Successful Candidates are conducted and managed. Take the recent ceremony that took place on November 27th at International Conference Centre Abuja (during the Morning Call). As expected, all the Parents/Guardians whose children/wards were scheduled to be Called To The Bar on the said day, majority of them were surprisingly denied entry to witness the Ceremony and cheer with their love ones. In fact, many ‘parents with valid invitation cards’ for the said Ceremony were practically locked out of the Main event Hall, as a result of so-called non-availability of space. To make matters worse, the Security Department of the Abuja Law School did not manage the situation professionally with courtesy and with decency, which the Nigeria Bar, the Body of Benchers, and the Council of Legal Education are known for. The situation on the said day was so appalling, and embarrassing for any parent/guardian to be made to experience. Some of the parents with valid invitation cards were actually molested and rough handled by these overzealous Security Personnel that were mounted at the Main Entrance Hall. Even the supposed Head of the Security Office/Department in the Abuja Law School, acted so unprofessionally and unbecoming of Security Personnel, as he treated parents/guardians/family members of Successful Law Candidates to be Called To The Bar, with so much disrespect, disgust and disdain. The said Head of Security seriously needs to be retrained to know how to act professionally in such situations.
They obviously forgot, or failed to put into consideration, that most of these parents/guardians/family members who were present to celebrate with their children/wards at the Called To The Bar Ceremony, must have travelled from far and near just to attend the said event. Why then treat parents/guardians of the aspiring lawyers with such disregard? No parent/guardian will be happy if they were prevented from entering the Main Hall of the event on the said day, after waiting for such a day to come to celebrate with their children/wards. These parents/guardians did not gatecrash the said event, they were duly issued Invitation Cards, so why were they treated so shabbily?
If parents/guardians, who must have travelled all the way from their various home towns\States just to be in Abuja, are then locked out and prevented from witnessing their children’s/ward’s crowning to be lawyers, then it is a very bad practice, which the Nigerian Bar Association, Body of Benchers, the Council of Legal Education, and the Supreme court of Nigeria, must take steps to address and prevent such things from happening again in future events. The body of organizers have failed in this aspect of the said Ceremony.
It is ethically and morally wrong for the Body of Benchers, and the Council of Legal Education to issue Invitation Cards to Guests and Parents/Guardians to attend the said Called To The Bar Ceremony of their children/wards, and then they are prevented from actually entering the Main Event Hall to witness the Ceremony in the name of non-availability of space. What then is the essence of the said Invitation Cards that were issued, if the same invited Guests will end up being locked out of the Main Event Hall by those managing the Security at the International Conference Centre, Abuja? If for instance, they were expecting about 200 Guests, which is based on the number of Invitation Cards that were sent, then one expects that they should make provision for 200 seats and even more, but not anything less than this number. This is the expected civil thing do for the success of the said ceremony.
It is really sad, that it is only in Nigeria that we witness such ‘disorderly way of doing things’, even by supposed professional bodies, and we almost accept it as the ‘norm’, or we think ‘it does not really matter’. It is our civic responsibility and duty as Nigerians to develop our country and adopt best practices in the way we do things across all boards and in every areas of our national life. No Whiteman/foreigner will come to develop our country for us, or teach us even the simple ways of doing things.
I have been privileged to attend Graduation Ceremonies in the UK, and I have also attended conferences in the UK, US, The Netherlands, etc. Once you are invited to attend such ceremonies/conferences, they ensure that your seat and space to accommodate everyone invited are provided for. If we, as Nigerians, cannot organize an ordinary Call To The Bar Ceremony, which only last for some few hours, and have all Invited Guests well-seated and accommodated in a good space, then something is intricately wrong. Do we still need to invite foreign Consultants to help us organize a simple Called To The Bar Ceremony for Nigerians?
For the way forward, and to make things easy for everyone, we believe it is time, the relevant Authorities concerned should start organizing The Call To Bar Ceremony in each of the Nigerian Law School Campuses across the country to; reduce the risk of parents/guardians travelling on Nigeria highways just to be in Abuja, save parents/guardians the embarrassment of being prevented from fully participating the Ceremony with their children/wards, amongst other things and logistical bottlenecks.
Secondly, the Body of Benchers, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the Council of Legal Education of the Nigerian Law School, Bwari, Abuja, should also put a stop to what they term as ‘Clearance’ for aspiring lawyers of the nation’s law school before they are Called To The Bar. We really do not understand what type of clearance they still need from the aspiring lawyers? The said Candidates are duly admitted by the Nigerian Law School, and having gone through the School and paid for their final examinations, what type of clearance are they still looking for again? The word ‘clearance’ after one has successfully completed his/her final exam in the Nigerian Law School, should be seen as an outdated practice, especially in this day and age of modern information technology. Risking the lives of newly graduated students of the Nigerian Law School to travel all the way to Abuja in the name of carrying out a so-called ‘clearance exercise’, is simply uncivilized. Are they telling us that the Nigerian Law School is not digitalized? If that is the case, then it is truly a shame. As such, the Body of Benchers, the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the Council of Legal Education urgently need to update their activities with the digital world.
The word ‘clearance’, especially for professional bodies, is outdated, and should not be heard of. They should be digitalized and stop all these so-called clearances processes, which puts at risk – the lives of their new graduates of the Nigerian Law School who travel all the way from their various law campuses to Abuja for such an exercise. They should have the Educational and Bio-data Records of every of their law students from the onset of their admitted into the Nigerian Law School, which they can easily retrieve and cross check to carry out their follow-up and clearance exercise, without making the new law graduates travel all the way to Abuja. As far as we can tell, there is no college or higher institution that still does the so-called ‘clearance’ in the West/America, like we still do in Nigeria. Can’t we develop ourselves and do things like a civilized society that is moving with the changes in global times? Is it everything that the Whiteman will have to do for us? If they can successfully train brilliant lawyers, which Nigeria is very privileged to have many, why can’t they computerize/digitalize their Law School programs and practices, so that they will not be asking new law graduates to travel to Abuja for just a clearance? The Education in law is not only knowing how to focus on the nation’s legal system, and defend one’s client in court or give judgements/orders, but they should also consider the upgrade of the entire Nigerian Law School activities – from the point of admission to the Call To The Bar Ceremony experience.
Without a doubt, the Body of Benchers, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the Council of Legal Education and all the relevant Authorities concerned in the nation’s legal system and Judiciary, should consider the above issues raised so as to uphold the sacred values of the legal profession and what it represents/stands for in our society. There is urgent need to upgrade and update the Nigerian Law School activities, especially with the increase in the number of Universities in Nigeria that offers Law. Also, there is need to set up more Law School Campus in Lagos to make it two, and other places like Ibadan, Warri, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Owerri. The City of Warri especially, need a Law School Campus. We ask that these issues raised should be given due consideration as advised.
Zik Gbemre.
National Coordinator
Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NDPC)
