By; IYOKPO J. EGBODO, Abuja.
The House of Representatives has commenced move towards a reduction in fees paid by law graduates in the Nigerian Law School.
House has therefore mandated its joint committee on Justice, Tertiary Education and Finance, to interface with Director General of the Nigerian Law School, the Council for Legal Education, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and the Ministers of Justice and Finance, and all other relevant stakeholders towards finding a way out of the problem.
The committee also has the mandate to interface with the stakeholders and ascertain “the challenges and requirements of the law school, the reasons for the exorbitant fees being charged, and the possible solutions to the problem”.
This was sequel to a motion jointly sponsored by Hon. Mark Gbillah and three others which was unanimously adopted by members, expressing concerns on the inability of most Nigerian law students to attend the law school due to the high fees involved.
Gbillah while moving the motion said “the exponential increase in law school fees over the last couple of years to a mind boggling basic school fees for the 2016/2017 session of N250,000 and N295,000 for Bar Part I and Bar Part II Nigerian law graduates, which with additional compulsory payments usually increases to between N320,000 and N350,000 respectively”.
“Given the prevailing economic circumstances, in the country and the insistence by some legal luminaries that the profession is elitist and the training capital intensive, it is imperative for the federal government and stakeholders to stop paying lip service to the problem, and initiate an emergency national discuss to safeguard the future of the noble profession”, the lawmaker stated.
