Charge-And-Bail Lawyers: Symphony Of A Perfunctory Theatrics Legal
Education
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By: Nasiru Haruna Esq.
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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
nasharuna@yahoo.com
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