CLINICAL LAW

In Nigeria, access to justice is being dragged to its grave or better said, it is at its rock bottom due to the accelerated level of interference and corruption in virtually every sector or agency in the country. This has become a hindrance in the facilitation and accessibility of justice in the country. To worsen the situation, the judiciary which is seen or believed to be the last hope of the common man has lost its independency due to the aforementioned factors, which has made all judgement of the courts questionable or most at times wanting.
Added to all this happenings is the undisputed fact of the status of Nigeria being a rich country inhabited by the poor  and looking at such situation, the poor, the indigent, women and the less privileged have less or no access to justice because of a deed which in most cases not theirs solely.
Looking at the Hausa adage “zo mu zauna, zo mu saba” , it is evident that there must be disputes, disagreements and conflicts in a society where people live. Also, human being cannot coexist with each other and have absolute peaceful coexistence devoid of hitches and matters requiring settlements which arises from conflict in contractual commercial dealings or day to day breach of obligations.
To curb these inadequacies, the government created some agencies (the Courts, the Police and the Prisons) to help in the administration of justice.
These institutions are saddled with the joint responsibility for the maintenance and enforcement of law and order and also human rights within the society . These agencies have started lagging in carrying out their duties effectively and this has made them ineffective in discharging the burden imposed on them due to some snags in the cause of such duties. Therefore, the need for other bodies to facilitate and help them in carrying out their duties became expedient.
Bodies like the Legal Aid Council (LAC), Law Clinic  and a host of others were established either by an enactment of the NASS  or private individual or group of concerned individuals.
These bodies were to play roles in facilitating access to justice while partnering with the existing agencies i.e. during indirect check mating or better said waking them up to their responsibilities.
The law clinic being one of such bodies, serves as a platform to law students to become competent, community service conscious and ethical lawyers  and also to promote students commitment towards public interest lawyering and community.
In carrying out this clinical activities, the students are exposed to series of skills and roles which include legal research, interviewing and counselling, legal analysis, communication, negotiation and advocacy and also ADR  techniques which is all encompassing in the Clinical Legal Education  which has become the order of the day in legal education not only in Nigeria but the world at large.
ADR technique became an inevitable tool or skill taught and carried out in the law clinic because of the failure of the Judiciary (court) to amicably settle dispute without leaving one of the parties still aggrieved (even if the matter goes to the Apex Court) especially in Commercial or Contractual matters which the money and time spent in the cause of litigation might be enough for one of the disputing party to start a life time business. The Judiciary is seen as the opium of Justice of the people, and the last hope of the oppressed. In repressive times, many people have lost confidence in the judicial system…
The Law Clinic has all these in-excesses and lot more to address and try to see possible means or reliable options through which they can be addressed and resuscitate Justice to be accessible to everyone. Also, reduction of the burden of litigation and preservance of relationships among people is another reason for the existence of the law clinic because relationships can be bitter with litigation.