Admission rate of Law students in Nigerian universities

1. StatiSense ® - Wale Micaiah ©
Admission
Rate of
Law
Students
in Nigeria

2. In democratic government, the supremacy of the
Law is a key element to good governance and
freedom to life and living. In order to maintain
Justice and Equity, the underprivileged of the
society must have access to equal representation
with equal support from the Law that also give
opportunity to the privileged.
A Nation where the rule of Law is suppressed;
Freedom of speech, Human right abuse,
Corruption and Injustice are usually entrenched.
This is why the education of Students in the
matters of the Law is as important as hoping for a
better country – particularly for Nigeria.

3. Philosophy:
The Law programme is designed to ensure that the graduate of Law will have good general knowledge of
Law, including a clear understanding of the place and importance of Law in society. All human activities
social, economic, political take place within legal framework. It is therefore necessary that the student of
Law should also have a broad general knowledge and exposure to other disciplines in the process of
acquiring legal education.
The programme should introduce students to the general knowledge in Law, acquaint them with
principles of judicial process and legal development, and equip them with the basic tools of legal analysis
and methods. Legal education should act first, as a stimulus to stir the student into critical analysis and
examination of the prevailing social, economic and political systems of his community and, secondly, as an
intellectual exercise aimed at studying and assessing the operation, efficacy and relevance of various rules
of Law in the society.
The curriculum must also ensure that Law is taught as it exists at any given moment, and that every Law
student will be comparative in his approach to legal studies bearing in mind that there are many systems
of Law (Statutory Law, Common law, Customary Law and Islamic Law) currently in operation.
Objectives:
A law graduate must be able to use law as a tool for the resolution of various social, economic and
political conflicts in society. The training in Law is specifically aimed at producing lawyers whose level of
education would equip them properly to serve as advisers, solicitors or advocates to governments and
their agencies, companies, business firms, associations, individuals and families, etc.
The activities of governments, companies and individuals are expected to be carried out within legal
framework. Therefore, the output or end result of the Law programme should meet the needs of such
agencies and institutions as international organizations, academic teaching and research institutions,
federal, state and local government bodies, various industrial, commercial and mercantile associations and
various social, family and domestic groups.
Law

4. Nigeria has 128 Universities (as at July, 2013);
No. Funding Total
1 Federal 40
2 State 38
3 Private 50
128
Not all these institutions offer Law as a course.
According to the National Universities
Commission (NUC), there are a total of 13
Disciplines, Law being one of these, is offered in
42 of 128 Universities.

5. No. Funding Law Institution
1 Federal 17
2 State 19
3 Private 6
42
Civil Law
Common &
Islamic Law
International
Law &
jurisprudence
Islamic
Law/Sharia
Law
Private &
Islamic Law
Public &
International
Law
Law
Common
Law

6. Course and Institution
Course Total Institution
Civil Law 10
ABSU, ABU, DELSU, EBSU, ESUTECH,
IMSU, UNIZIK, OOU, UNICAL,
UNIMAID
Common & Islamic Law 4 BAYERO, LASU, UNILORIN, UDUS
Islamic/Sharia Law 2 KOGSU, ABU, UNIMAID
Law 28
AAUA, ABUAD, EKPOMA, ANSU, UI,
BABCOCK, BASU, BIU, BESU, OAU,
BOWEN, COVENANT, EKSU, OSUN,
IGBINEDION, KOGSU, NASU, RSUST,
NOUN, NDU, NPA, UMYU, UNIBEN,
UNIABUJA, UNIJOS, UNILAG, UNN,
UNIUYO
International Law & Diplomacy 1 BABCOCK
Private & Islamic Law 1 UNIMAID
Public & Private International Law 2 AAUA, UNIMAID

7. Top Application by Law Courses
Course 2011 2012 2013 %2011 %2012 %2013
Civil Law 25,701 26,354 24,504 31.58 30.02 24.87
Common & Islamic
Law
2,971 2,972 4,283 3.65 3.38 4.35
Common Law 316 639 4,133 0.39 0.73 4.19
Islamic/Sharia Law 1,060 951 1,162 1.30 1.08 1.18
Law 50,814 56,553 64,051 62.43 64.41 65.00
Private & Islamic
Law
78 75 85 0.10 0.09 0.09
Public & Private
International Law
456 256 327 0.56 0.29 0.33
Total Application 81,396 87,800 98,545
Civil law (24.87%) and Law (65.00%) amounts to
approximately 90% of total application.

