A total of 888 candidates failed the final bar examination conducted in November 2023. This is just as 4,412 candidates were successful out of a total of 5,300 who sat for the exam and were yesterday admitted into the Nigerian Bar.
Among the new wigs included a former governor of Rivers State and immediate past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, while 251 had first class among the successful candidates.
The Director-General of the Nigerian Law School, Prof. Isa Hayatu Chiroma, said: “I will be presenting at this Call to the Bar ceremony a total of 4,412 candidates who were successful at the November 2023 Bar final examinations as well as 14 candidates from previous Bar final examinations. These figures translate to 83.3 per cent success at the examinations.
“The Nigerian Law School is proudly happy to report that a total number of 251 candidates bagged First Class grade in the last Bar final examination. This is indeed an outstanding excellent performance and of course unprecedented.”
The chairman of the Body of Benchers who is a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Mary Peter-Odili, described the current period as bad for the judiciary. She noted that the confidence in the judiciary was dwindling as a result of the spate of conflicting judgments and indiscipline among lawyers.
“It is a bad period in the sense that the judiciary is being bashed and public confidence in the legal system is dwindling, occasioned by incessant conflicting judgments in our courts and flagrant indiscipline amongst lawyers.”
She said the Body of Benchers had set up a committee to see to the issue of conflicting judgments. While swearing-in the new lawyers, Peter-Odili urged them to avoid all forms of corruption as well as conducts that could tarnish the image of the judiciary.
She tasked the newly admitted lawyers to always be transparent and accountable to both their clients and the country, stressing that the Body of Benchers would continue to play its role of upholding the ethics and ethos of the legal profession.
