THE ROLE OF LAW CLINICS IN EXPANDING HUMAN RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO
JUSTICE: A CASE STUDY OF THE NIGERIAN LAW SCHOOL YENAGOA CAMPUS
LAW CLINIC.*
INTRODUCTION
Justice has been an ideal which generations of scholars have pondered and still
ponder as they try to characterize it or give it meaning, yet the concept of justice
remains elusive and, access to justice has equally remained elusive for some
classes of persons in society that are vulnerable; too poor, too insignificant or too
unimportant for their fundamental human rights to be protected or to be
accorded unfettered access to justice.
In this paper we shall not concern ourselves with the ideational concept of justice
as philosophical or jurisprudential construct or a full discussion of Human Rights.
We shall limit our discussion to the efforts at the Nigerian Law School, using
Yenagoa law clinic as case study at conscientizing Law school students who are
aspirants to the Nigerian Bar to the plight of very poor, weak and vulnerable
persons in society who suffer abuses, inhuman and degrading treatments both in
their public and private lives merely because they have been denied access to
justice. Consequently, they are denied protection of the law merely because of
the impotence brought upon them because they are very poor, weak, vulnerable
or just too timorous to be accorded their right to protection of Law. The Law
Clinic is thereby used as a tool for the expansion of the tent of justice to them.
This hopefully will produce for the future, a new generation of lawyers and jurists
in Nigeria, who will be mindful of the fundamental human rights of all; rich or
poor, notable and important or weak and vulnerable to due process of law and
justice. The training would also help create for the future a generation of lawyers
who would use their positions as lawyers (ministers in the temple of Justice1) to
ensuring they humanize justice by allowing all unfettered access to her thereby
*Felicia Omonigho Eimunjeze is deputy Director (Academics) and Head of Academics Nigerian Law school, Yenagoa
campus, feimunjeze@gmail.com, Ileola Adesina, ileolaadesina@ymail.com Lucia Odigie- Emmanuel,
lawschoollucia@yahoo.co.uk l Both lecturers at the Nigerian Law School
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As Lawyers like to see themselves in Nigeria.
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expanding human rights and access to justice of all citizens as envisaged by the
Nigerian Constitution2.
INADEQUATE ACCESS TO JUSTICE: A HUMAN WRONG.
Justice has been described as the first condition for human existence in society. A
denial or delay in accessing justice may amount to a denial of justice and breach
of a person’s fundamental human right. Chapter IV of the Nigerian Constitution
contains provisions that guarantee and safeguard to the individual internationally
recognized fundamental human rights of every person who lives in the country.
By the social contract theory, Governments at all levels in the country have a duty
to protect the fundamental human rights of every person irrespective of their
social or economic status.
Access to Justice is guaranteed in the same chapter by section 36(1) which is
pivotal in the Fundamental Right Provisions under the law. It provides that;
“In the determination of his civil rights and obligations including
Any question or determination by or against any government
or authority, a person shall be entitled to a fair hearing within
a reasonable time by a court or other tribunal established by law
and constituted in such manner as to secure its independence
and impartiality.“3
The above ideal entitling every person in Nigerian to fair hearing also protects
citizens’ right to fair trial and guarantees them access to due process of law.
Concomitant to the above is the individual’s right to personal liberty that is a
component of the Fundamental Human Right of the individual in Nigeria
protected by section 35(1) of the constitution. Subsection (4) of the section
provides that;
“Any person who is arrested or detained in accordance to
subsection (1) (c) of this section shall be brought before
a court of law within a reasonable time…..”
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I999 Cap C I23 Laws of the Federation , 2004 (as amended), (Herein after called the Constitution.)
For the moral authority see Deuteronomy Chapter I: I6 & I7, The Holy Bible.
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S. 35(5) defines the expression ‘’a reasonable time” to mean;
(a) “In the case of any arrest or detention in any place where there
is a court of competent jurisdiction within a radius of forty
kilometers, a period of one day : and
(b) In any other case, a period of two days or such longer period
as in the circumstances may be considered by the court to
be reasonable.”
The above is the ideal situation under the Nigerian constitution for any person
arrested for an infraction of law or other reasons to be quickly brought to court in
order to access the due process of law and justice.
However, the pervasive experience in the country is that several persons,
particularly, the poor, weak and vulnerable members of the community are
arrested and detained in police cells and prison custody for minor offences or no
offence at all for several days, months and even years without an opportunity of
coming before any court or tribunal. In some cases, purported offenders have
been charged to court and remanded in prison custody and labeled “awaiting
trail” for several years in which they languish in jail on a charge which may be
bogus or never proved. In some cases proved, but the individual would have
remained in prison custody for a time longer than the statutory maximum
imprisonment term provided for such offence. Some are arrested by some of the
several “task forces” that are created by different agencies and departments at
the three levels of government in the federation4 to deal with all manner of
emergency situations many of which are not crimes known to law in the country.
