Education
Critical thinking crucial to transforming legal education in Nigeria – Osinbajo
By Matthew Eloyi – The Vice President of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo has said that the development of analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving legal minds is crucial to transforming legal education in Nigeria.
Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, said the vice president presented a pre-recorded address at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) legal education summit held at Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
The theme of the summit is: “Reimagining Legal Education in Nigeria”.
The vice president said that such education would not to be confined to the traditional four-wall classroom; a system Nigeria had been operating in the main since the 1960s.
In his words, “Legal education, like many other branches of learning, is designed to evolve with and be responsive to the development of society.
“Needs for legal services depend on the general dealings and operations of the society.
“Having been a law teacher for many years, I fully understand that a chief problem of our style of legal education is learning by rote, as opposed to learning for problem-solving.”
Osinbajo recalled his days as a university lecturer where he taught the Law of Evidence.
He said that learning for problem-solving placed more emphasis on understanding how to use case law and statutes to solve real-life legal problems rather than just memorising them.
“It struck me one day while teaching documentary evidence, that students will learn faster if I was able to give them copies of what an original document is, what secondary evidence of it would look like, what a real-life public document is, and what a certified copy looks like.
“So, when I taught the complex issues of proof of documentary evidence, they had a good mental picture of what I had in mind.
“Also, by posing a problem and asking them to search out the rules to apply, I found that even the least interested students got involved. This is a snippet of what is called Clinical Legal Education, and it is the new and right way of teaching law,” he explained.
The vice president said there was need to decongest over-populated classrooms in law schools across the country by adopting a hybrid approach to education, through the extensive use of technology for teaching.
He said that Nigeria should learn from other nations that had transformed their systems of legal training through developed structures of periodic review.
According to him, population explosion – overcrowded classrooms and hostels, inadequate library facilities, limited pool of qualified law teachers are not peculiar to Nigeria.
He said, however, that other jurisdictions had encountered, at varying degrees, and successfully tackled.
Osinbajo highlighted examples from the US and the UK.
He said that in the US, from 2015 – 2017, between 16,000 to 20,000 lawyers joined the pool annually, while similarly high numbers were trained in the UK (21,000) and Australia (8,499).
On decentralising law schools, Osinbajo said that there were no requirements for residential stay in any formal school setting for the Bar Examination.
“Applications are completed online and the examination, computer-based, is administered at designated centres.
“A character and fitness investigation is conducted on applicants prior to issuance of license to practice law,” he said.
The vice president commended the NBA leadership for its consistent efforts at improving the legal profession through sustained investment in continuing legal education, in particular and advancement of jurisprudence.
He also acknowledged the contributions of Chief Afe Babalola, for being an undiminished light in the legal profession, and devoting his resources to establishing a world-class university and a faculty of law that has attained such distinction in a few short years.
(NAN)
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has commenced the disbursement of upkeep payments to students who successfully updated their bank account details from digital wallets to commercial bank accounts.
This was announced in a statement released on Friday in Abuja by the Director of Strategic Communications of the Fund, Mrs. Oseyemi Oluwatuyi.
Oluwatuyi described the development as a significant breakthrough in addressing earlier disbursement delays.
“Over 3,600 students, who previously registered with digital-only banking platforms, have now successfully received their backlog of upkeep payments after updating their details to conventional commercial bank accounts on the NELFUND portal,” she stated.
“We appreciate the patience and understanding of all affected students during this period. Your resilience and cooperation have made this progress possible,” she added.
The NELFUND spokesperson advised students who have yet to update their bank details to raise a support ticket via the official NELFUND portal to request access for the update.
She further urged affected students to report through the IT office of their respective institutions, which would compile and forward all related cases to NELFUND for prompt resolution.
“NELFUND remains committed to ensuring that no eligible student is left behind. This resolution process is part of our broader effort to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and student-centered delivery of our support services,” she said.
Oluwatuyi encouraged students to continue engaging only through official NELFUND channels and to assist their peers who may need help navigating the update process.
She also provided contact options for inquiries, stating that the fund can be reached via email at info@nelf.gov.ng or through its official social media handles: X (formerly Twitter) @nelfund; Instagram @nelfund; and Facebook & LinkedIn: Nigerian Education Loan Fund – NELFUND.
The Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) has issued a directive to all accredited tertiary institutions to verify and upload their students’ data on the newly digitised Student Loan Application System (SLAS).
This was disclosed in a statement released in Abuja on Wednesday by the Director of Strategic Communications at NELFUND, Mrs Oseyemi Oluwatuyi.
According to Oluwatuyi, the SLAS platform has been fully digitised to streamline and accelerate the student loan processing experience for both institutions and applicants.
“With this upgrade, all accredited institutions are now required to request access to SLAS to verify and upload student data related to loan applications,” she said.
She described the move as “a critical step that ensures the timely processing and disbursement of approved student loans.”
Institutions that have not yet been onboarded onto the system, she said, are advised to send an access request to registration@nelf.gov.ng without delay.
“Once granted access, institutions will be able to view a real-time dashboard of their students’ loan applications, verify submitted data, and track the status of each application,” Oluwatuyi explained.
She called on all institutions to take immediate action in the interest of their students, stressing that verification and data upload by institutions are mandatory steps before final approval and disbursement of loans can be completed.
On the students’ side, Oluwatuyi noted that if an application status currently shows “Verified,” it means the application has passed initial checks. However, final approval and disbursement depend on the institutions’ confirmation and data upload.
“Once this process is completed, your status will be updated to ‘Disbursed’ when the payment of your fees has been processed,” she added.
She also encouraged students to reach out to the fund for assistance via email at info@nelf.gov.ng.
Other official communication channels include:
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X (formerly Twitter): @nelfund
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Instagram: @nelfund
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Facebook & LinkedIn: Nigerian Education Loan Fund – NELFUND
The National Universities Commission, (NUC), has given full accreditation to the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), for her Law programme.
According to the Public Relations Officer of ESUT, Mr Ikechukwu Ani, this is contained in a letter addressed to the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Aloysius Okolie, on Wednesday in Enugu by the NUC.
Ani said that in the letter, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu said the report was contained in the result of the October/November 2024 accreditation of academic programmes in Nigerian universities.
Ani disclosed that other programmes in the institution accredited by the NUC include Master of Science in Business Management; Education Computer Science; Education Physics and Agricultural Engineering.
Other accredited programmes he said were Quantity Surveying; Urban and Regional Planning; and Applied Microbiology.
He said that the letter quoted Section 10 (1) of the Education National Minimum Standard and Establishment of Institutions, Act CAP E3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 as empowering the NUC to lay down minimum academic standards for all academic programmes taught in Nigerian universities.
He said the session also empowers the NUC to accredit such programmes.
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