The senate has passed a bill seeking to increase the number of Law School Campuses in Nigeria from six to twelve. In the bill sponsored by Senator Smart Adeyemi representing Kogi West federal constituency, the Nigerian Senate approved for the Federal Government to establish the six new law school campuses across the six geo-political zones in the country.
The passage of the bill followed the Senate’s consideration of a report by Senate committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal matters on the Legal Education Act (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which recommended the establishment of the six new campuses of the Nigerian Law School across the six geo-political zones of the country.
Presenting the report, the Chairman Senate Committee on Judiciary, Senator Bamidele Opeyemi representing Ekiti Central explained that the additional Campuses will be Located in Kabba – Kogi State, Maiduguri – Borno State and Argungu in Kebbi State.
Others are Jos – Plateau State, Okija – Anambra State, Orogun – Delta State and Ilawe in Ekiti State. While the existing law school campuses are located in Lagos, Abuja, Adamawa, Kano, Enugu and Bayelsa States.
Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, said the creation of the six law schools was a legislative intervention to address “the exponential increase in the number of law graduates from our universities an foreign ones, coupled with the backlog that existed over the years.”
According to the lawmaker, “existing campuses are overstretched and the infrastructures are not enough to accommodate thousands of law students graduating from the universities.”
He observed that the United States of America with a population of over 350 million people has about 237 law schools.
The lawmaker noted that some countries such as Canada and Australia, with far lesser population than Nigeria, have 24 and 38 law schools for a population of about 38 million and 26 million people, respectively.
He explained that the provision for additional campuses in the six geopolitical zones of the federation was appropriate as it does not tamper with the seven existing campuses established by administrative responsibilities of the Council of Legal Education.
Bamidele, therefore, advised the federal government to, as a matter of priority, provide adequate resources for the funding of the Infrastructural needs of the law campuses across the country.
The newly approved law schools, in addition to the six existing ones, bring the total number of law schools in the country to thirteen including that of the Federal Capital Territory.
List of Law School Campuses in Nigeria According to their Geo-political Zones
The new law school campuses when established plus the existing campuses are as follows arranged according to their geo-political zones
North Central Zone
- Jos Law School Campus, Plateau State
- Kabba Law School Campus, Kogi State (NEW)
North East Zone
- Yola Law School Campus, Adamawa State
- Maiduguri Law School Campus, Borno State (NEW)
North West Zone
- Kano Law School Campus, Kano State;
- Argungun Law School Campus, Kebbi State (NEW)
South East Zone
- Enugu Law School Campus, Enugu State
- Okija Law School Campus, Anambra State (NEW)
South South zone
- Yenegoa Law School Campus, Bayelsa State
- Port Harcourt Law School Campus, Rivers State
- Orogun Law School Campus, Delta State (NEW)
South West Zone
- Lagos Law School Campus, Lagos State
- Ilawe Law School Campus, Ekiti State (NEW)
FCT Abuja
Bwari Law School Campus, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.