By Peter Oriyomi
A Professor of Law at the Redeemer’s University, Ede in Osun State, Omoniyi Bukola Akinola, has called for sanctions against quacks and impostors in the law profession.
Akinola, who delivered the 9th inaugural lecture of the Redeemer’s University on Thursday, said the lucrative nature of law has attracted quacks into the profession.
In the lecture titled “Confluence of Professional Ethics, Corporate Governance, And The Training of Lawyers In the 21st Century,” the university don said the incursion of quacks by way of impersonation of legal practitioners in recent times is worrisome.
Calling for amendment of Section 22 of the legal practitioners act, which according to him prescribed the punishment to impostors, he said the act, which recommended punishment of N200 and N100 or an option of imprisonment not exceeding two years was obsolete.
He said: “It is our view that this provision for impersonation and the negative effect of impersonation on unsuspecting clients and the Nigerian economy calls for holistic review of the entire legal practitioners act.
“It should be noted that previous attempts to amend the legal practitioners act have been unsuccessful at the level of the National Assembly.
“To this end, there is need to revisit rule 39 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners, which deals advertising by lawyers in Nigeria.
“Also, law lecturers should desist from the practice of giving law students areas of concentration. Since clients do not give areas of concentration when bringing legal problems, areas of concentration should be condemned by all.
“A law lecture should be richer in terms of students’ engagement to stimulate their minds to be analytical and proffer on-the-spot solutions to legal problems.
“There should also be effective checks and balances on law teachers to ensure that students are trained in the art and practice of law without the laxity of the abuse of academic freedom.”
Speaking on effective training of law students, he said inadequate teacher-student ratio, use of old teaching techniques, inadequate funding, among others are some of the challenges facing legal education in Nigeria.
“Funding institutions such as Tertiary Education Trust Fund and other regulators should relax administrative bottlenecks and contribute their quotas towards building modern facilities.
“Also, improving the quality of training of law students, the Federal Government should as a matter of urgency approves the minimum benchmark for the various programmes in Nigeria.
“In their contributions, parents should only guide the children band wards in decision making with respect to their careers and not be compelled to read law in order to please them.”