The main offence of the victims who generally are poor and illiterate being
inability to satisfy corrupt demands of rent seeking government officials.
A number of such unfortunate persons often suffer injustice silently, remaining in
police cells or prison custody for several months and even years without being
charged to court, tried or bailed. This is because such persons who are too poor to
bribe police, prison and other government officials or too unknown to wield
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Federal, States and Local Governments.
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influence, bring social or political pressure on the incarcerating agency or
authority or too timorous to compel their jailers to bring their prisoners to court
or to secure bail, or to employ lawyers to undertake their defense or initiate legal
actions on their behalf. Sadly, these persons who lack the capacity to access
justice also are not in a position to complain of not being able to access justice or
having a fair hearing or fair trial as the totality of their rights as human persons
are infringed upon by the lack of, or inadequate, access to justice.
Anatole France, a French poet and writer once said, “Justice is the means by
which established injustices are sanctioned.” Therefore, where a person cannot
access justice and the due process of law, his fundamental rights as a human
being is breached. Where such goes unsanctioned, his right to life becomes a
mirage.
NEED TO REMEDY POOR OR LACK OF ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Conscious of its responsibility to ensure the protection of citizens’ fundamental
human rights and their capacities to access legal, social, political, economic,
environmental etc. justice; governments at the federal and state levels have
established special agencies and state institutions such as; National Human Rights
Commission, Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, National Agency for the Prohibition of
Traffic in Person and other Related Matters (NAPTIP), etc in addition to the known
traditional statutory bodies to detect and remedy human right abuses, conditions
that create social inequities, detect and prosecute crimes and other infringements
on the fundamental rights of citizens and ensure poor and vulnerable members of
the society have access to justice.
Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa state in Nigeria is located in the swampy region
called the Niger Delta of Nigeria. The people in the state are generally very poor,
illiterate and unskilled. These flow from government’s social, economic and
political neglect of the region despite its degradation by poorly regulated mining
activities of oil and gas in the region over several decades. That had been made
worse by the activities of multinational oil corporations in the region in all those
years. The activities of these international oil corporations have resulted in very
serious environmental pollution and degradation of the land, creeks, air and
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waters. This has impacted negatively on the economic capacities of people in the
State who were fishermen and farmers that can no longer fish nor farm
consequent on the loss of their eco-system.
The state of affairs within the communities in which the Yenagoa campus of the
Nigerian Law School is established is that of people who are helpless in an
oppressive cycle of crass exploitation, neglect, poverty and illiteracy which makes
the people vulnerable to operating within the precipices of the law making them
regular victims of the legal, social, economic and political systems from which
they are incapacitated and unable to access social justice and their legal rights
guaranteed to them under the constitution.
The Nigerian Law School, conscious of its corporate social responsibilities, reaches
out to its immediate communities in Yenagoa to provide them developmental
assistance. The most sustainable has been reaching the communities through the
schools’ Law Clinic, a pro-bono provision of legal services to poor and vulnerable
members in the communities whose legal rights need to be asserted or protected.
The clinic is a synergy between students of the Nigerian Law School, Legal Aid
Council of Nigeria, Yenagoa and legal practitioners who are lecturers in the
Nigerian Law School. The clinic works to enable law students who subscribe to it
acquire hands-on lawyering skills by providing them a platform to acquire legal
practice skills and experience under the direct supervision of lawyers committed
to their rounded legal education that will make them client ready upon call to Bar.
STRUCTURE OF THE NIGERIAN LAW SCHOOL’S YENAGOA LAW CLINIC
The clinic was established in January, 20I3. It is opened to all students who
however need to formally subscribe to it. It is organized along three (3) broad
clinics; i.e., (i) Human Rights Clinic (ii) General Practice clinic and (iii) Mediation
clinic. All the three are under the management of a designated senior staff of the
school who is the Clinic Administrator a youth corps member, who is a lawyer and
adjunct member of staff in the faculty serving his one year compulsory National
Youth Service at the clinic. In addition, all the lecturers in the faculty are affiliates
of the clinic and are prepared to render their professional services on behalf of
the clinic any time cases are referred to them.
