FRESH facts have emerged over allegations of admission racketeering involving the management of Nigerian Law School.
Multiple sources told this newspaper that the process of entrance into the Nigerian Law School has been made so rigorous that university authorities pay huge amount of money, which they get through the parents of the students or the students themselves, so the paying university can get a high number of its undergraduates into the Law School.
A deputy dean from one of the South-West universities, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, ‘it’s an established fact that universities pay the Nigerian Law School huge amount of money to be able to give admission to the graduating Law students. These unfortunate act has been going on for many years”.
“It’s just sad that there is nothing anybody can do about it, the whole system is corrupt and if you don’t pay, some other universities will pay and take your slots and that will be to the detriment of the graduating students”, the university don lamented.
A parent of one of the graduating Law students, who wouldn’t want their name mentioned added that, “I am surpised when my daughter asked for N1.5m for admission push into the Law School. I was shocked, I kept wondering if the people that are supposed to sanitise the law are these corrupt, then the profession is in trouble”.
“I launched a private investigation through other families and colleagues and it was then I gathered that graduating Law students are made to pay from N1m to N4m each for entrance into the Law school”, the parent added.
Also speaking, a junior staff in one of the branches of the Law school told this newspaper that, its an open secret for the institution to collect money from univerisities and students, according to him, “you can hear the senior staff telling foreign Law students that, ‘you can pay dollars outside the country, we will collect ours too”.
For the record, admission racketeering in the Nigerian Law School can simply be described as money for admission. It is a practice or situation, whereby persons particularly, staff of Nigerian Law School, demand money from prospective universities in exchange for admission.
This exchange can also be said to be willing extortion, given that the Universities or in some cases, parents/guardians of the students, agree to the offer to pay money for the admission. Worst is, such students do not qualify for admission to study in the law schools but, are asked to pay for such thereby, reducing the chances of those qualified to get placements in this institution.
While it may seem like a new practice, this newspaper learnt that admission racketeering in the Nigerian Law School undoubtedly has been silently “normalised” as it has been going on for decades, and by extension, impacts the country itself as the quality of lawyers produced annually begs for question.
Also, many of these lawyers are incapable of navigating the tough realities of the legal profession or in the words of the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, “unlawyerable” thereby preventing the country from developing legally.
Similarly, in 2022, the Ministry of Justice in a publication, stated categorically that the caliber of lawyers graduating from the Nigerian Law School might not be able to handle the intricacies associated with the legal profession.
The Nigerian Law School, established in 1962, plays a pivotal role in the legal education system of Nigeria. It serves as the final bridge that transforms law graduates into full-fledged legal practitioners.
All efforts have been difficult to reach the spokesperson of the Nigerian Law School has proved abortive as text messages and calls were not responded to as at the time of filing this report.