The Nigerian Bar Association is not implementing CPD in a manner that delivers genuine value to lawyers.
Beyond that, discussions about mandatory CPD programmes should rank very low among the pressing issues the Bar ought to be concerned with at this time.
I am therefore surprised by the NBA’s apparent obsession with enforcing mandatory CPD, rather than focusing on the truly urgent challenges facing the profession, among which CPD enforcement does not, in my view, feature. This fixation on mandatory CPD enforcement represents a clear misplacement of priorities.
I have said it before and I say it again: *if CPD must be mandatory, it must first be made free of charge and restructured in a manner that makes its content truly useful to the Nigerian lawyer.
Meanwhile, mandatory CPD is, in my view, the most irrelevant issue that should occupy the mind of NBA leadership at a time when the condition of both the lawyer and the profession is at its most pitiable and in urgent need of care. Consider the following:
1. Beyond making fine speeches, the NBA shows little interest in the effective administration of justice in Nigeria. As at 27 January 2026, court proceedings are still being recorded in longhand in virtually all Nigerian courts. Cases can remain in our trial courts for as long as 7–15 years before determination at first instance.
2. Over 70 per cent of Nigerian lawyers are jobless or unemployed, even as thousands more are churned out yearly, although in my opinion, producing more lawyers is not our problem.
3. The transparency of NBA elections remains a subject of serious debate among stakeholders. What is the NBA doing about it. Nil.
4. Lawyers’ professional remuneration remains unresolved, notwithstanding all the grandstanding by NBA branches about enforcing the Remuneration Order 2023. More than 95 per cent of lawyers still charge in breach of the Order because it is weak, manipulable, and in urgent need of reform. It must be made self-executing and impregnable, such that it becomes legally and practically impossible for any lawyer to charge, or any client to pay, below 10 per cent. This is one area where getting it right could change the face of the profession almost overnight; just as reforming justice delivery by eliminating intractable delays and snail-speed adjudication would do.
5. To be clear, reforming the justice sector is in the best interest of lawyers, not judges. Judges earn their salaries and allowances whether courts sit or not, and whether cases remain in their courts for 10 or 20 years. Lawyers bear the brunt of snail-speed justice delivery. Clients lose confidence in the courts and turn to alternative means of dispute resolution, including self-help, traditional medicine practitioners, deities, the police (even for debt recovery), OPC, IPOB, MASSOB, Arewa Boys, thugs, street louts, and even soldiers, leaving lawyers out because the courts offer little prospect. Effective and timely justice delivery would restore confidence in the courts and translate into more briefs for lawyers. The NBA can initiate steps to reset the system. What is it doing instead? Delivering fine speeches and forcing mandatory CPD down the throats of hungry, jobless, disillusioned, and disappointed lawyers.
6. The appointment of judicial officers is still largely controlled by politicians, who dispense judicial offices based on political considerations and as a means of settling political patronage and support.
7. E-filing and e-service of court processes remain the exception rather than the rule.
8. Most laws affecting the legal profession require significant strengthening. What is the NBA doing? It is busy pushing bills to force lawyers to reluctantly embrace mandatory CPD and compulsory pupilage: measures that would elongate the period of legal training from the current six years (five years in the university and one year at the Nigerian Law School) to eight years by adding a two-year mandatory pupilage. This would add nothing meaningful to the present plight of the profession or its members, and would likely promote fraud among supposedly honourable members of the profession, since it would be easy for a lawyer to pay for and obtain a certificate of completion after merely practising charge-and-bail work for a few years.
9. 9. What many stakeholders fail to appreciate is that Nigeria is not the UK, the USA, or Canada, where the average lawyer can afford three square meals daily. Importing programmes practised in those climes without first reforming our people and profession to meet comparable standards is a fundamental mismatch that can only lead to catastrophe. Yet the NBA remains obsessed with mandatory CPD and compulsory pupilage, while neglecting the real challenges threatening the very foundations of the profession and its members in Nigeria.
10. NBA leadership is hardly getting leadership right, and the legal profession bears the brunt. Unfortunately, no one can meaningfully champion the improvement of the welfare and economic advancement of lawyers unless and until the NBA wakes up and begins to lead from the front.
Respectfully,
Sylvester Udemezue (Udems)
(27 January 2026)
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