“THE NIGERIAN LAW SCHOOL: A LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES”

A LETTER TO MY BELOVED ASPIRANT TO THE NIGERIAN BAR

Dear Aspirant to the Bar,

I congratulate you on your graduation from the University. Being a graduate of Law alone is
in itself a momentous feat for which you must be grateful and happy. Congratulations! I am
aware that many of you have already completed your application processes in preparation
for the Nigerian law school. As undergraduates, many of you, just like me, dreamt of that
day when you would have the opportunity to embrace procedural law, and be able to
gather the last package of the necessary apparatus to launch you into the hallowed legal
profession. I am so glad, that in your case, that opportunity has finally arrived.

I feel obligated to write this epistle to you not because there is anything so special in what I
want to say. Nothing gives me the assurance that I command the respect of your audience. I
have only decided to write you because I learnt a lot from the experiences shared by
inspired members of previous classes at the Nigerian law school. I now know that with the
right information, predisposition and attitude, the law school turns out to be A LAND OF
OPPORTUNITIES.

I came to the Nigerian Law School - a Catholic priest – after my degree programme at the
University of Lagos. I lived most times in the hostel at the Lagos Campus of the Law School. I
spent all my weekends in my parish ministering to God’s people and focusing on things
other than law. As an adult student, living under the hostel conditions was not easy. Law
school was the most stressful one year I have experienced in my life. I fell sick many times
and nearly gave up countless times. Thank God I did not allow my strength to be broken. But
why am I telling you this? The reason is simple. If I could graduate from the Law school with
First Class Honours, with all the challenges I had, any other person (especially, younger
persons) who makes a genuine attempt, would certainly perform better. I have therefore
decided to share with you some of my experiences and secrets. Who knows? It might be of
help

So, let me begin by telling you that the Nigerian Law School is not overrated. You must have
heard a lot of things about how stressful the programme is. You will discover with time that
you didn’t even hear enough about the stress. Nobody can truly narrate the experience of
stress; it is better experienced. However, even though the Law School programme is a very
stressful process, the Bar Final examination itself, for those who work very hard, could be
the easiest examination you would take in life. If you burn your candles well and labour with
interest, passion and focus, you would discover that the exam itself, unlike the programme,
is overrated. Therefore, if you could, throw in everything. I must tell you that the pain that
accompanies failure at the bar finals is nothing to be compared with the stress of law
school. The pain could kill; it has indeed killed. But the joy of success at the Bar Finals heals
all the one-year stress instantaneously. Believe me!

Therefore, immediately before law school, don’t burn out yourself with internships or other
tight schedules. Try to rest and get ready. Don’t worry about buying a lot of books. Just have
your money ready so that when the programme begins, you would know the right books to
buy. Don’t buy all the books you see, otherwise, you would only discover that you had those
books on the day you will be packing off from the Law School hostel. Wait for the
recommendations of the lecturers before making your decisions. When the registration
begins, don’t stay at home. Start from the first day with the right attitude. Ty to complete
your registration on time so that you get settled before the lectures begin. Don’t dodge the
orientation programme. Take every programme at the Law School seriously. Your grade
starts to pile up from the first day. Make sure you claim a seat at an advantaged position in
class. Don’t stay at the “House of Lords.”

The first task you will face in your group is that of choosing your group leaders and sub-
group leaders. The work of a group leader is extremely tasking. You will nearly run mad
doing it. However, 90 percent of group leaders and sub-group leaders make Second-Class
grades and above. I doubt if I could have made a First Class if I was not a group leader. The
reason is very simple. Law School, being a vocational school, deals with a practical course.
And, most times, your group members would leave the whole work for you to do alone. It
means that you must read the topics before every lecture in order to do your tasks. You may
have to stay awake sometimes till 3.00 am to make sure you deliver, otherwise, you would
receive a query for failure to deliver (especially for those who would go to the Lagos
Campus). It means that you will have the opportunity to do the drafts firsthand and know
them better than others. If your strength can carry it, take the role of a group leader, but if
not, take that of a sub-group leader, at least. You will not die and you will not regret it.

