The Senate has on Tuesday approved the establishment of six new additional campuses of the Nigerian Law School across the six geo-political zones of the country. The newly approved law schools in addition to the seven existing ones will bring the total number of law schools in the country to 13, excluding the Bwari campus in the Federal Capital Territory. The approval followed consideration of Senator Opeyemi Bamidele who also serves as leader of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on the Legal Education Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
The new approved law schools are the Jos Law School Campus, Plateau State; and Kabba Law School Campus, Kogi State (North-Central zone).
Others include Maiduguri Law School Campus, Borno State (North-East zone); Arugungu Law School Campus, Kebbi State (North-West zone); and Okija Law School Campus, Anambra State (South-East zone).
The Orogun Law School Campus, Delta State will be for the South-South zone, while the Ilawe Law School Campus, Ekiti State will serve for the South-West zone.
In his presentation, Senator Bamidele the additional law schools will address “the exponential increase in the number of law graduates from our universities and foreign ones, coupled with the backlog that existed over the years.
“Existing campuses are overstretched and the infrastructures are not enough to accommodate thousands of law students graduating from the universities.”
He explained that the United States with a population of over 350 million has about 237 law school campuses, noting that some countries with less population as Nigeria like Canada and Australia have 24 and 38 law school campuses for a population of 38 million and 26 million respectively.
Bamidele also advised the Federal Government to treat the matter with priority and provide adequate resources for the funding of the new approved law school campuses across the country.