By Carl Umegboro
During the 2025 annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association held in August at Enugu, through a piece titled “NBA and the recognition palaver,” I underscored the necessity of reintroducing pupillage, which was discarded some decades ago without considering the implications or repercussions. I submitted that, irrespective of status, a compulsory pupillage should be reconsidered to arrest numerous aberrations and excesses in the Bar. At the same time, through my second publication titled “NBA Confab: Pushing beyond the Continuing Professional Development points”, which addressed poor participation of young lawyers in the annual confab, I contended that it is an oversight to comfortably leave young lawyers behind in the Bar activities, including the annual conference.
The piece also buttressed the point that the tradition of an encoded “learned” status accorded or designated to lawyers by mere call-to-bar and enrollment in the legal practitioner’s registry should be the beginning of the “learned” status, not the end. It also maintained that the absence of compulsory post-call training/workshops for lawyers does more harm than good to the Bar, and contributes to the blunders in the legal profession. Being proficient in court procedures is good, but not sufficient. The character and proficiency must go together.
Without doubt, compliance with traditional attire after a call to the bar is necessary as stipulated by the rules of conduct; however, it does not change human dispositions. It is only through training/workshops that new orientation is achieved, to adapt to the desired personae, lifestyles, and decorum. In light of this, it also essentially enjoins law firms and principals to encourage their employed young lawyers to participate in all NBA activities, including the annual conferences, as lawyers in-chambers being a corporate family.
Overall, it attributed the poor characters in lawyers to a lack of adequate training beyond the academic work to pass the Bar Finals and proficiency to prepare court processes, but left out personality trait, which often results in nuisances like engaging in physical fights, even domestic violence, and various disgusting behaviours which are inconsistent with a truly refined and learned gentleman. This was showcased at the Abuja Stadium during the 2023 lawyers’ confab, where lawyers fought under cameras.
Last month, November, a bill proposing a 2-year compulsory pupilage, among others, was transmitted to the National Assembly for legislative process. This is laudable. It reflects a visionary and dynamic direction of the present NBA executive led by Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, Life Bencher. What is more? The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training needs to be augmented with physical training/workshops beyond the online meetings, and strictly supervised by the NBA delegation as a panacea to the falling and failing standard of character of lawyers in the country. This will ultimately achieve the goals targeted by the CPD with substantial impact, which online activities may not be able to accomplish.
Emphatically, the post-call training is compelling, considering the fact that individual upbringings contribute significantly to their behaviours, including lawyers, save for acquired orientation. The point is that studying law in a university like students of other faculties and doing the Bar Finals, which are academic, are insufficient to refine an ill-bred person into becoming learned in character. There must be drastic work to achieve that; otherwise, lawyers will accumulate CPD points but still display innate or wrong behaviours learnt from their environment, which may be inconsistent with nobility and a learned class.
It is natural to behave differently, and the environment, including a home a person grew up in, will always have an impact unless resisted. People grow up in different environments and with diverse perceptions, including lawyers. It is only through intensive training/workshops that people can be brushed up, transformed to conform to a desired pattern. Virtually all sensitive sectors prioritize pre- and post-engagement training, including the bench, banking, health, and insurance, among others.
The “learned” status of a lawyer after being called to the bar demands a profound ethical and behavioural transformation, moving beyond a mere academic qualification to reflect the needed integrity and social responsibility as enshrined in the profession’s code of conduct. Absolutely, this has to come from continuous post-call learning, considering that the university and the Law School concentrate on the academic aspect. From a survey, most lawyers in this clan have not undergone any training/workshops except the university and law school academic studies. The Professional Ethics at the law school is a mere overview, and therefore insufficient for any meaningful transformational shifts. To be learned demands a paradigm shift in character with knowledge, wisdom, courtesy, and civility. Also, from a survey on the CPD points, many have exceeded the required limit long ago, yet still, with no actual impact. The most essential thing is to have legal practitioners who, in reality, are learned in knowledge, conduct, and character beyond merely acquiring CPD points.
Absurdly, many have shifted the blame to the high number of lawyers on the rolls. Funnily, it is the same class of people who want all members of their household to become lawyers, that still lament the huge number of lawyers from some communities that may have none, or only one or a few. This class includes the jurists, judges, learned silks, and senior members of the legal profession, whose children mostly get automatic and express admission into the faculty of law in the private universities and foreign universities, unlike the less-privileged children, who are always subjected to JAMB and post-JAMB huddles alongside admission list palaver, sometimes with many attempts before finally crossing the line.
Instructively, policies regarding law careers should aim for fairness and balance, ensuring rigorous proficiency standards are maintained without creating unnecessary barriers for qualified and motivated candidates, as is done in other countries. The earth is too large to contain everyone, and the birds of the air have rarely collided. I conclude with the phrase, “Live and let live”.
*Umegboro, ACIArb (UK), is a legal practitioner, social policy and public affairs analyst, and reachable via: umegborocarl@gmail.com or 08023184542 and 08173184542.