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LAW CLINIC INDUCTION COURSE FOR STUDENTS
SINCE OUR INCEPTION IN 2013 WE HAVE MADE GIANT STRIDES
ACTIVITIES OF THE CLINIC
All three clinics participate in school based clinical activities such as drafting, mock
trials and mock arbitration.5
MEDIATION CLINIC
The mediation clinic is very busy and has had some successes; of significance was
the case of a family that lives in a Slum close to the school who got into violent
fights regularly. They were referred by their neighbours to the clinic. The husband
is a very poor illiterate labourer who had broken his wife’s head for harassing him
too often to empower her to start a petty trade as she needed to have a personal
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A mock multinational commercial arbitration based on breach of contract was facilitated by a very senior
member of the legal profession in Nigeria, Osaro Eghobamien SAN in February, 20I4
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source of income to care for their children. (See photo after the mediation by the
student clinicians).
MEDIATION TEAM WITH COUPLE
The clinic has mediated several other domestic, mostly marital cases successfully
using student clinicians.
HUMAN RIGHTS CLINIC
The clinic has been very active particularly on human rights advocacy in the form
of; street law at markets, motor parks and along the main street in the town,
distributing fliers and sensitizing the people on their rights under the Nigerian
Constitution and in society. In February, 20I5 a major campaign was carried out by
students from the clinic, sensitizing people on the main street of Yenagoa, motor
parks and market places on importance of their political right to vote and be
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voted for during an election, particularly, their power to effect a change in their
circumstances by exercising their right to vote.
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STUDENTS CARRYING OUT STREET LAW EXERCISE
STUDENTS CARRYING OUT STREET LAW EXERCISE
GENERAL PRACTICE CLINIC
The General Practice Clinic has visited its two host communities, to enlighten them
on the programmes of the clinic and encourage them to use its services. The
student clinicians educated them on the need to abandon militancy6 which is very
prevalent in the region and live in love, peace and harmony.
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For example; vandalism of oil pipelines, oil bunkering, operation of illegal refineries, kidnapping, inter-communal
skirmishes over ownership of land, piracy and mafia like cult fights.
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The clinic has integral to its functions prison visits and visits to Police stations near
the school to ensure that nobody is incarcerated that needs not be. The Clinic
students visited the Port Harcourt Prison in 20I3 and the Yenagoa prison in 20I4.
The main import of the prison visits is to bring students in direct contact with
clear cases of persons in dare need to have access to justice and the judicial
machinery to have their fundamental Human Rights; to life, dignity of the human
person, personal liberty, fair hearing, fair trial, freedom from inhuman and
degrading treatment, right to private and family life etc. protected. The clinicians
clerked as many inmates as the prison warders would allow them, to identify the
few for whom they could seek redress. Following these, they wrote an appeal
letter to the Chief Judge of Bayelsa State on the cases they identified as needing
judicial intervention for their release. The Chief Judge was very happy with the
clinicians’ concern with protection of the fundamental human rights of the
prisoners and promised to give attention to their appeal.
The Clinic has collaborated with the Legal Aid Council (Yenagoa branch) in
making visitations to the Nigerian Prisons Service (YENAGOA), where it has
recorded some measure of success in facilitating the immediate trial, release and
bails of incarcerated persons who deserved such interventions..
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CLINICIAN OF YENAGOA LAW CLINIC WITH PRISON WARDERS
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In the third quarter of 20I3, assisted by the National Youth Corps member serving
at the clinic, the clinicians intervened to secure the release from Yenagoa prison
custody a man, who had remained in prison custody three months after he had
been discharged of the offence of alleged stealing by the Federal High Court,
Yenagoa. The students used the clinic letter-head paper to write a letter to the
Court Registrar demanding the certified true copy of the enrolled order of
discharge. The order was obtained by them and served on the prison authorities.
The man was released to the clinicians who had to find the means to locate the
man’s relations and convinced them to accept him back as a member of their
family.
CHALLENGES TO THE OPERATIONS OF THE YENAGOA LAW CLINIC
In spite of the beneficial activities of the law clinic for both the community and
the Law students’ legal education, the clinic suffers from several challenges some
of which are institutional while others are socio-economic:
I.
INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES
These arise from dealing with agencies and officials of government who are
connected in their official capacities with dealing with, or providing some form of
Government services, privileges or protection to members of the public. Some of
these agencies are: the police, prison officials, court officials and civil servants,
others are members of the several task forces set up by government at all levels.
These officials are generally most fingered to be guilty of human rights abuses.
Though they are generally very receptive of the clinicians and welcome the
concept of the law clinic but they do not change their modus operandi of
corruptly ambushing, blackmailing and extorting poor members of the public
before performing their duties where the services are rendered at all, thereby
working to frustrate the efforts of the clinic to intervene on behalf of people too
poor to pay the bribe demanded by these officials before the performance of
their statutory functions.
