Osinbajo, Olanipekun, NBA president honour retiring Osipitan

President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, former Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University, Prof. Lanre Fagbohun, and legal scholar, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan, on Wednesday called for comprehensive reforms in legal education, beginning with universities, to equip graduates with the knowledge and practical skills required to address societal challenges.

Badejo-Okusanya questioned the relevance of the existing legal education system, including the Nigerian Law School, while Fagbohun advocated a shift from examination-focused teaching to practical training that prepares law graduates to solve real-world problems.

They spoke at the valedictory celebrations held in honour of Osipitan at the J.F. Ade Ajayi Auditorium, University of Lagos.

The NBA president said that although law graduates require further training at the Nigerian Law School, the foundation for producing competent legal practitioners must be laid in universities.

“We know that students who come out of the law school, we have to train them, and it’s not their fault. The training that will be fit for purpose needs to start from the universities,” she said.

She noted that some stakeholders had questioned the continued relevance of the Nigerian Law School, with some advocating its scrapping.

Badejo-Okusanya also expressed concern that the legal education system was no longer fit for purpose and needed a review.

“And yet we all know that it is no longer fit for purpose. When last did it undergo a review?” she asked.

She urged law lecturers to update their teaching methods and materials to reflect contemporary realities, stressing the need to distinguish between what they currently knew and what they had learnt in the past.

“Are we teaching them what we know? Are we teaching them what we knew? Because there’s a difference,” she said.

The NBA president called for a review of legal education and the relevance of law to society, urging stakeholders with the authority to implement reforms to take necessary action.

The event also featured tributes to Osipitan by former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, UNILAG Governing Council, Chief Wole Olanipekun; UNILAG Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola; Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour; Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Kazeem Alogba; Prof. Akin Oyebode; Prof. Ayo Ogunye; and Prof. Rahman Bello, who chaired the occasion.

Also present were the honouree’s wife, Cecilia Osipitan; Chairman of the Lagos State University Governing Council, Babatunde Ogala; Diran Fawibe; Dean of the UNILAG Faculty of Law, Prof Adejoke Oyewunmi; Lagos State Attorney-General, Lawal Pedro; Chairman of the Council of Legal Education, Emeka Ngige; Secretary to the Ogun State Government, Tokunbo Talabi; President of the UNILAG Alumni Association, Ife Oyedele; Oyo State Attorney-General, Abiodun Aikomo; and Prof Oyelowo Oyewo, among other personalities.

In his lecture titled “The Future of Legal Education in Nigeria: Training our Legal Minds to be Catalysts for Nation Building and Transformation,” Fagbohun called for a shift from teaching law students primarily to pass examinations to preparing them to apply legal knowledge in addressing practical challenges.

He said, “Some of our law graduates may be learning to pass examinations more effectively than they are learning to practise law.”

According to him, the challenge was not necessarily a lack of knowledge among graduates but their ability to exercise sound judgment in applying what they had learnt.

“The gap is not always a lack of knowledge. It is the distance between knowledge and judgment,” he said.

Fagbohun said law students should be exposed to real-world problems before completing their undergraduate studies, adding that practical experience would help them understand how legal principles are applied beyond the classroom.

“Every law student should have a structured opportunity to work on real-world problems before completing an undergraduate degree,” he said.

He suggested that students, under supervision, could assist small businesses with regulatory obligations, examine contractual challenges facing agricultural cooperatives and research delays in public sector permitting.

The former LASU VC also advocated collaboration between law faculties and other disciplines, as well as greater interaction between students and practitioners, regulators and industry professionals.

On the use of artificial intelligence in legal education, Fagbohun said the concern should not be whether students used the technology but whether they allowed it to replace the intellectual effort required for learning.

“The issue is not whether students use AI, but whether they surrender the intellectual effort that makes learning real,” he said.

He also called for ethics to be integrated across the law curriculum rather than treated as a subject to be addressed only at the Nigerian Law School.

Fagbohun further raised concerns about the financial vulnerability of academics, arguing that lecturers needed better support to sustain intellectual excellence.

“We cannot continue to expect lecturers to sustain intellectual excellence while leaving them financially vulnerable and dependent on inadequate government regulation,” he said.

He proposed partnerships between universities and law firms to support research and legal analysis, as well as the development of a national legal research and project repository involving universities, the NBA, law firms, corporate legal departments and public institutions.

He said legal education should ultimately prepare lawyers to strengthen constitutionalism, justice, governance and institutions.

Speaking during a fireside chat, the honouree, Osipitan, acknowledged a decline in legal education and called for a complete overhaul of the system, beginning with universities.

He decried the inability of some first-class graduates to prove their competence when they entered legal practice.

In her welcome address, the UNILAG Vice-Chancellor, Prof Folasade Ogunsola, paid tribute to Osipitan’s contributions to legal scholarship, the university and the country, describing him as a distinguished scholar, accomplished legal practitioner and committed university administrator.

Ogunsola said Osipitan’s relationship with the institution spanned several decades, having studied at the university before returning as a Lecturer II in 1983 and rising through the ranks to become a professor of public law in 1998.

She said his more than four decades of service to the university included teaching, research, administration and institutional responsibilities, including serving as Acting Head and Head of the Department of Public Law, chairman of the university’s Legal Advisory Services Board and member of its governing council.

The VC also highlighted his contribution to national development, particularly his service as Special Adviser on Constitutional and Legal Matters to the Chief of General Staff and his involvement in the committee that coordinated debates on and contributed to the drafting of the 1999 Constitution.

Ogunsola said Osipitan’s academic output, comprising more than 70 scholarly publications, had contributed to constitutional law, criminal law, the law of evidence and comparative law.

She also commended the establishment of the Distinguished Professor Taiwo Osipitan Legacy Fund for Doctoral Research, describing it as an opportunity to extend his influence through support for doctoral scholarship and the development of young researchers.

The celebration also featured a colloquium and review of a book of readings in honour of Osipitan titled “Contemporary Issues and Perspectives in Public Law.”

There was also the launch of the N100m Prof. Taiwo Osipitan Legacy Fund for Doctoral Research.