₦airaland Forum

After five years of the rigorous baking process with all the hype, prestige and respect notwithstanding, Law graduates are not guaranteed a secure future unlike their medical counterparts. Passage to law school after university is always almost impossible for a good number of the erstwhile envied 'The Laws'. While a medical student on internship is on attractive monthly remuneration for the one year period, a law school-bound graduate is made to cough out a fortune. Inability to afford the ever-exorbitant law school fee has made some aspirants become lawyers later than they ought to.

If they are fortunate enough to afford Law School and its rigours and so bag their 'Call to Bar Certificate', their troubles still do not end. The literarily 'new wig' swaps his wig for the cap of a 'youth corper' in the year-long National Youth Service. He is employed into a State or Federal Ministry of Justice which is inadequately funded itself and so it goes without saying that he'll be paid 'peanuts'. If not, he is posted to a private firm where he is apportioned the most work load but when it comes to remuneration, someone always remembers he is a mere 'corper'.

The result of these many travails of the new wig, is an ineffective, shabby and corrupt justice delivery system. A system that does not put appropriate structures or modalities in place for the sustenance of the harbingers of the legal system to ensure that the generation coming behind is even better than the present one, a system that is riddled with inadequacies, inefficiencies and lowered standards, a system where lawyers are only concerned about remuneration as opposed to quality service delivery and proper career progression.

The fact remains that the governance system has failed us but the onus is largely on us not to fail ourselves. If we can rise above the stakes and the daunting challenges, it would only ensure we are made a better generation. If we turn our fortune around, we would largely be the generation of lawyers to beat in the world!

 Talent and belief in one's potential

Since all of us resolve to be successful, I must say that what guarantees your success in legal practice is just not your knowledge of the law or your finishing your graduating exams and even your law school exams with first class degree honours or second class honours upper degree.  Excellent results at the end of these examinations are important and may in fact demonstrate the depth of your knowledge and talent in law. But talent is never enough.

The first thing is that you must have belief in yourself in that such belief in yourself will lift your talent. This implies you must have self-confidence always. The first and greatest obstacle to success is lack of belief in yourself, lack of trust in yourself, which in itself is a self-limitation. This element of belief itself has several variables. It also includes belief in your potential. This is because your potential is a picture of what you will become.

Regrettably, many people fall short of their real potential because of lack of belief in their potential.

 Belief in one's mission

 The other variable of belief in yourself is belief in your mission in life. This will enlarge you and determines your expectations. The formula is simple.

"You will become on the outside what you believe on the inside."

You must never be afraid of making mistakes. Indeed there are two kinds of people in this world, those who want to get things done and those who don't want to make mistakes. I challenge you to make your choices without fear of making mistakes for not to decide is to decide.

Passion

Another important element that would guarantee success in your legal career is your passion for the job. Indeed what carries people to the top, what makes them take risks and go the extra mile to achieve their goals is not their talent but their passion.  You must love the legal profession and enjoy working as a lawyer or else you may miss it.  This is because your passion is the first step to achievement. It increases your will power. Please ask yourselves these questions:

"What do you sing about?;  What do you cry about?; What do you dream about?"

Take initiatives

The third ingredient of success apart from passion is initiative. I enjoin all of you not to 'siddon look' but to take initiatives. Chief Gani Fawehinmi took initiative when he started the Weekly Law Reports of Nigeria to fill a lacuna in legal practice. And this was one of the factors for his greatness.  Please note that initiative is the first step to anywhere you want to go and opens the door to opportunities.  Please ask yourself is there a decision you should be making? Is there a problem you should be solving? Is there a possibility you should be examining? Is there a project you should be starting? Is there a goal you should be reaching? Is there an opportunity you should be seizing or a dream you should be fulfilling?  Do not wait a minute longer seize the initiative today.

 Being focused

One other element of success that you need to have is focus, as this directs your talent. Let me illustrate this issue of focus with the reality of our profession.  When you are called to bar as a lawyer, there are several doors open to you for access. You can decide to stay back here and lecture, you may also decide to embrace private legal practice, some of you can also decide to go into corporate world and contribute to the economy.  There are also windows of opportunities available in non-governmental organisations. Others may choose to embrace consultancy, yet others may veer into politics and politicking while others may also choose to go to legislative houses of assemblies or render support services to the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary including the Civil Service etc.

Let me assure you that there is none of these windows of opportunities that cannot guarantee you success in the long run.  But you must make up your mind today which of the windows of opportunities you want to access and stay focused on that window if you want to achieve meaningful success in the long run.

