Erojikwe urges continuous legal training for lawyers as 983 candidates fail bar resit exam

A former Chairman of the Governing Board of the Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE), Mr Tobenna Erojikwe, has called for a comprehensive and continuous approach to legal education to improve the quality of lawyers entering the Nigerian legal profession.

Erojikwe made the call against the backdrop of the high failure rate recorded in the May 2026 Nigerian Law School Bar final resit examination.

The Council of Legal Education (CLE) had announced that 983 candidates, representing 54.7 per cent of the 1,955 candidates who sat for the examination, failed.

According to a public notice signed by the CLE Director of Administration, Aderonke Osho, 885 candidates passed, while 55 obtained conditional passes.

The council further disclosed that 32 candidates were absent from the examination, while the results of 19 others were withheld.
Reacting to the development, Erojikwe said the outcome should trigger a broader
conversation about legal education and professional training rather than lead to simplistic conclusions about the reasons for the poor performance.

He stressed that candidates must accept responsibility for their preparation, noting that Nigerian Law School students were postgraduate students who had already completed university education and consciously chosen law as a profession.

According to him, discipline, commitment, adequate preparation and the ability to understand and apply legal principles are essential to success at the Bar.

“Passing the Bar requires more than merely attending lectures.

“Students need to understand how they learn best, develop effective study and revision techniques, practise applying legal principles to factual situations, and make adequate use of past questions and practical exercises,” he said.

Erojikwe urged law students to approach their time at the Nigerian Law School as professional training rather than simply another academic hurdle.

He said the primary objective of the institution should go beyond producing certificate holders to developing competent lawyers capable of meeting the demands of professional practice.

“The legal profession requires lawyers who can think, analyse, write, advise, negotiate, advocate and exercise sound professional judgment.

“Students should therefore approach their Law School experience as professional training rather than simply another academic examination,” he said.

The former ICLE chairman also said the educational and examination system itself should be subjected to critical review to determine whether teaching methods, curriculum design and assessment procedures were adequately preparing students for legal practice.

He stressed that the ultimate goal should be to produce competent, ethical and practice-ready lawyers rather than candidates trained primarily to pass examinations.

Erojikwe further identified the training, retraining and continuous professional development of lawyers as major challenges facing the legal profession.

“Having served as Chairman of the NBA Institute of Continuing Legal Education, I have always believed that legal education cannot end with the call to the Bar.

“The law is constantly evolving, the demands of legal practice are changing rapidly, and lawyers must continuously update their knowledge and skills,” he said.

He advocated a continuous legal education model that would begin from university, continue through the Nigerian Law School and pupilage, and extend throughout a lawyer’s professional career.

Erojikwe also raised concerns over the growing number of law graduates awaiting admission into the Nigerian Law School.
He observed that some universities appeared to be admitting more law students than the capacity available within the professional legal training system.

“This creates a situation in which graduates may complete their university education without having any certainty as to when they will proceed to the Law School,” he said.

He called for a frank assessment of the number of students admitted into the Nigerian Law School annually, as well as the adequacy of infrastructure, teaching personnel and other resources available for professional training.

According to him, plans to admit about 10,000 new lawyers into the profession annually would place considerable pressure on the existing system if not matched with adequate investment.

He therefore called for increased investment in infrastructure and other resources to ensure that the country's legal education system produces lawyers equipped to meet the demands of modern legal practice.