Nigerian Law School DG Blames Universities For Admission Quota Crisis

The Director-General of the Nigerian Law School, Dr Olugbemisola Odusote, has blamed universities for the difficulty faced by law graduates in securing admission into the Nigerian Law School despite strong performances in their LL.B programmes.

Odusote urged the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to intervene in the admission quota crisis and support the enforcement of sanctions against universities that exceed quotas approved by the Council of Legal Education.

The DG made the call in her statutory report presented at the Annual General Meeting of the NBA in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

She said the Nigerian Law School had continued to run its academic sessions without interruption, arguing that recent calls for the institution to be scrapped were “unwarranted and devoid of any merit of purpose.”

Odusote said the problem was caused by universities admitting more law students than the approved quotas, leaving graduates unable to secure immediate places at the Law School.

“The Nigerian Law School is not the architect of the difficulty presently being encountered by university graduates.

“If there is any quarter to blame for students’ inability to gain admission instantly into the Nigerian Law School, even after a phenomenal performance at their LL.B programmes, such blame absolutely lie on the Universities that have created this monster,” she said.

She further accused some universities of treating legal education as a revenue-generating venture at the expense of students.

“Several Universities, both private and public, have presumptuously, arrogantly and disrespectfully disobeyed the quotas as prescribed and approved by the Council of Legal Education,” Odusote said.

“Many of them see the running of their institutions as a lucrative avenue for raking in finances at the expense of the unsuspecting candidates admitted into them, only to leave them hanging at the completion of their programmes.”

She called on the NBA and other stakeholders to condemn what she described as “flagrant disobedience” of approved admission quotas and support measures to hold offending institutions accountable.

On the performance of students, Odusote disclosed that 1,995 candidates sat for the May 2026 Bar Final Examination resit, with 883 candidates, representing 45.3 per cent, passing.

Another 55 candidates, or 2.8 per cent, recorded conditional passes, while 983 candidates, representing 50.3 per cent, failed. Thirty-two candidates, or 1.6 per cent, were absent.

She noted that some candidates had sat for the examination more than twice, while the Law School requires students to attend at least 70 per cent of its eight-week revision classes.

According to her, some students instead rely on materials provided by “businessmen who purport to teach them better than the dedicated Nigerian Law School staff.”

Odusote also reported that 7,601 candidates sat for the December 2025 Bar Final Examination, with 6,010 successful candidates.

The results included 212 First Class candidates, 1,216 Second Class Honours Upper, 2,958 Second Class and 1,617 Pass candidates.

On the externship programme, she said Bar Part II students spend six weeks in court and another six weeks in law firms as part of their practical training.

She commended the cooperation between the Bar and Bench and urged supervising lawyers and judges to report cases of misconduct by externs.

“We plead that speaking up when these externs do wrong would do the profession ultimate good than assisting them in covering up their tracks,” she said.

Odusote, who became the first female Director-General of the Nigerian Law School in January 2026 and the 10th person to occupy the position since the institution was established in 1962, said her administration was focused on building a model institution for legal education and vocational training.

She said her administration’s vision, captured in the ARISE mantra, centres on academic excellence, research and renewed service, infrastructural rebirth, sustainability, stakeholder participation and digitalisation in line with the changing global legal market.