Therefore, if you want to stay in private legal practice as your passion, stay focused in private legal practice if indeed you want to attain great success as a lawyer.

Preparation

The other ingredient of success in your legal career is the element of preparation. You cannot overcome great challenges if you are unprepared. This means constantly, you must read, research and consult authorities well ahead of proceedings, whether in court or elsewhere.  You must see the value of preparation before action.  Preparation allows you to tap into your talent and is also a key to success. The questions you must ask yourself always are:

What work is to be done?, How is it to be done?; When is it to be done?; Where is it to be done?; How fast can it be done? What do I need to get it done?.

 Your answers to these questions will prepare you for the task ahead.  The only thing that relieves pressure is preparation.

Practice as a vehicle to perfection

The next element of success is practice as practice makes perfect. As lawyers you must always oil your skills and be prepared to step up your game. It is practice that enables development and leads to discovery. Practice also shows and builds commitment and to be effective, practice demands discipline.  In the words of Andrew Carnegie: "There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not help themselves.  You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb himself."  Therefore I challenge all of you to embrace pupilage, learn the art of lawyering from the masters who are on the job ahead of you.

 These imply a little extra effort, a little extra time, a little extra help and a little extra change.

   Perseverance

To be successful you need the element of perseverance. In the words of John Maxwell, in his book "Beyond Talent",

I want to assure all of you that the road to success in legal practice is very rough indeed. Let no one deceive you that it can be easy. Therefore, if you are looking for a short cut to success in legal practice, you stand the risk of not succeeding or running foul of the rules of professional ethics or at worst, losing your wig and gown or ending up in jail. I do not wish for any of you any of this misfortune.

Courage

The other element of success that you must possess as a lawyer is courage. Let me mention some few examples of lawyers not lacking in courage to illustrate this. In the United States, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are a lesson in courage and they are lawyers. In the UK Margret Thatcher was an example in courage and she was a lawyer. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela confronted the evil Apartheid regime with courage he is a lawyer. In Nigeria, Gani Fawehinmi, in my view, the greatest lawyer that has ever lived was a man of high courage and that is why we remember him with fondness every time.  There is no way you can defend the interest of your client decisively if you are lacking in courage. Courage is an everyday virtue that every decent professional must possess.

 Hunger for knowledge

The other element of success is the hunger to learn.  First of all rather than develop hunger for money at the onset, you must rather develop hunger for knowledge as a prerequisite for enduring success in legal practice.  Therefore the formula is not money first and knowledge later rather it is knowledge first and money later.  Tied to this element is the parable of the crown and the cross. Ironically today, many of the new wigs want the crown but they are not prepared to take the cross.  There is no way you can have the crown without the cross and this is the reality of human existence.

Core values

However, one crucial issue that you must have in addition to your degree no matter how impressive is character. Character protects your talent. If you ask me, I would say character, character and character.  There are a lot of fundamentals tied to this element of character in guaranteeing the success of the lawyer. One of such elements is integrity. One example of this factor is late Honourable Justice Kayode Eso who left the Bench as a distinguished jurist with his integrity intact.  Who amongst you does not want to be like late justice Kayode Eso who was an epitome of integrity of the highest order? He was also revered as extraordinarily brilliant, hardworking and honest.

There is also the element of principles and the best exemplar here is late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. This was a legal practitioner who stood on the side of principles throughout his life.  He was reputed to have said that 'you should always stand on the side of principles even when you are standing alone'. Gani anchored all his struggles on principles and no one can fault him on the side of principles. Who amongst you would like to be like Gani? He was also extremely knowledgeable and honest in his crusades.

Let me also mention the element of hard work and use our irrepressible Chief Afe Babalola SAN as an exemplar.  I recall a period when I had to work closely with Chief Afe Babalola SAN at his Emmanuel's Chambers in Ibadan in respect of a matter in which those of us who look up to him were eager to benefit from his wealth of professional expertise. I recall that we had worked up to 12 am midnight in company of the erudite Chief after which he made arrangements for us to be checked into our respective hotels to enable us rest and resume work the following day.  We were all shocked when upon arrival in the chambers by 7am in the following morning we had met Chief Afe Babalola SAN at his desk already working.  We had wondered aloud whether the old man went to bed at all.  Our investigation was to reveal that the erudite chief is obsessed with the theory of hard work. No wonder he became such a monumental and unprecedented success in the legal profession and in the realm of the larger society. PUNCH Newspaper.