The most important aspect of life at the Law School is attendance to lectures. I don’t need
to tell you to attend lectures. You only need to know that apart from the fact that you need
to meet a certain attendance threshold to take the Bar Final exam, no text book will teach
you more than you would learn in the classroom. No surrogate lecturer can give you more
than you would receive in class. Make sure you don’t sit behind. Make sure that your
seatmate is not a distraction. The Law School Lecturers are a bunch of determined, selfless
models. They are an example of the positive things one can say about Nigeria. They are
experts and they are good at what they do. Follow their lead. Take notes in class. No note
could be better than yours. If you have a complete note and read it well, it would be difficult
for you to fail the bar exams. Do all the exercises in class and all your assignments well. Ask
and answer questions in class and contribute to discussions. Never be afraid of using the
microphone in front of you. As Mr Nasiru Tijani of the Lagos Campus of the Nigerian Law
School would say, there is an intimate connection between obedience and success at the
Bar Finals. Never ever get tired in class to the extent that you leave the class and go to your
room. So many do it when it gets tough but never join them. When you feel like sleeping in
class, look behind and you would see a seventy-year old man or woman sitting behind you,
awake and taking notes. Try to lift yourself up and continue. Don’t shy away from making
presentations in class. Somehow, all these things have a way of making the huge volumes
stick.

Know your body system. If you have health challenges, try to take care of yourself within the
stretch of the programme. Don’t go hungry, otherwise, you would faint in class when they
become unduly long. Many did faint in my set. Organize your reading times well. In my case,
I tried to sleep immediately after class and lunch for at least one hour. It helped me to stay
awake in the night. You will be divided into groups for group discussions on daily tasks and
topics. Make great use of this opportunity. Join in doing group assignments, otherwise, you
will never learn how to draft processes. It is in group meetings that you would discover very
intelligent classmates from other schools. Don’t be ashamed to approach them for help in
case you need any. Collaborate with each other but avoid toxic people. If you are more
privileged than others, try to share. Teach and teach and teach. By teaching, you help others
and what you know gets more crystallized. Help the older ones among you. Be patient with
them and carry them along all the time. If it’s difficult for you to endure the programme as a
younger person, imagine how difficult it is for them.

I must tell you that you will meet so many people who will change your life for the better in
your group, even after Law School. Immediately after registration, you would notice that so
many students came to the Law school with a lot of negative attitudes. Just be focused.
Don’t be deceived by the anonymity of the crowd. Be respectful and human. Some people
you meet in law school could become your best friends and human saviours, ever after. Live
your life. Make sure that you avoid unnecessary troubles that could distract you. Don’t be
caught in the web of any query. Just obey the rules. Don’t waste time complaining about the
minor inconveniences you experience in the hostels and other places. Just find a way to
cope. You have to decide whether to read in your room or in the library. Whichever one you
decide, be consistent. Never attend any lecture without having an idea of the topic of the
day. Read your text books before class and do your tasks and then, get clarified in class on
the dark areas. When you read and try the drafts before lectures, the topics are easier to
assimilate.

At the Law School, you will receive lectures on Criminal Litigation, Civil Litigation, Property
Law Practice, Corporate Law Practice, and Professional Ethics and Skills. None of these
courses is more important than the other. Pay equal attention to all of them and don’t
neglect any. Criminal Litigation has a lot of minor details you need to pay attention to. There
are so many exceptions to the general rule. I learnt in Law School that sometimes, the
exceptions could be more important that the general rule. Read the Criminal Procedural
Laws over and over again. Look at the Laws and take note of the distinctions made in class.
If you understand the first 7 lectures in Criminal Litigation, you would be good to go. You
must pay attention to drafting charges. This, you must do by drafting a lot of charges and
not just by reading it. Charges are not read; they are drafted. Civil Litigation is very
voluminous but very interesting if you pay attention. The challenge with this course is that it
has a lot of drafts. Have a practice note where you learn how to draft and correct yourself
with the directions in class. Once corrections are made in class, just redraft your previous
attempts and keep, otherwise, you will not find any better relevant model afterwards. Be
clear on the principles and don’t bother about the discrepancies between what you are told
in class and what you find in text books. Follow your lecturers’ instructions. There are so
many drafts you must memorize. If I did it, you can do it as well.

