Today, more than ever, there is an ever-increasing number of law
graduates. After five years of the rigorous baking process with all
the hype, the prestige and the respect notwithstanding, law
graduates are not guaranteed a secured future unlike their medical
counterparts.
Passage to law school after university is always almost
impossible for a good number. 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 you are
fortunate enough to afford law school and its rigours and so bag
the ‘call to bar certificate’ the troubles still do not end.
The literarily ‘new wig’ swaps his wig for the camp 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 workload but when it comes to remuneration,
someone always remembers he is a mere corper.
After his Youth Service, he plunges into a deep ocean of
confusion in a bid to find a path to tow of the many legal
frontiers to explore in accordance with his passion and interest.
This is coupled with the search for employment made worse by
pressure from family and friends who can hardly wait for ‘’The
Law’’ to start dispensing his legal duties. After many denied
attempts, he is forced to make do with whatever jobs comes his way
giving personal interest least priority. If he is lucky to find any
job at all in the very competitive Nigerian labour market, his
take-home can hardly take him home.
The result of these many frustrations,[travails’] 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
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 daunting challenges, it would only ensure we
are made a better generation. I would part by rely on the immutable
words of Abraham Lincoln where he said ‘’that some achieve great
success is proof to all that others can achieve it as well’’
Agherario Emmanuel Esq.Legal Practitioner Base in Warri
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