MASSIVE FAILURES IN 2013/2014 LAW SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS: MY HUMBLE SUBMISSIONS AND ADVICE- BY Moran Cee Onyemaechi

I must thank the General Public, Members of the press, President of Nigerian Bar Association and all members, President and members of various Professional Bodies in Nigeria which I am a direct member or affiliated to by Association.

I have waited all along, having prepared my congratulatory messages to be delivered to my friends in the 2013/2014 session of the Nigerian Law School. I had planned sending it across immediately the final results was released. My hope was high, as I believed it would bring joy and widespread celebrations that would make drinks flow in the Bar with subsequent high hopes of being called to the Legal Bar!

Alas, the result has just been released but it came as a Tsunami which swept the hopes away. The failure was massive! Most of my friends (whom I believed would at least make a Second class upper division grade due to their high level intelligence display and determination to excel) were also swept by the furious waves! The few that escaped narrowly(my blood brother inclusive) fractured either an arm, leg or neck because their initial grade expectations were not met, but they are at least consoled for survival following the massive casualties recorded! No true soldier can rejoice when other of his gallant colleagues were felled in the war field .Now I weep, I did not take part in the battle but I am like a wife who kissed his darling Military-Combatant husband goodbye, awaited his return, but got the shocking news of his death!

News broke of the protests by the affected candidates calling on the Nigerian Law School to review the results, citing irregularities and Individual decisions of the current Director General of Nigerian Law School “to markdown students” as likely reasons for the massive failures. This protest is the first ever, since the Fifty Years existence of the Apex Legal Institution and as this year’s result has also been tagged the worst ever in history!

As I feel the pains of my affected friends (who really sacrificed after long term separation from families and friends, exposure to the insecurity situations in some parts of the country and coughing out huge amount for tuition fees), let me also quickly make my humble submissions as a friend of this Noble Profession ,having knowledge in the workings of other Professional bodies in the country and been privileged to be a young Lecturer in a Post Graduate Training school of a Chartered Professional Body:

1. I believe that every Professional Association (Nigerian Bar Association not exempted) reserves a right at any point in time, to determine and review criteria for the admission of new members into her professional membership using any method which may aim at restricting or encouraging membership. A professional Association may decide to limit membership if it believes that there is an oversaturation which may reduce respect or integrity of members of the profession. One of the factors that improves integrity and reputation of any profession is the restriction of membership with stringent entry requirements. The Nigerian Bar Association no doubt might have exercised this right after due consultations with the Head of their training arm; Council for Legal Education and Body of Benchers. The Nigerian Bar Association has indeed decided to raise their Bar of professionalism! This indeed is a wakeup call to some Certificate-selling professional bodies in Nigeria to uphold the standards of their examinations and restrict membership to uphold the integrity of professionalism.

2. Students of Professional training schools (Nigerian Law School not exempted) are not expected to engage in open protests against the outcomes of examinations which are common in academic institutions, but rather such grievances should be channeled silently to the appropriate authorities. Despite the regular massive failures of candidates in other professional examinations like ACIA, ACCA, ICAN, etc no one protests but buckles up for the next examinations until they pass and get Chartered which may even take years! It is widely believed that the longer it takes one to be chartered, the more drilled the person becomes in the field.

3. The Nigerian Law School students’ actions might have been triggered by the earlier representations of the new Director General to reduce the number of students to be called to Bar and subsequent reduction in examination time allocation which I still believe may be in line with standards improvement. However, the possibility of result compilation errors, script misplacements, clerical staff compromise etc should not be overlooked in certain situations. If any of the above has been confirmed in the past, and any party can come forward with an overwhelming evidence to corroborate such claims, then the National Assembly or concerned Agency should summon the Director General of Nigerian Law School for an immediate investigation and subsequent review of the affected students’ results.

4. On the other hand, the protesters should be careful in order not to embark on a goose chase to set an impossible bad precedent that may later haunt them .It is good to exercise one’s right, but it should be with discretion sometimes. Only the wise can obey without arguments, the order of a visibly drunk officer with an AK47 riffle to park even when the officer might be wrong. On the other hand, only a wise child would obey his father’s instruction to wait outside without alerting the neighbors before he is allowed in. If the Child’s alerts pressured the father to go against his wish, the child would receive coded pinching and knocks behind closed doors to teach him a lesson. I strongly believe the Nigerian Law School acted in line with clauses in the examination codes which might have been presided over by committee members before such results were released. There is no way the Director General might have personally influenced massive failures without the ratification of council members!

Let us face the fact, if at last Nigerian Law School succumbs to the demand for result review and the failures are reconfirmed and a Legal suit is instituted, don’t you think several adjournments may elongate the whole process which may linger until after the November 25th, 2014 call to Bar Ceremony? Will there be an Interim or a prohibitory injunction for it not to hold until issues are resolved? What then would be the difference between preparing for the next examination and engaging on futile protests? Whether the review is done or not, I shall be present in Abuja to celebrate with my few friends that were chosen from many while waiting for further celebrations with my other friends that would cross over later!

5. Permit me to add a humoristic twist to the end of this: My humble advice to all my affected friends is for them to brace up because they have not failed and prepare for the next examinations to be celebrated. However, if they are keen to be called to Bar this year, COMEDY COURT (Moran Cee) is willing to absorb them for an INTERIM CALL TO BAR, to enable them laugh and forget their sorrows and also contribute their wealth of experiences to our Bar! The only difference between COMEDY COURT (Moran Cee’s) Bar and the Legal bar is that it is a Relaxation Bar with drinks! However, Comedy Court Brand is a friend of the Legal profession, aimed at using humor to educate the masses on several contemporary Legal issues thereby prosecuting and sentencing depressions, High blood pressures, frustrations, sadness…even poverty, with hilarious cases (jokes) and exhibit photos. In Comedy Court (Moran Cee), every case is a Joke and Every Joke is a case. The brand has so far released two Audio Comedy sessions to a wide acclaim and about to release the DVD/TV series beginning with OIL COMPANY WORKER and WOOWO CASES.
Join us to decide cases on FACEBOOK: COMEDY COURT (Moran Cee). YOUTUBE: comedy Court Moran Cee TV. I REST MY CASE!

Adm. Moran Cee Onyemaechi
Professional of the year 2008(All Nigerian Professionals/NEWARK USA)
Lecturer/Entertainment Administrator
(Chief Judge/Justice, Comedy Court International)
08038395522. comedycourtmorancee@yahoo.com
Ikeja, Lagos

I comment my reserve

I think the major problem is grading a student by his/her lowest score instead of an average of the entire scores.

Not to forget resiting all five papers because you failed two out of the five courses