By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The Director-General of the Nigerian Law School, Prof. Isa Hayatu Chiroma, on Tuesday, 5 March, 2024 disclosed that at least 251 had first class, while a total of 888 candidates failed the final bar examination conducted November 2023.
This is just as 4,412 candidates were successful out of a total of 5,300 who sat for the examination.
Chiroma made this disclosure at the call to bar ceremony held in Abuja on Tuesday, 5 March, 2024.
“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,” he said.
“I am happy to report on the good performance recorded by the candidates as seen in the Executive Summary below: Outstanding/General Performance
“(a) Total number of students who participated in the Examinations: 5,300.
“(b) Total number of successful candidates: 4,412
“(c) 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.
“(d) These figures translate to 83.3% success at the Bar Final Examinations.”
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.
Peter-Odili said, “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.