8. Top Application by Institution
Institution 2011 2012 2013 AVG
UNIBEN 6,344 6,475 7,554 6,791
UNN 6,285 6,648 7,048 6,660
OAU 5,647 6,070 7,058 6,258
UNIZIK 5,107 5,891 6,498 5,832
UNILAG 5,678 5,396 6,115 5,730
ABU 5,511 3,894 3,904 4,436
UNILORIN 3,764 4,764 4,775 4,434
UI 3,528 3,213 4,271 3,671
UNICAL 3,745 3,189 3,766 3,567
UNIUYO 3,178 3,326 4,093 3,532
UNIABUJA 4,377 3,321 2,257 3,318
IMSU 1,243 3,869 3,966 3,026
NDU 2,958 2,822 2,513 2,869

9. Application by Course & Institution
Civil Law Common & Islamic Law
Islamic/Sharia Law Law

10. Admission Rate of Selected Institutions
2012/2013 UTME
LAW Application Admission Admission Rate
UNN 6,648 25 0.38%
UNILAG 5,396 302 5.60%
UNIUYO 3,326 133 4.00%
UI 3,213 144 4.48%
EKSU 1,424 110 7.72%
UNIMAID 1,138 226 19.86%
21,145 940 4.45%

11. Law Applicants (2000 – 2013)
Year Total Application Total Law % of Law
2013 1,735,729 98,545 5.68
2012 1,503,933 87,800 5.84
2011 1,493,611 81,396 5.45
2010 1,182,381 75,244 6.36
2008 1,054,060 68,434 6.49
2007 911,653 56,939 6.25
2006 803,472 50,880 6.33
2005 916,371 69,957 7.63
2004 841,878 68,515 8.14
2003 1,132,392 110,576 9.76
2002 994,380 86,604 8.71
2001 749,417 73,351 9.79
2000 416,381 43,337 10.41
As shown above; averagely, less than 8% of total
University applicants are interested in studying Law, of
which less than 5% are eventually admitted.

12. Admission Rate (2000 – 2007)
FACULTY 2000 2002 2003 2005 2006 2007
Administration 6.75 2.83 5.57 4.65 6.87 7.32
Agriculture 46.96 28.64 20.22 61.25 57.32 65.81
Arts 26.9 11.62 17.24 14.82 19.31 17.78
Education 84.95 46.59 85.94 58.59 53.91 41.85
Engineering/Env. 10.99 5.12 8.66 7.07 9.31 9.98
Law 5.61 2.54 3.11 4.3 6.19 6.08
Medical 5.26 2.55 4.23 3.13 4.15 4.31
Science 35.45 15.71 24.5 20.59 21.8 25.91
Social Sciences 9.84 4.05 8.01 5.17 8.01 8.68
Overall, less than 5 of 100 applicants are
admitted yearly for Law disciplines, the
remaining 95 seek admissions elsewhere

13. The fewer the number of Lawyers or people who are literate
as regard the Law of the land, the higher the rate of Human
Right abuse, Corruption and Injustice.
Evidently, for a country of over 170million people, the
number of applicants admitted yearly to study Law is too
low and definitely insufficient to meet future needs of the
population, most especially those who would need the help
of Lawyers and the underprivileged that will need defense
against abuse.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation invests in governance and
leadership to catalyse Africa‟s transformation; one of its
indices for good governance is Participation & Human
Rights, Nigeria was ranked 37th in Africa in the 2012 report.
Also, the Human Rights Risk Index 2012, ranked Nigeria as
“Extreme” in its Poorest Human Rights Risk Index scores.

14. Human Rights Risk Index 2012

15. Creating a Nation where Justice and Peace reigns
starts with the commitment to helping people know
and fight for their right under a open system of the
Rule of Law. This commitment must first begin with
our Tertiary Institutions, ensuring that as many as
are interested in becoming Legal practitioners, are
at the least, given the opportunity to pursue their
dreams.
Without the Law, the people are Lost and the
Nation suffers under the influence of a Few who
knows and are ready to take the „Ignorants‟ for a
ride, and for as long as they can, as long as they
remain ignorant to their Rights and Privileges!

16. StatiSense ® - Wale Micaiah ©
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Data source:
Analysis by: Wale Micaiah
e: walegate@yahoo.com
m: 08078001800
b: walemicaiah.blog.com
w. www.statisense.info
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