Associate Professor of Law, Dr Sam Amadi, has called for a retooling of legal scholarship in Nigeria, particularly in light of the recent Bar elections where Mazi Afam Osigwe emerged as President.
While speaking on Arise TV, Dr Amadi highlighted the decline in the Nigerian Bar Association’s (NBA) relevance and prestige since the days of military rule. He stated, “Some would say it’s still relevant and strong. Lawyers, anywhere in the world, even in a banana republic, are a strong group because lawyers are central to a lot of things in society. But again, one clear thing was, under the military mostly, there was clarity around what the bar stood for… they stood for the freedom of the people, they stood for democratic freedom, they stood for the rule of law. It impacted the Supreme Court”
Amadi criticised the current state of the NBA, noting, “Now, the NBA became a status institution, a government institution. In fact, in previous elections, State Governors have financed candidates to emerge. Even this election, towards the run-up to the election day, there were rumours around support. The presidency had to issue a statement debunking it, that the presidency kind of provided support for somebody.”
He further lamented, “So we are not seeing routinised, bureaucratised, and governmentalised NBA. Today, the latest report by NBS itself shows the Judiciary is the highest per capita in terms of corruption… the biggest. So that corruption now, and this fact of collapse of rule of law and perception index from Afrobarometer, about 77% of Nigerians have no confidence in the judicial system.”
Amadi urged the new executive to rethink their approach, stating, “It means that a new executive has to retool and rethink how they do NBA. I used to… I always… I speak at NBA, I was a council founding member of the Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL). Olisah Agbakogba commissioned a study on institutional law and economics, the initial framework for economic growth. I did a paper for NBA. Since then, the NBA has produced nothing in my view, substantive enough for government to drive development.”
Amadi criticised the current form of legal education in Nigeria, arguing that it plagues the profession with mediocrity. He stated, “The law school is, in my view, useless because what, I ask, is the law school a master’s degree program? This is a professional programme, it’s neither too technical nor academic. People go to law school after first degree and spend one year cramming things and do exam first class second class but it’s not a professional school.”
He concluded by calling for a focus on economic development, “Finally, I think they should think around economic development as it is the main challenge of this country now. NBA should have a law and economics group or forum where lawyers also draft laws about economic development. Without the requisite knowledge of the principles of economic development, how can those laws work? We need to get back and say if lawyers are going to be the people drafting laws for the economy, then they should have the opportunity to understand the principles and the workings of the economy.”
Amadi suggested that the NBA could learn from the USA, where lawyers often have advanced degrees in other fields, such as economics, before pursuing a JD. “That’s why the USA has lawyers who had PhDs in economics, go to do JD. So when you see these lawyers who are writing, they didn’t just go and study contract law, they had a first degree in political science or a first degree in economics, so they are now better equipped,” he explained.