CHARGE-AND-BAIL LAWYERS: SYMPHONY OF A PERFUNCTORY THEATRICS LEGAL EDUCATION
The Sunday Punch online newspapers publication of December 30, 2007 on“Good and ugly sides of charge-and-bail lawyers” by Kayode Ketefe with all
due respect is an exposition of the quality and reliability of Nigerian
legal education which is designed to produce apprenticeship lawyers rather
than critical thinking lawyers armed with the didactic practical knowledge
of the law as it relates to social, cultural, health, technology and
political aspects of our society. My heart goes to those struggling young
Nigerian professionals who are branded charge-and-bail (CAB) for
patronizing magistrate courts. This practice is across the board of the
profession in various forms. If CAB is soliciting clients at magistrate
courts, it is akin to lawyers soliciting corporations for clientele as
external solicitors. Neither is it different from lawyers using executive
membership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as a spring board for
governmental appointment as attorney general or members of an agency or commission. The only
difference being that the former merely apply for bail on behalf of the
accused person while the others solicit for appointment as external
solicitors or present themselves as government critiques with the
intention of being appointed as government officials. Whatever the
reasoning, they are all in violation of Article 33 of the Rules of
Professional Conduct that bars lawyers from direct or indirect
solicitation for clients. Two wrongs cannot make a right. Even in
American, ambulance chasing has now gone beyond lawyers visiting accident
scenes to open radio, television and newspapers advertisement that could
be direct solicitation, which is prohibited in Nigeria.
Nevertheless, the Nigerian legal education just like any other aspect of
Nigerian education does not meet the challenges of 21st century lawyers
since lawyers successes are often attributed to pupilage experience that
is analogous to articleship or apprenticeship as opposed to rigorous
didactic practical training. Law school education is not necessary
wherever pupilage is in place, as it is mere apprenticeship, which is
devoid of any critical thinking of social, political, economic, health and
technological concerns that connotes dynamic process of conceptualizing,
analyzing, and applying information as a guide to actions. Articleship has
no structured process for setting goals and actualizing such goals. Law
is not just an act but also an “instrument of social engineering” which
transcends every facet of human endeavour. Therefore it is imperative that
lawyers look beyond victories in court and predict the basis and outcome
of issues. Hence Nigeria through her lawyers in collaboration with the UNO has created
huge refuge crises for Nigerians being deported from their ancestral home
in Bakkasi.
The foundation of any profession starts with the introduction of basic
fundamentals or procedures. The fundamentals are taught and practiced
throughout the duration of the program. In this instant, it is the
Nigerian laws of evidence, legal drafting and conveyancing, and criminal
and civil procedures as they keep reoccurring in every course. This
structure, except the law of evidence, is introduced last without much
practical orientation in the university. So the law graduate has little or
no practical training or even the slightest critical thinking on simple
issues of law and politics or simple societal desires. This gives room to
articleship of Mugo Park legal training with skimpy and deplorable income.
Lawyers have no repeated exposures and demonstrations of structured
advocacy, or conveyancing, or intellectual debates, or practical skills
and creativity in simple legal issues, or even corporate legal advising as
diversified as the profession.
They are inundated with theories like any other Nigerian profession, except
theatre acts, without first hand practical experience. There is no
Nigerian law faculty that has a legal clinic session or legal stimulation
lab where students can demonstrate and rehearse theories learnt in class.
Even majority of the legal educators have no practical experience in any
field of law be it litigation, administration or even politics. They were
hired right away from colleges after national youth service corps (NYSC)
to maintain and preserve the status quo of lack of intellectual
competition and/or critical thinking.
This lack of intellectual
competition and/or critical thinking lead lawyers to participate as
ministers in illegal and criminal governments that violated human rights
abysmally and caused members of the executive committee of the Nigerian
Bar Association (NBA) to use their positions to solicit and accept
appointment as Attorney-General of the federation or members of other governmental agencies. Even so, there are no sanctions
by the NBA against such inglorious misconduct, since it is a mere resume
bolster. NBA is a not for profit organization whose opinion with open
mind should be based on research and investigation, that should be widely
published, advertised and even lobbied for possible adoption by any
government and/or any legislative body. Thus NBA has no set goals or
objectives for a greater and better Nigeria, apart from deriding
government’s policies for which it has no concrete solutions. Some of its
executive members have various hidden individual ambitions. What happens
is that some NBA executive members like other professional leaders
readily criticize government to be part of that government? The body does
not even welcome suggestions and solutions from the public.
