In addition to the seven existing law schools in Nigeria, the Senate has approved the establishment of six new campuses across the country’s six geo-political zones, an intervention to accommodate more law students who graduate from the universities every year.
This development follows the consideration of a report by the senate committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on the Legal Education Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021, sponsored by Smart Adeyemi, senator representing Kogi West.
Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, chairman of the committee, hinted that the creation of the six law schools aims to 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.”
He said, “existing campuses are overstretched, and the infrastructures are not enough to accommodate thousands of law students graduating from the universities.”
The new law schools bring the total number of law schools in Nigeria to thirteen, excluding Bwari Law School Campus in Abuja.
They are: Jos Law School Campus (Plateau) and Kabba Law School Campus (Kogi) approved for the north-central zone, Yola Law School Campus (Adamawa) and Maiduguri Law School Campus (Borno) for the northeast, and Kano Law School Campus (Kano) and Argungun Law School Campus (Kebbi State) for the north-west.
Others are Enugu Law School Campus (Enugu) and Okija Law School Campus (Anambra) for the South-East; Yenegoa Law School Campus (Bayelsa), Port Harcourt Law School Campus (Rivers) and Orogun Law School Campus (Delta) for the South-South, and Lagos Law School Campus (Lagos) and Ilawe Law School Campus (Ekiti State) for the southwest.
To address the increasing number of law graduates in Nigeria and relieve the overstretched existing law campuses, the Senate has approved the establishment of six new law schools across the nation’s six geopolitical zones. This initiative, stemming from the Legal Education Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021, sponsored by Senator Smart Adeyemi, aims to accommodate more students and mitigate backlog issues.
According to Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, the new campuses will alleviate the burden on current infrastructures that are inadequate to handle the growing number of graduates. The additional law schools bring the total to thirteen, with the new locations being:
- Jos and Kabba in the north-central zone
- Yola and Maiduguri in the northeast
- Kano and Argungun in the northwest
- Enugu and Okija in the southeast
- Yenegoa, Port Harcourt, and Orogun in the south-south
- Lagos and Ilawe in the southwest
