Law Clinics and Advocacy Within the University Community: Risks and Benefits
| Author | Oluyemisi Bamgbose,Folake Tafita |
| Date | 01 July 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2322005817696544 |
| Published date | 01 July 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Law Clinics and Advocacy
Within the University
Community: Risks and Benefits
Oluyemisi Bamgbose1
Folake Tafita2
Abstract
The inception of the legal aid scheme in the Nigerian legal system brought about hope for the indigent
and with it an increased rate of indigent dependents relying on the scheme to access justice.
This article discusses the advent of legal clinics in Nigeria and its relevance to a university community;
in particular, the writers look into the rationale for establishing a specialized Woman’s Law Clinic
and discuss the risks and benefits associated with advocacy and practicing as a University Law Clinic.
In concluding, a risk–benefit assessment was examined using the unstructured questionnaire method of
finding the stakeholders’ views/perspectives on having a clinic within the university community.
Introduction
Legal aid assistance in the form of providing pro bono legal services including advocacy is not new to
the legal profession in Nigeria.3 However, rendering pro bono services became more popular with the
advent and introduction of law clinics and clinical legal education into the curriculum of legal education
in Nigeria.4 Before the introduction of clinical legal education and the establishment of clinics in the
various law faculties, pro bono services and advocacy were sparsely offered by professionals, professional
bodies and advocacy groups such as the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA).5 Although
the provision of free legal aid services is a right under the 1999 Nigeria Constitution,6 and the legal aid
services provided cover both criminal and civil matters,7 the services provided still fall short of what is
1 Department of Public Law, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
2 Department of Private and Property Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
3 Legal Aid Act 1976 (No. 56) Cap L9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 (now repealed); Legal Aid Act 2011, Laws of the
Federation 2004 as amended.
4 Ojukwu E, ‘Taking Practical Legal Training into the 21st Century: Proposal for the Reform of the Nigerian Law School
Programme’, Abia State University Law Journal, vol. 1, p. 91 (1997).
5 Constitution of FIDA- International Federation of women Lawyers. Article 4. available at http://www.fidafederation.org/
constitution/ (last visited 26 June 2016).
6 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria S. 46(1).
7 The scope covered by the 1999 constitution has now been broadened by the new Legal Aid Act of 2011. The Act now covers
criminal defence service, advice and assistance in civil matters including legal representation in court, community legal services
Asian Journal of Legal Education
4(2) 127–145
© 2017 The West Bengal National
University of Juridical Sciences
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/2322005817696544
http://ale.sagepub.com
Corresponding author:
Oluyemisi Bamgbose, Department of Public Law, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
E-mail: oluyemisibamgbose@hotmail.com
128 Asian Journal of Legal Education 4(2)
needed for a teeming population of about 600 million people due to underfunding and lack of personnel.8
The introduction of clinical legal education into Nigerian universities’ law faculties and the establishment
of law school based in-house clinics were necessary compliments to the role of the Legal Aid Council in
ensuring access to justice in Nigeria.9
This article therefore is an exposition on the advent of law school clinics’ advocacy and provision of
pro bono legal services in Nigeria, with specific focus on the realities of risks, benefits and challenges
of practicing and offering advocacy services as a Women’s Law Clinic (WLC) within the University of
Ibadan in Nigeria. The WLC, University of Ibadan, presents a unique case study of law clinics in the
provision of advocacy and other clinical legal services to and within a university community with
multicultural and multidimensional peculiarities.
The semi-structured questionnaire method was adopted. The essence is to bring out the lessons learnt
and show the impact on social and legal reforms within the University and its close and immediate
environs.
Clarification of Concept
For the purpose of clarication, this article is considered from a legal and not scientic perspective.
Methodology
This is a legal article and the writers consider it from this perspective. In examining the risks and benets
of having the WLC in the University of Ibadan, data were gleaned using the survey research design that
adopted the use of questionnaire tagged Advocacy Risk–Benet Scale (ARBS). The ARBS was
constructed having 15 items in 5-Likert format.
Sixty-five participants were used, taken from the Faculty undergraduate students and postgraduate
students, clients from the WLC and random population—with each of the category having 20 (30.77 per
cent) participants with the exception of clients from the clinic having 5 (7.7 per cent) participants. The
participants were exposed to 15 question items where they were requested to express their choices to
varied question–statement.
The Advent of Law School Based In-house Clinics and Advocacy
in Nigeria
Prior to the introduction of clinical legal education into the curriculum of legal education in Nigeria, the
only semblance of formal introduction and exposure of Nigeria law students to the rudiments of legal
and access to justice for indigent persons. See also Olomola. O, Olaleye F & Bamgbose O, ‘Community lawyering: an intervention
of the university of ibadan women’s law clinic in the case of stray bullet killings at arulogun-idi-omo community: A case study’.
African Journal of Clinical Legal Education and Access to Justice, vol. 1 (2012) at pp. 33–36.
8 Id.
9 Bamgbose Oluyemisi, “Access to justice through clinical legal education: A way forward for good governance and development.
(2015) 15 African Human Right Law Journal, pp. 375–394.
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