Law School Should Admit Only Persons Having a 2:1 CGPA and Above – A.B. Mahmoud

During the Hand-Over ceremony between the outgoing Director-general of the Nigerian Law School, Dr. Olanrewaju Onadeko SAN to his successor, Professor Isa Hayatu Chiroma, an opinion was given by Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud SAN, the acting Chairman and President of the Nigerian Bar Association which has been the subject of recent debates.

According to him, there is a need to improve the standard of lawyers who are called to the bar. To Mahmoud, one of the ways of ensuring this is to begin the practice of admitting only persons having a 2:1 CGPA and above to the law school. According to him, Nigeria is amongst the few nations accepting students with a 40% average academic performance, that is, from a first class to a pass, which is too low. This was said in contrast with other nations such as America and the U.K where only students with a minimum of 60 to 70% averages or a minimum of a 2:1 CGPA are admitted to the law school.

To Mahmoud, if we want to bring the Nigeria legal profession to par with that other leading jurisdictions, we must adopt the standards acceptable in these nations by presenting only efficient and capable candidates for further training at the law school.

This position has received alot of mixed reviews as some agree with Mahmoud that the practice would be necessary to ensure that only those qualified are admitted to the bar, while others see this as one of the many ploys adopted by top guns or players in the legal profession to maintain the security of their offices.

What are your views on this new proposition?

Ikechukwu Ginika C.
Content Provider, Legal Pages.