CHERISH20, Happy Birthday to you. I wish you long life and prosperity in good health. Actually, I was just inclined to check the profile of the lady that posted one funny comment on the 95years old man that's married to a 22years old girl and I discovered today is her birthday. Many happy return.

DrummaBoy: I sense you have more to say than this.

Can you be more specific? What is the name of your church? How much did you get out of the "bribe"?

Excuse me, it's not a bribe but a birthday service and I'm disappointed you're asking me the name of the church.

The first impression that may be formed in the mind of a common man is that this type of topic should be posted by a non-christian but I'm sorry to disappoint you, I'm a christian, a chorister and even an altar server for that matter but the truth must be told. I've always formed the opinion that the church has not done enough in curbing corruption because due to close observation I came to a conclusion that it is only corruption that will not favour the "so called" ministers of God that they kick against. Here lies the evidence herein; imagine a person giving ministers of God one million naira and because of this, they couldn't conduct themselves in sobriety. This is not the main issue anyway but imagine this same person giving the head of the ministers another one million naira an specifically saying "This is for the choir" only for the latter to deliver just fifty thousand naira only. And you want people to listen to sermons forgetting that preaching by conduct is the greatest form preaching. You'll be mentioning Ananias and Saphira and you're not afraid. Let's pray for Nigeria and the church my people.

abduldope: wetin u cm mean by this statement ''I felt like I should ask
government to stop admitting
fresh secondary school leavers
straight into the university. They
should be asked to do the A/Level or
ordinary diploma programme before
they enrol at the university'' if na dream beta wake up nn apologies mtchwwww

That's a good idea though

crystal9t: Tnks for the quick n reasonable responses I have gotten so far.My fear is the bigger picture. I know with 99 percent certainty that I will get the job if I give her my CV but my fear is after getting the job what would happen next? I might be under obligation to do their wishes and commands which most times could be against my own will. In order to be grateful to them, suggestions like marraige might creep in and I definitely don't want to go into that direction because of her awful behaviour. Just confused right now.... @ apache: my tongue is a bit tied in describing the humiliation in details. I bet you, u won't even stand the embarrassment.

And I am using this opportunity to assure you as a law student even if I'm not a lawyer yet that you are not under any obligation because she hasn't said that if you will marry her you will get a job. Likewise, concerning the case of showing appreciation by doing their will, I repeat, law is different from morality as well as custom so your appreciation is not even dis proportional to their help because marriage is a life contract.

Marriage contract? I doubt it because there's what is called consensus ad idem(meeting of minds on the same thing) which is essential for a contract to be enforceable so she can't bring up any legal action against you if you refuse to marry her. Chairman, collect the job joor because law is different from morality.

malikidi: I tink say na only me dy miss for dis thread o.av neva meet any nairalanderz b4...owk! any1 should just announce his/her locatn n tym 2moro.make we meet jare......

You think so? Anyway, one of your room mates is also a nairalander.

malikidi: For sultan bello hallmate,prepare 6passport,1 full pix,ur documents n a token amount(as said by d official in charge).....also he said we should come wit our loads on monday dat he guarantee us all accomodatn into d hostel.....so me ntemi i go come do my clearance on monday and resume on tuesday.

Thanks for the information.

.

The point is the slippers the SIL took the other day and the cuts on the clothes makes Mrs. Joseph insecure. What happened is that the couples will have to go to work and it is the SIL and her daughter that will be left at home.

Pls, I need this Topic on the front page admin.

Mr and Mrs Joseph has been married and living together for over 23yrs. Along the line, there has been a cold war between Mrs Joseph and her sister-in-Law which Mr Joseph didn't really notice.
At a particular time, the sister-in-law took the condemned slippers of their son and Mrs Joseph insisted on the return of the slippers volunteering to get her a brand new one. Mrs Joseph also started noticing cuts on her clothes because she do allow visitors to stay in her room.
After few years, the sister-in-law was sick and Mr Joseph out of pity and obligation decided to take-up the responsibility of her treatment. As a result of this, she will have to stay in Mrs. Joseph's room again. However, Mrs. Joseph, after few days of her sister-in-law's stay became very insecure and decided to take care of another flat for her sister-in-law so that the later and her daughter who was also staying with her could move in there but before making a definite conclusion, she sought the consent of her husband, only for her husband to flare up and start saying she wants to send his sister out of his own house. He even went as far as asking her if she was the one that built the house for him.
Mrs. Joseph decided to keep mute because the whole issue was already turning into an argument. Mr. Joseph became angrier and asked his wife, Mrs. Joseph whether his sister can harm her so Mrs. Joseph was force to refer back to the time when her sister-in-law insisted in taking her son's condemned slippers despite that she volunteered to buy her another one.
The issue escalated to the extent that Mr. Joseph asked his sister and the latter's daughter to move out of the house and stay temporarily in his office. He also vowed not to sleep in the same room not to talk of the same bed with his wife again neither will he eat any food cooked by her again.
My fellow Nairalanders, when I read this publication in the newspaper, my first question was what was the real cause of the matter and who do you think is at fault?