You will discover, as I did, that Corporate Law Practice is the most technical Course offered
in the Nigerian Law School. Yet, there is nothing to fear about this course. If you read the
text books before every class and pay attention to your lecturers and your Companies and
Allied Matters Act, and other Laws and Rules and Regulations used, you will enjoy it. There
are so many procedures to memorize. Use of mnemonics could be helpful. If you don’t
practice the drafts in this course, they will deal with you. Always see this course as part of
normal life. Whenever you read it, imagine yourself in a corporate environment making
common sense decisions. This will help you appreciate the provisions of the law, especially
under corporate governance. You will discover that corporate finance and restructuring will
be very challenging to assimilate. Just be calm and read the topics over and over again. Ask
questions where you don’t understand. Don’t play with your Securities and Exchange
Commission Rules. If you begin on time, with time, everything will make sense. But, never
ever give up on this course because it knows how to return such gestures.

There is no rocket science about Property Law Practice. If you pay attention to the first
seven lectures, you will get a formidable foundation. In this course, you must be ready to
draft and memorize. The drafts are sometimes similar. Once you get the major framework,
you can handle most of the drafts in this course. There could be many but discordant drafts
in your text books. Stick to what is taught in class. The most neglected course by students is
Professional Ethics and Skills. As easy as it appears to be, a lot of student miss their targets
at the Bar Final Exams because of this course. You have to be meticulous to do well in this
course. I had to memorize all the provisions of the Rules of Professional Ethics. This is very
easy to do if you take two Rules per day. Once you know the geography of these Rules, you
would be able to do other things. Then, pay attention to the drafts and other relevant
topics. Generally, you must know that if you miss classes, you would see questions on the
exam day you would think were never taught. Believe me!

By the time you go for Christmas break, you would have covered a lot in all the courses. The
Christmas break is a very big catchment area for a prospective First class candidate. If you
like making notes, it’s possible to make packaged notes on all the topics handled before the
end of that break. What this means is that you will have less work to do during your
Externship. If you spend your time attending weddings, most of these couples would be
among the first set of people calling to know your grade when the results are released. In
some Campuses like Lagos, you will have impromptu snap tests. Don’t let these choke you
to death. Be serious with them by just being ready every time. If you do well in them, don’t
get too proud. It is not an assurance that you will get the ultimate prize. If you fail them,
don’t get despondent. It’s a wake-up call. Pick up your stretcher and keep walking. Only
those who endure succeed at the Bar Finals. If, like me, you made a First Class grade in your
university degree, never be presumptuous. Law School will humble you. From experience, I
know that those who wear the cap in their heads never get to wear the ultimate cap on
their heads. Just pretend as if you have never tasted success before. Think not too much
about the weight of expectations from home and your university professors. In the end, you
have your life to live.

