Following the collapse of formal education resulting in the poor and unethical conduct of Nigerian lawyers, especially in court, Chief Solanke Folake, SAN, the first female Senior Advocate of Nigerian has charged the younger generation of legal practitioners to sharpen their advocacy skills and learning in the profession through constant research and study. She made this remark while chairing the 12th edition of the Alex Annual Lecture in Lagos yesterday. The ‘Learned Silk’ bemoaned at the low quality of lawyers produced in the country.
“Many young lawyers do not know how to address the court neither do they take the patience to be properly tutored by their principals in the chamber, hence the need for a compulsory 2-year apprenticeship program to entrench learning for new wigs,” she said.
READ ALSO: Chief Justice of Nigeria and the bigger picture
“I am of the opinion that it should be a paid program so that the new wig does not feel cheated.” She emphasized that the years spent in university and at the Law School where all theory and no new wig should just dive into practice without first learning the practice of Law.
“Also, there is an increase in misconduct and the use of unprofessional language among lawyers. Good lawyers will admit that the reading culture must be cultivated for life by lawyer both young and old; it is a lifelong addiction” Folake, SAN, advised that lawyers should endeavour to continue to read while improving on their advocacy skills.
She commended AELEX Legal Practitioners for choosing such an apt title [“SCHOOLING WITHOUT LEARNING”] especially in an era of fallen educational standards and thanked them for their efforts in holding these annual lectures as a way of giving back to the community.
In his presentation, the Guest Speaker of the day, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, also noted that schooling is not sufficient for learning. According to him, many Nigerian students have left the country to go and school abroad and how they top their classes.
“The Nigerian government should do more for the educational sector as our public schools is endangered. “The quality of education had fallen and had thus affected leadership and expertise in different spheres of our national life.” Oyewusi called for government reforms and especially for the scrapping of the quota systems.
Speaking to BusinessDay after the event at Muson Centre, Funke Adekoya SAN suggested that the government should offer scholarships to at least 10% of the best graduating students from both state and federal institutions and recycle them as teachers with an attractive salary, this way, standards will be maintained.
READ ALSO: How far can the New NBA go?
“The reason AELEX did not focus on Legal Education is that we have realised that if the foundation of primary and secondary school education is weak, legal education at the university and law school levels would not only be weak but the law student would have had a faulty learning foundation which would affect him/her throughout his or her career as a lawyer. “Thus if the educational system is not strengthened where learning is important, we cannot have good lawyers,” she said.
Chief Folake Solanke, SAN, CON was the Chairman of the occasion while the guest speaker was Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe a Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos. Discussants included Dr Adamu Jatau Noma, Executive Director, FCT Universal Basic Education Board, Adora Ojo and Swanta Bonat.
Amongst the eminent lawyers present at the Lecture were Prof. Koyinsola Ajayi, Deacon Dele Adesina SAN, Mr Adesokan, SAN and other Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Senior lawyers, young lawyers and several educators.