Please, how do I view my room number? Then, I couldn't view my bundle fees.

pedibaba_360: Thank God 4 d progress,
Bt its obvios dat 9ja tins always hav comma,ow wil a sch admit studnts n say dt dier year of admsisn is 2012/2013 yt d students didn't evn hav anytin or few tins 2 do in d year 2012,E.g OAU,UI n co....Nawa O,may God helps us in dis awa 9ja...#hmmm

That's debatable my brother because we did our clearance in 2012

It is actually inexplicable but the lord upgraded me to that special place I should have being. I wasn't admitted last year which really saddened my heart because I had the criteria but the Lord compensated me with a cambridge result despite that I prepare for about 6 months alone and I was also admitted into 200l which I should be ceteris paribus.

jauntee02: CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS!! CHRISTMAS!!!
http://shareefudeen..com/2012/12/christmas-christmas-christmas.html

http://shareefudeen..com/2012/12/christmas-christmas-christmas.html

http://shareefudeen..com/2012/12/christmas-christmas-christmas.html

No wonder they were raining abuses on you........mscteeeew. You should st least pretend as if you have common sense, hun?

It depends on your subject combination but the most expensive was 99k when I was there.

Go to Educational Advancement Centre(EAC) in old Bodija opposite 411

Yes, you can read on your own but the main exam cost is what I don't know because they summed everything us for us. Hostel fee, tutorial fee and other charges inclusive.

I attended classes tho' but I read as if I was on my own because it is stated in the syllabus that 33% of the work is meant for tutors while 67% are meant for the candidate.

It is not advisable for you to choose a federal university as second choice especially in Direct Entry. Then my observation is that it is more technical to gain admission into Unilag through direct entry than UI.

Economics is more advisable because Accounting is narrower.

Jossy4luv1

It's not advisable to choose 2 federal universities because the admit only first choice candidate. And not less than 10points will do.

Actually, I wrote my own A' levels in Ibadan. Educational Advancement Centre to be precise and I wrote my exam May/June, 2012. I'll like to know what department you want to put in for.

Yes, it is but it depends on you. If you're ready for serious studying and sacrifice, you'll surely achieve your aim. I also spent 6 months on my A' levels and I was admitted with the result into UI. Even the girl that had A*A*A* in 2011, she used just 6months so it all depends on you. I don't think it's possible if you allow yourself to be carried away by distractions.

Yes, it is but it depends on you. If your ready for serious studying and sacrifice, you'll surely achieve your aim. I also spent 6 months on my A' levels and I was admitted with the result into UI. Even the girls that had A*A*A* in 2011, she used just 6months so it all depends on you. I don't think it's possible if you allow yourself to be carried away by distractions.

[quote author=olaisababs]@jaygam,no vex baba,test tinz. . I went there but i wazn't given a tangible answa. . Buh i'm going to confirm if the MERIT list z out 4 d sciences. .if it z. . We will decyd on what to do.God help us.[/quote) you get mouth honey.

CAPITAL NO! What sort of nonsense is that? That guy must be having a sinister and ulterior motive. He wants to use that to trap the lady because he knows they and very sensitive to touches. The Lady should ask if he hasn't been penetrating other ladies and if he says no, she should ask him why her. Once again, capital "NO"

tayotina: ok guyz let me just follow suite.

Lawson Nursery and Primary School, Ibara, Abk, Ogun State
St. Bernadette Private School, Ibara, Abeokuta, Ogun State
Our Lady of Apostles JSS, Cape Coast, Central Region, Ghana
Our Lady of Apostles SSS, Ho, Volta Region, Ghana
Ho Polytechnic, Ho, Volta Region, Ghana

Wow! My school, St. Bernadette ooooo.

190-the-clown:
Gtfo

why nau?