‘Students should go
beyond the
classroom’
By ADEYEMI ONIKORO
26/01/2012 00:00:00
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Geoffrey Ihenetu and Daniel
Ogunbote are 500-Level Law
students at the Lagos State
University (LASU). They
represented the institution at
the International Moot Court
competition that was held last
December in King’s College,
London. They share their
experiences with ADEYEMI
ONIKORO (200-Level Law).
hat is the difference between
the Moot Court contest in
Nigeria and the one you
attended in the UK?
Daniel: The competition is
called foreign direct investment
International Arbitration Moot
competition. It is about the
coming together of Law
students from across the world
to argue on various issues. It is
basically on arbitration
whereby issues are raised and
argued in a more friendly way;
this is contrary to the litigation
method.
LASU was the only African
university in the competition.
Why?
Daniel:
I will say that students of LASU
are superb. And this may be as
a result of the passion we have
for litigation. Though, the
competition was open for all
universities, there were
procedures to follow before any
school could be shortlisted.
Chinedu:
I think the challenge we have in
Africa with regards to this
competition is that it is based
on a distinct area of Law called
Arbitration. And it is rare to see
a university that offers this as a
course in Nigeria. That
contributed to the absence of
more African universities.
Among the 107 students who
participated in the competition,
both of you are rated 41 and 78
respectively. How do you feel?
Daniel:
As I said earlier, it is all about
arbitration and Nigeria has no
university that offers that as a
course. But I will say this is not
the best of me, but it is not bad
being 78th best across world.
But what impressed us most
was the performance of LASU,
because we are among the
best 16 and we need to
improve on this.
Chinedu
: I was rated 41 which I think
was good. We had a good
outing, considering the fact
that we beat students from the
United States, Asia and Europe.
I am happy with the result.
You failed to make it to the
final stage of the competition,
where do you think you got it
wrong?
Daniel:
Though there is no excuse for
failure, but looking at the
rating, we performed well
because we dropped just
before the quarter final which
means that only eight schools
were ahead of LASU. Having
said that, I will say it could be
because it was our first time.
Most of our previous
international competitions
were all about litigation and
this was the first time Africa is
being represented in an
arbitration contest.
Chinedu:
Actually, we discovered that
most of the participants were
specialised in arbitration. We
contested with people that
have LL.M in international
arbitration and we are just
undergraduates. Though, I also
don’t see that as an excuse, we
give our best but our best did
not take us to the final stage.
What advice do you have for
students?
I will say the Law students in
Nigeria should go beyond the
classroom, because the terrain
is quite different in
international competition. It
goes beyond the
classroom.Daniel:
Chinedu:
I must say that opportunity
abounds internationally for Law
students. It is left for Nigerian
students to be the best they
can be. It is not a matter of
having a First Class; every Law
student must make up his mind
and launch himself on
international fronts.
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