After the 20th week, you will go for the Externship programme in the courts and law firms.
You may have more time to read at the Magistrate Courts but you will learn more from the
High Courts. Don’t dodge court proceedings. Most of your questions in civil and criminal
litigation will come from what you observed in courts and law chambers. Fill your log books
every day and never leave them to pile up. If you manage your time well, you will read well
during the time for Externship. Go home when the courts rise and take your lunch and
sleep. When you wake up, you can read for six to seven hours every day. There is no way
you would not be ready for exams after three months. This is also the period you take time
to practice the Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ). Deal with all the past questions you lay
your hands on. It is dangerous to enter the exam hall without solving many past questions.
Don’t just look at them. Buy exercise books and solve them one after another. Where you
have difficulties, contact more intelligent colleagues to help. That is why you need to have
them as friends.
When you go back to school after the Externship programme, there will be so much
distraction coming from exercises like Portfolio Assessment and Mock Trial competition. So,
you must make sure that you are at least 60 percent ready by that time. Don’t shy away
from Mock Trial Competitions. If you join in the preparation of the processes for the Mock
Trial Competitions, you would have covered a great deal of civil and criminal litigation
without knowing it. From experience, most people who participate in the Mock Trial
Competitions do well at the Bar Final exams. Check the records. After the Mock Trial
competition, in the period remaining before the MCQ examinations, buy the prototype
answer sheets for the MCQ exams and practice with it. Focus on speed and accuracy. With
much practice, you would not score less than 15 in each course. This is possible even for
below average students. It only takes discipline and efforts. With that score, getting a First
Class grade would only be a matter of choice and determination.

The period between the MCQ exams and the main Bar Final Examination is very critical.
Don’t spend time mourning the mistakes you made at the MCQ exam. Move on! The MCQ
exam will help you to be more strategic in reading as you prepare for the main exam. You
must know that 80 marks are still up for grabs and this is not a joke. Apportion
proportionate time to all the courses. There are some courses you can easily deal with by
group discussions. However, there are others you must sit down and read and memorize.
The greatest enemy at this time is fear. The fear that flows round the campus at this period
could be so overwhelming that people give up. I saw my classmates praying for just a Pass. If
you could defeat fear at this period, you will do well in the exams. Refuse to accept that you
are not good enough. Refuse to accept that you have not read enough. Believe in your
strategy. Once the exams start, there are no margins for error. Read the instructions very
well. Use the right answer sheets for the right answers. Not being able to do this has cost
people their success at the Bar Finals.

In the exam hall, make sure you finish reading the questions to the last word. The word
“not” could be inserted somewhere at the end and this totally changes what you are
required to do. Just be meticulous. When compulsory questions appear monstrous on first
reading, refuse to accept that you do not know them. It is somewhere in your head. You just
need to dig deep. At the Bar Finals, you could get 3 out of 5 just for making a beautiful
attempt. Don’t leave any question blank. The lecturers will teach you how to approach
questions at the Bar Finals. Don’t forget their directions. Don’t be unnecessarily verbose.
Answer the questions asked first, and then, give your explanations. Don’t waste time crying
about questions you got wrongly, after your examinations. You don’t have the luxury of
time. Banish your question papers to your bags and rest, in order to read for the next day. If
you waste time mourning a poor performance on Monday, you would do worse on Tuesday.
Most questions carry only 3 marks. Don’t keep yourself down when you are not even sure
you would fail up to 25 marks in the paper written. Your First Class dream could still be
intact.

I want to tell you that the Nigerian Law School is A LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES. A person who
made a 3rd Class grade in the university can easily make a First Class at the Bar Finals with
the right attitude. It is a place where you may discover for the first time in your life that you
could go the extra mile. It is a place where the omen of stress and fear could push people to
encounter God. People have met their spouses at the Nigerian Law School in the past, and
when the circumstances are the same, history repeats itself. Therefore, the worst way to
live your life at the Law School is the close yourself to these opportunities that abound.

Finally, it will be unfair if I don’t tell you that God is the most important variable in the Law
School equation. Find time to pray. Find time to perform your religious obligations. Don’t
pray alone; pray together, if you can. When you do your best, seek the face of God. Submit
your struggles to Him. Only Him can grant ultimate success. One secret of success at the Bar
Finals is charity. There are ample opportunities for charity in the Law School. You will meet
students who need help, materially, academically and spiritually. Don’t turn your back when
you can help. Always bear in mind that there is no person too poor that he cannot give and
there is not person too rich that he cannot receive.

My dear, I wish you all the best as you embark on this journey. I pray that you would
succeed as we did. May God give you the strength to seek and find. God bless you.

Sincerely yours,
Gabriel Emeasoba (Rev. Fr)
Nigerian Law School Graduate, 2017/2018 Set.