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2. THE STRUCTURE OF STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC CALENDAR TIME CONSTRAINTS
The course of study of students at the Nigerian Law is one compact academic year
which makes the turnover of students to be rapid. This constant hiatus in the
operations of the clinic tends to stunt a progressive growth of the clinic and
disconcertment of their clients who more often than not quickly develop an
attachment to their clinicians despite knowing the brevity of the clinician’s stay at
the law school. Being vulnerable and abused, they are not quick to trust that a
new person would understand and not take advantage of them.
3. ATTITUDE OF LAWYERS.
Student clinicians in the law school having not been called to the Nigerian Bar do
not have a right of audience in court and are unlicensed to sign any legal process
or document. They then necessarily have to refer some matters to lawyers in the
local Bar who unfortunately, have not keyed into the pro-bono spirit in their legal
practices because sadly, many of them can also be classified as poor.
4. FUNDING AND LOGISTICS
Funding has been a major impediment to the full realization of the capabilities of
the clinic. Student clinicians in the Yenagoa clinic fund their own clinic activities.
The clinic is pro-bono and the school merely gives it the minimal financial support
to keep it operational. The clinic is therefore unable to adequately give publicity
to the availability of its services or give robust publicity to its activities in defense
or protection of fundamental human rights of persons who have been abused or
denied their human rights under the law merely because they are poor, weak and
vulnerable. Further, the clinic generally has difficulty in paying for processes,
logistics and other activities it must undertake to justify its existence.
5. INSECURITY IN THE NIGER DELTA.
The Niger Delta of Nigeria has been plagued by series of militancy, kidnapping
and other crimes by individuals and groups desperate to make a living. This makes
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it impractical to allow clinicians to move into many of the creek communities
around Yenagoa without adequate security in the form of expensive logistics or
paid local escort(s).
OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES
Law clinics have come to stay as integral to the total training of lawyers in Nigeria,
particular because there is no compulsory period of pupilage for entrants into the
legal profession in the country. The Law School therefore has to continue to fine
tune the operations of its various clinics, one of which is the Yenagoa Law Clinic,
for the community and students to derive maximum benefit from their existence.
Some of the avenues identified for overcoming the challenges facing the
existence are:
1. ENLISTING SUPPORT OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
The clinic administrators have to continue to meet government agencies and
officials charged with responsibilities for social control for the purpose of
educating them on the functions of the Yenagoa law clinic in the expansion of
human rights and access to justice which they in their official capacities have the
responsibility to uphold. These officials should be made to understand that the
students in the clinic are not in competition with than and not denigrating their
ways of performing their duties but complimenting them to secure justice for the
poor, weak and vulnerable in the society and at the same time shore up the
students’ acquisition of lawyering skills while reducing the workload of the
government officials charged with social control an expanding access to justice for
the poor in clinics’ immediate communitiies.
2. INTERFACE WITH THE LOCAL BAR
The school’s clinic supervisor and mentors who are lawyers would need to meet
lawyers in the local Bar to advocate for their cooperation. The lawyers’ assistance
may be required for legal representation in courts, mobile courts and other
tribunals where the fundamental rights of citizens who are too poor to afford
legal representation are likely to be breeched.
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It is important that the concept of the spirit of pro-bono service is put on the
agenda of the meetings of local Bar Association at the local bar meetings. In
consonance with other law clinics in the country, the Yenagoa clinic should
advocate that lawyers and law firms must show evidence of undertaking some
form of pro-bono services in the protection of fundamental human right and
promotion of access to Justice of poor and vulnerable members of the society
before the lawyer or law firm would qualify for the conferment of privileges or
honour.
3. FUNDING
Funding is critical to the clinic’s sustainability. The school as well as the clinic
would need to continue to appeal to the governing Council of the school to make
budgetary allocations to the clinic. In addition, appeals would be made to
individuals and organizations to support the law clinic. Funding is not necessarily
all about soliciting cash donations; it could come by way of logistics assistance,
sponsorship to training of clinic managers and clinicians, provision material needs
of the clinic like furniture, office equipment, computers, computer soft ware, and
hardware etc.
4. LINKAGES WITH OTHER CLINICS AROUND THE GLOBE
The clinic needs to develop linkages with other clinics within the country and the
world as that will provide its officials and students shared experience of
international best practices in legal education and Legal practice. It will also serve
as source of motivation for students in the school, that their training is
competitive in a globalised world for trade in goods and services.
CONCLUSION
The Yenagoa Law Clinic though still very young and inexperienced, is set to fulfill
its mission as it is garnering popularity among the immediate host communities
who have started coming to the clinic trusting that they will find help that will
bring succor to their situations. The authority of the school is also being sensitized
to propose amendment to the Practice Direction in States where there are law
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clinics for students in such clinics to be provisionally licensed to have limited
audience in the lower courts particularly the several mobile courts that have
summary jurisdictions and are often most guilty of human rights violation in every
corner of Nigeria.
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