Nine Years to Become a Lawyer: How Tinubu’s Reform Bill Could Kill Nigeria’s Legal Profession

By Samaila Abdullahi Mohammed

Saturday, November 29, 2025

The Legal Practitioners Bill 2025 Creates Barriers That Will Harm Both Aspiring Lawyers and Millions Who Need Legal Services

President Bola Tinubu’s transmission of the Legal Practitioners Bill 2025 to the Senate last week has sparked critical conversations about the future of Nigeria’s legal profession. While the impulse to modernize a 63-year-old regulatory framework deserves applause, the devil—as always in legislation—lies in the details. A closer examination reveals that this bill, in its current form, may create more problems than it solves.

*The Right Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription*
Nobody disputes that the Legal Practitioners Act of 1962 has outlived its usefulness. That law was drafted in a Nigeria of 45 million people, before computers, the internet, or mobile phones existed. Today’s legal practice involves cybersecurity, data protection, virtual courts, and cross-border transactions that the framers of that law could never have imagined.

President Tinubu is correct that Nigeria needs “stronger institutional safeguards and uniform professional benchmarks.”

The question is whether this bill (A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Legal Practitioners Act, Cap L11, Laws of the Federation, 2004 and Enact the Legal Practitioners Act, to provide for Reforms, Regulate the Legal Profession and for Related Matter…) delivers them—or whether it instead erects barriers that will harm both aspiring lawyers and the millions of Nigerians who desperately need affordable legal services.

*The Two-Year Internship: A Bridge Too Far?*
The most troubling provision in the bill is the mandatory two-year Post-Professional Legal Internship (PPLI). (Section 25 [1 to 6]

Let’s do the mathematics: a Nigerian seeking to become a lawyer already spends four to five years earning a law degree, one year at the Nigerian Law School, and one year in the National Youth Service Corps. This bill would add two more years, bringing the total timeline to eight or nine years after secondary school.

*Compare this to other jurisdictions*
In England and Wales, aspiring solicitors complete a two-year training contract—but this runs concurrently with or immediately after university, not as an additional requirement.

In South Africa, lawyers complete a two-year articles of clerkship, but the entire process from university to admission typically takes six years, not nine.

Ghana requires only six months of pupilage for barristers after law school.

Even the United States, often criticized for lengthy legal education, typically requires seven years total: four years of undergraduate study plus three years of law school. After passing the bar exam, new lawyers can practice immediately.

Nigeria’s proposed system would create one of the longest and most arduous paths to legal practice in the world. The consequences are predictable and troubling.

*Who Can Afford to Be a Lawyer?*
A two-year internship raises an uncomfortable question: who will pay these interns? If the internships are unpaid or poorly compensated—as is likely in a country where even established lawyers struggle with delayed fees and economic instability—then legal practice becomes a privilege reserved for the wealthy.

Only those with family resources to support them through two additional years of training will be able to enter the profession. Talented young people from modest backgrounds will be shut out, no matter how brilliant their academic records. This is not conjecture; it is exactly what has happened in other countries with similar requirements.

The irony is profound. Nigeria needs more lawyers, not fewer. With a lawyer-to-population ratio estimated at approximately 1:3,000 (compared to 1:250 in the United States), vast swathes of the country lack adequate legal services. Adding barriers to entry will worsen this crisis, not solve it.

Moreover, many of our brightest legal minds will simply leave. Why endure nine years of training in Nigeria when you can qualify in the United Kingdom in six years, or in Canada in seven, and earn significantly more? This bill could accelerate the brain drain that already depletes Africa’s professional classes.

*Lessons From Successful Reforms*
Other African nations have modernized their legal professions without creating insurmountable barriers.

Kenya’s recent reforms focused on technology integration, establishing digital case management systems and virtual court hearings.

Rwanda invested heavily in legal aid and public defender services, dramatically improving access to justice.

South Africa’s Legal Practice Act of 2014 provides an instructive model. It modernized regulatory structures, introduced CPD requirements, and strengthened consumer protection—but it did so through extensive consultation with all stakeholders and careful attention to access issues. The South African approach recognized that professional standards and access to justice are not competing goals; they must be pursued together.

Ghana’s Legal Profession Act of 1960, though also aging, has been amended incrementally to address specific problems rather than attempting wholesale replacement. This pragmatic approach has allowed the Ghanaian legal profession to adapt without the disruption of complete legislative overhaul.

*The Inspection Regime: Bureaucracy or Accountability?*
The bill’s provision for mandatory inspection and accreditation of law offices also warrants scrutiny. (Section 27) While quality assurance sounds reasonable in principle, Nigeria’s institutional capacity for fair, consistent, and corruption-free implementation is questionable.

Consider the practical challenges. Nigeria has tens of thousands of practicing lawyers in offices ranging from solo practitioners in rural areas to large corporate firms in Lagos and Abuja. Who will conduct these inspections? What standards will be applied? How will consistency be ensured across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory?

