The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, led by the President, has continued to provide the requisite robust synergy for the seamless discharge of Council’s mandate  through its active representation  on the Council by gentlemen and ladies whose contributions over the years remain invaluable.

In this report, I have attempted to highlight our modest efforts in the last eight months since assuming office, of building on the formidable efforts of my predecessors, through the support and direction of the CLE, to position the NLS as a centre of excellence in the provision of cutting edge legal education that is suitable to the needs of society in the 21st century and beyond.

Consolidation of the Legal Education Reform:
The past five  years have witnessed a concerted effort at repositioning the NLS through curriculum review for a responsive legal education that will equip Nigerian –trained legal practitioners to adequately compete with their counterparts in the global legal market.

Global legal market
Realising the imperative for this paradigm shift, the NLS under the supervision of the CLE has continued to emphasise hands-on legal vocational training of aspirants to the Nigerian Bar. Review of the NLS curriculum has been an on-going project of successive Directors cum Directors – General of the institution.

I acknowledge and commend the huge sacrifice and commitment of all my predecessors in office –Mr. Rudd, Hon. Justice OlakunleOrojo (rtd), Mr. BabatundeIbironke SAN, Chief JK Jegede and Dr. KoleAbayomi. Permit me to specially acknowledge the immense effort of my immediate predecessor, Dr. TahirMaman who devoted a considerable portion of his tenure to driving the review of the NLS curriculum.

I wish him all the best in his future endeavours.  I pledge my commitment to the continuous improvement of our training curriculum as well as human capital development in line with global best practices in legal education.

Deployment of ICT Learning Facility:
We have tried to advance the infusion of ICT into virtually all facets of our operation at the NLS.Apart from the full automation of the students’ application and registration processes, we have just concluded negotiations with the NUC for our six (6) campuses to be connected to the NGREN Video Conferencing platform which already has about29 Nigerian Universities interconnected through its platform.

We have also engaged NIGCOMSAT, an agency of the Federal Government for the deployment of internet facility through the satellite to provide biometrics for staff and students, video conferencing back-up to boost simultaneous interactive e-Learning across our campuses, intranet and virtual library.

For the first time, we successfully transmitted our Bar final examination questions on-line to the campuses. It is our expectation that with this intensive exposure of our students to ICT during their training, those eventually called to the Bar will be able to take advantage of the ICT facilities for their legal practice in the global village.

Re-introduction of Professional Ethics and Skills as aDistinct Module:
I have spent a considerable part of my time in office responding to enquiries from foreign institutions on why there is no professional ethics as a distinct module at the NLS. Whilst it is correct that the curriculum review of the past few years has infused ethics into all the academic modules, I opine strongly that professional ethics remain the fulcrum of the legal profession and must therefore not be left to perfunctory mention or conjecture in an amorphous course module.

One of the main outcomes of the maiden academic roundtable at TINAPA, Calabar, is the urgent need to reinstate and strengthen the course as a distinct module. A substantive Professional Ethics and Skills Department has also been established within the academic unit across the campuses to ensure that aspirants to the Nigerian Bar are groomed in tandem with the extant rules of professional ethics and international best practices in legal education.

Expanding the Frontiers for Quality Assurance.
In addition to the standing committee of the CLE on quality assurance, the management of the NLS have been proactive to plug loopholes through in-built peer review mechanismsto help us trouble shoot and proffer solutions to our curricula needssuch as:
• periodic academic roundtable retreat of  senior academics from all campuses of the NLS; • annual academic staff retreat from all campuses of the NLS;