Senate passes bill seeking to establish six new law school campuses

The senate has passed a bill seeking to establish six more law school campuses across the country.

If the bill is also passed by the house of representatives and approved by the president, it will increase the law school campuses from six to 12 in the country.

The bill was approved after Opeyemi Bamidele, chairman of the senate committee on judiciary, presented a report.

The proposed legislation is sponsored by Smart Adeyemi, senator representing Kogi west.

The additional campuses approved by the senate are to be established in Kabba in Kogi, Maiduguri in Borno, Argungu in Kebbi, Jos in Plateau, Okija in Anambra, Orogun in Delta, and Ifaki in Ekiti state.

The existing law school campuses are located in Lagos, Abuja, Adamawa, Kano, Enugu and Bayelsa.

Speaking on the Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on the Legal Education Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021 on Tuesday, Bamidele said the establishment of the new law school campuses 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 are not enough to accommodate thousands of law students graduating from the universities,” he added.

Meanwhile, after the bill passed second reading in October 2021, Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, had accused the senate of trying to “frustrate” the efforts to establish a law school in Port Harcourt, the Rivers capital.

But Bamidele, chairman of the senate committee on judiciary, had said Rivers state rejected the offer to host a law school campus, which prompted the move of the facility to Bayelsa.

“Legal education should not be politicised. I don’t think there is an attempt by anyone to politicise legal education. Members are expressing their opinion,” the lawmaker had said.

“Rivers was first offered to host a law school campus. It was because of the rejection that it ended up in Bayelsa.”