Externship/placement programmes. Students work on real cases outside the law school supervised by established legal practitioners who supervise their work which may be in a court, law firm, or a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). This process is supervised by a law teacher from the Law School to ensure that the students have a meaningful educational experience.
The concept of clinical legal education is based on the recognition that while traditional methods of teaching legal principles may be effective, practical experience offers students the opportunity to experience the realities of legal practice (NULAI, 2006: 6).
The importance of clinical legal education as an educational approach in Nigeria is highlighted in Jack-Osimiri, Nlerum, and Nyeruka’s (2005) study in which they examine its effectiveness as a means of practical training and skills development among law students in Nigeria. According to Jack-Osimiri, Nlerum, and Nyeruka (2005: Introduction), the formal clinical aspect of legal education at the undergraduate LLB level was first introduced at the Abia State University in 1981. The nature of the clinical programme took the form of attachments to placements in local police stations, the federal prisons service department, the state house of assembly or the federal legislature, the magistrate courts of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria and the chambers of the Attorney General of the Ministry of Justice. These programmes were executed each semester throughout the five year period of undergraduate study and were initiated as a means of
facilitating a strong link between the LLB course and the process of professional legal training by the NLS with a view to ensuring a smooth transition from the undergraduate level to the context of legal practice. The purpose of its implementation was to infuse legal skills training in such areas as advocacy, professional responsibility, drafting, negotiation, legal research and alternative dispute resolution (Jack-Osimiri, Nlerum & Nyeruka, 2005: Clinical legal education).
In 2004, a pilot programme for clinical legal education was also initiated in four Nigerian universities namely Adekunle Ajasin University, Abia State University, University of Uyo and University of Maiduguri through the sensitisation and training programmes organised by NULAI and the Open Society Justice Initiative (UK) (Oke-Samuel, 2008: 143, 145). A few successes have been recorded through these programmes with the development of a standard clinical legal education curriculum and the establishment of law faculty legal aid clinics which have provided law students with the opportunity to acquire practice oriented skills and exposed them to the
values of professional responsibility and ethics in ensuring the provision of primary legal assistance in the social justice system in Nigeria. These successes were fostered through collaborative clinical programmes and training opportunities with institutions in South Africa and the United Kingdom (NULAI, 2006: 2).
However despite these few successes, Oke-Samuel (2008: 141, 147) noted that programmes of clinical legal education were yet to be introduced in a number of university law faculties in Nigeria. A number of challenges have been experienced within the legal education system, among which include:
Inadequate funding in Nigerian universities: currently funding for programmes of clinical legal education in Nigeria has been mainly obtained from limited grants by foreign donors.
Problems of underfunding have also affected the availability of infrastructure as well as the quality of staff that are needed to effectively run the programmes.
The limited number of universities offering clinical legal education is also as a result of the difficulty experienced in obtaining approval from some university authorities for the implementation of the programmes.
Another problem also noted by Oke-Samuel (2008: 141) is the preference of some established academic legal scholars for using traditional methods of teaching through lectures and note- taking with little or no room for interactive teaching methodologies (NULAI, 2006: 3). This problem has been attributed to the dual nature of legal education in Nigeria in which much emphasis tends to be laid on the development of theoretical knowledge in substantive law at the undergraduate level while limiting vocational skills training as the responsibility of the Nigerian Law School as the second stage of legal education (Chukwurah, 2000: 58). However, the passive teaching methods of university law faculties have failed to provide adequate theoretical training to law students which in turn has limited the efficiency of the NLS in providing practical
experiences as it has often had to reinforce theoretical knowledge as part of the vocational training stage (Okwonkwo, 2000: 18; Oke-Samuel, 2008: 141). Okoye Ordor (2007: 77) observes that considering the limited time spent at the Law School, the issue of clinical legal education is best undertaken by university law faculties where the students spend a longer period
in the LLB programme. She maintains however that since the NLS is the only stage of legal training which provides a uniform opportunity for the reinforcement of clinical education to prospective legal practitioners in Nigeria, there is a need for legal training at the Law School to advance clinical legal education in such a way that it incorporates the various learning
experiences acquired by students through the various law clinics and other forms of legal training at the university.
The issues over clinical legal education in Nigeria have further highlighted the need to integrate the processes of theory and practice in the system of legal education in order to produce
competent lawyers. In this regard, it is noted that the efforts towards narrowing the gap between the legal profession and education must take into consideration the need for the development of a standardised law curriculum particularly at the university level in order to provide law graduates with the necessary analytical and practical skills for the workplace. Similarly, the adoption of teaching methodologies, particularly those based on clinical approaches, will also help prepare lawyers more effectively for the changing legal information environment in Nigeria (NULAI, 2006: 7).