The Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, has said the decentralisation of the Nigerian Law School has added value to the quality of legal education in the country.
Enang (PDP-Akwa Ibom), spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Abuja.
He said that the provision of valuable education to the large number of aspiring lawyers would have been difficult without the establishment of more campuses of the Nigerian Law School.
The Nigerian Law School formally started operations in Lagos in 1963 while additional five campuses were established between 1997 and 2009 in Abuja, Enugu, Kano, Adamawa and Bayelsa.
According to Enang, the need to increase the number of campuses became necessary to achieve effective impartation of knowledge and efficient administration of the school.
He said: “With the number of lawyers we have in the Nigerian Law School today, it will be very cumbersome and almost impracticable to give them good lectures and lessons in one location.
“When we were in the Law School, we only had one campus in Lagos.
“But now that place cannot accommodate even 20 per cent of the students in the law school.
“So it became necessary and appropriate for us to have about six campuses of the Nigerian Law School in Bayelsa, Enugu, Abuja, Kano, Adamawa, and Lagos.
“You have Deputy Directors-General and one Director-General covering all of them.
“It is to allow for concentration of lecturers, lessons and good delivery for all of them.
“The decentralisation is a positive development, which is necessary for the promotion of qualitative legal education and professional legal practice in the country.”
Enang told the NAN that the lack of prompt prosecution was the major factor affecting the fight against corruption and not necessarily the absence of stiffer penalties.
He agreed that although stiffer penalties were required, those prosecuting corruption cases should put in more efforts to secure more convictions against corrupt officials under the existing laws.
He said: “My concern is that even if there are light penalties, let them be meted out.
“Even the light penalties, they are not meted out.
“So, why are we calling for stiffer penalties?
“Yes, I support stiffer penalties but they should strive with the existing light penalties.
“The judiciary is trying its best but the course of prosecution has not been speedy.
“The problem is not with the government but it is that of the prosecutors.
“The prosecutors have not been doing their job efficiently.”
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