The NBA ought to be in the forefront of providing legal education to
Nigerians through various mass media. Such education would not only
guarantee the rights of Nigerians, but would create jobs for young
lawyers. For example how many Nigerians know that they have the right to
sue for negligence under the following instances: failure of police to
respond to distress call which caused a citizen damage or traumatic
experience, or failure of any government to repair a sink hole which
caused road accident or even death, or failure of INEC to ensure a
peaceful election knowing well that Nigerian politicians are criminally
violent and such violence could cause death or traumatic experience and
did cause death or traumatic experience to innocent voters, or failure of
political parties to call their supporters to order during election
knowing that their supporters are disorderly and could engage in violent
and criminal misconduct that caused harm to innocent voters, or military harassment of voters on election day when they ought
to be in Bakkasi defending our refugee brothers created by united nations
international court of justice in collaboration with Nigerian leaders, or
failure of hospital to follow trauma protocols in treating accident
victim, or failure of a university to provide adequate security to
prevent violent secret cult actions that caused death, rape or post
traumatic stress disorder, or lawyers knowingly indulging in scam (419),
or a government official knowingly using government funds to fund
political organizations and religious bodies, or religious leaders,
traditional rulers and state governments knowingly allowing their
followers and citizens to kill and maim non-members of their religion and
non-indigenes? The list of green area of litigation to refine our society
is endless as that is the goal of law in general as an instrument of
social engineering.
Though, NBA can sanction any attorney general or director of public prosecution who maliciously
prosecute or cause the unlawful detention of another citizen or
collaborates with government to disobey court orders. Yet there is no
evidence of NBA sanctioning judges that were found corrupt in the early
2000s or lawyers openly paraded by the police for fraud. Lawyers are the
precursor to make this happen. This can only happen through an effective
bar leadership that provides continuous legal education for lawyers and
the general public at large. A bar that challenges and seek review of
antiquated laws and ensures that a director general of any commission
that has power to review corporations does not sit in the board of
corporations he or she ought to supervise as this is the greatest height
of unprofessionalism and irresponsibility. For a judge cannot be a judge
in his own course.
That Babangida’s law prohibiting tinted windshield of
vehicles is anachronistic and antithetical to modern medicine, therefore should be expunged from our law books. This is
how a 21st century lawyer thinks. Educating people and thinking beyond
application for bail or using executive membership of NBA to solicit
governmental appointment. Lawyers have the responsibility to promote
justice by ensuring equal opportunity and accessibility to justice. NBA
can only achieve this through mass media education.
In any case the Nigerian legal education needs complete surgical overhaul
that would bring out the best and brightest legal minds in the world whose
reasoning and actions would transcend monetary benefits and personal
aggrandizements, but would focus on impacting lives regardless of race,
tribe, creed, colour or financial standing. Therefore, the Nigerian Law
School should be phased out and in its place should be the Council of
Legal Education solely responsible for the conduct of general bar exam and
scrutiny for call to bar. The council of legal education and NBA should
jointly be responsible for accreditation of law schools and ensure that no
new law school is opened in the next five years until all faculties of
law, which thereafter become schools of law, meet the following
requirements:
Provision of sophisticated library and student learning centers with
Internet facility, legal clinics and legal stimulator labs, at least 1,200
or more hours of legal clinic, court and chambers attachment with proof of
work done. The body of benchers in collaboration with the Nigerian Bar
Association should call for a public hearing on the way forward for a new
and vibrant legal education that is practical and obtainable by any
Nigerian and inculcate critical thinking in its syllabus and emphasize
practical training rather than theories as it is now done. NBA should
desist from mere criticisms of government to actual participant by
identifying problems and setting down the solutions and lobbying the
legislature for legislation for their adoption or
invoking the judiciary for judicial review of administrative actions as
the case may be. Therefore, Nigerian professionals, except theatre act,
what is your policy?
Nasiru Nash Haruna Esq.
Charleston SC USA
nasharuna@yahoo.com
843-207-9890