International experience suggests caution. England and Wales abandoned routine office inspections in favor of risk-based regulation, focusing resources on firms that show warning signs rather than inspecting everyone.

Australia uses a co-regulatory model where law societies handle most oversight, with government intervention only when necessary.

Without adequate resources, training, and safeguards against corruption, mandatory inspections could become another avenue for bureaucratic harassment and rent-seeking behavior. Solo practitioners and small firms—often serving lower-income clients in underserved areas—will bear the heaviest compliance burdens.

*What’s Missing: The Real Reforms Nigeria Needs*
Perhaps more troubling than what the bill contains is what it omits.

There is little substantive provision for:

*Access to Justice*
No expansion of legal aid, no pro bono requirements, no community legal clinics. In a country where the vast majority cannot afford a lawyer, this is a glaring omission.

*Technology Integration*
Nothing about electronic filing, virtual hearings, or online dispute resolution. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that courts and legal services must be able to function digitally, yet this bill is silent on the infrastructure needed.

*Specialization*
No framework for certifying specialists in complex areas like intellectual property, international trade, or technology law. As Nigeria’s economy grows more sophisticated, legal practice must follow—but this bill provides no pathway.

*Alternative Business Structures*
No provision for multi-disciplinary partnerships or innovation in legal service delivery. Countries from Australia to the UK have experimented with new models that improve access and efficiency; Nigeria’s bill ignores these developments entirely.

*Client Protection*
Weak provisions on mandatory professional insurance, client compensation funds, or consumer protection mechanisms. If we’re concerned about public confidence in the legal profession—and we should be—protecting clients from negligence and fraud must be central.

*A Better Path Forward*
The Senate should not reject this bill outright, but neither should it rush it through in the name of “expeditious consideration.”

Instead, lawmakers should, first, separate the uncontroversial from the contentious. Provisions updating ethical codes, introducing reasonable CPD requirements, and modernizing disciplinary procedures could pass quickly. The two-year internship and mandatory inspection regime should be extracted for further study.

Second, the National Assembly should conduct genuine consultation. The Nigerian Bar Association, law schools, young lawyers, civil society organizations, and most importantly, ordinary Nigerians who need legal services should all have meaningful input. South Africa’s reform process included years of consultation; Nigeria’s should be no less thorough.

Third, pilot before implementing. Test the inspection regime in a few states. Try a graduated licensing system with mentorship rather than a blanket two-year internship.
Evaluate what works before imposing it nationwide.

Fourth, learn from regional peers. A delegation should study recent reforms in Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, and Ghana. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when successful models exist.

Fifth, prioritize access to justice. Any reform should be judged primarily on whether it improves ordinary Nigerians’ ability to access legal services. Provisions that create barriers to entry or increase costs should be viewed with extreme skepticism.

*Alternative Proposals Worth Considering*

Rather than a two-year internship, consider,

• Mandating six-month supervised practice requirement with structured mentorship

• Innovating tiered licensing where new lawyers gain full practice rights gradually

• Providing credit for public service such as work in legal aid, public defender offices, or law school clinics

• Granting exemptions for experienced paralegals who wish to qualify as lawyers

Rather than blanket office inspections, consider,

• Pursue risk-based regulation focusing on firms with complaints or concerns

• Allow self-assessment with random audits, similar to tax compliance

• Enforcing technology solutions like online reporting dashboards rather than physical inspections

• Allowing co-regulation empowering bar associations with government oversight

To truly modernize the profession, add provisions for:

• Mandatory pro bono hours (50 hours annually) for all practicing lawyers

• Legal aid expansion with government funding for public defender offices in every state

• Digital infrastructure including electronic filing, case management systems, and virtual hearings

• Specialization certification creating recognized experts in key practice areas

• Innovation sandboxes allowing experimentation with new legal service delivery models

The Stakes Are High
Nigeria stands at a crossroads. The legal profession desperately needs modernization, but not all reforms are created equal. Some will strengthen the profession and improve justice delivery. Others will entrench privilege, reduce access, and drive talent away.

The Senate and the House of Representatives have a responsibility to get this right. That means taking the time to think critically, consult broadly, and learn from others’ experiences.

It means prioritizing the needs of ordinary Nigerians over the interests of established practitioners.

And it means having the courage to challenge provisions that sound good but will do harm.

President Tinubu has opened an important conversation. Now it’s up to the National Assembly to ensure that conversation leads to reform that truly serves Nigeria’s over 250 million citizens—not just its lawyers.

The Legal Practitioners Bill 2025 is not yet fit for purpose. With amendments, consultation, and a genuine commitment to access to justice, it could be.

Without them, it risks becoming another well-intentioned law that creates more problems than it solves.

Nigeria’s legal profession can be world-class. But getting there requires wisdom, not just legislation. The Senate and the House of Representatives should take their time and get this right. The stakes are too high to do otherwise.
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_• Samaila Abdullahi Mohammed is a legal and economic scholar/practicing attorney/policy analyst specializing in comparative legal systems, Islamic Law, Islamic Economics, intellectual property law, access to justice issues and competition law and policy_