President Muhammadu Buhari has reappointed Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN) as Chairman of the Council of Legal Education (CLE).
Aside from the 36 state Attorneys-General, the newly reconstituted council, which will be inaugurated at Abuja today, also has 17 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) nominees as members.
The members include NBA President, Mr. Yakubu Maikyau SAN; leading Evidence Law author, Mr. Sebastine Hon SAN; Mr. Paul Harris Adakole Ogbole SAN, and Mrs. Olufunmilayo Roberts.
Ngige disclosed the reappointment while addressing the valedictory meeting of Council of Legal Education held at the weekend at the Bwari Headquarters of Nigerian Law School.
The reappointment is coming on the heels of a farewell dinner held in honour of members of the 2019-2023 council last weekend at Abuja. It would recalled that the Director-General of the Nigerian Law School, Prof. Isa Chiroma SAN was also reappointed last December by the president for another four-year term.
The council, with the active collaboration of the Chiroma-led Nigerian Law School administration, supervised six Bar Final examinations and engaged in an unprecedented rehabilitation of the decayed school infrastructure through the launch of the Nigerian Law School Support Initiative, a pet project of Ngige.
Aside from sundry projects delivered by the federal government through the supervising Federal Ministry of Justice under Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN, the Rivers State Government constructed two hostels and a multi-purpose hall at the Yenagoa Campus. It capped its intervention with the construction of a state-of-the-art campus in Port Harcourt within eight months.
In collaboration with the school administration, the council built two medical centres at Abuja and Enugu campuses, commissioned a Moot Court built by the Nigerian Law School Class of 1986 and several staff quarters rehabilitated by the Enugu State Government, installed CCTV cameras in the examination halls at Abuja Headquarters, and commenced digitisation of Nigerian Law School files and documents to enhance speedy issuance of transcripts.
The council also approved the accreditation reports for law programmes in 37 universities, reviewed upwards the grading system for Bar Finals, and resolved the longstanding debacle relating to the National Open University (NOUN) law graduates by organising a special remedial course for the graduates preparatory to their admission into the Bar Finals programme.
The council also overhauled its corporate governance regime, enforced disciplinary provisions in the Legal Education (Consolidation, etc) Act, and reviewed the Code of Conduct for the students.
The reappointment is for another four-year tenure.