The Roles of Law Clinics in Promoting Access to Justice in Underserved Communities: Perspectives from ABU Law Clinic

By Aliyu Musa Joda

The bitter truth remains that the social stratification that exists in society plays a crucial role in citizens' access to justice. This is because not everybody has the financial acumen to hire the services of a legal professional. This poses a clog to Section 36 (6) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria because, without being adequately represented in court, the accused stands a chance of losing their right to a fair hearing, either due to technicalities or other inadequacies. According to Justice George Sutherland in Powell v. Alabama:

"Even the intelligent and educated layman lacks both skill and knowledge adequately to prepare his defence even though he had a perfect one."

To bridge this gap, the Legal Aid Council was established by the Legal Aid Act 2011 with the mandate to provide legal aid, advice, and access to justice for deserving individuals. This is in line with the provisions of Section 36 (5) of the CFRN that a person charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. In upholding and delivering on the core purpose of the Legal Aid Council, the Legal Aid Act in Section 17 (1) provides for the creation and registration of Law Clinics across Faculties of law in Nigeria. The Law clinics are student-centered institutions that offer free or relatively free legal services to indigent community members. These services are usually offered under the supervision of lawyer-lecturers. According to Uka O.A., a Law Clinic is a school-based non-profit organization that provides free legal services and access to justice for parts in hands-on legal work for the benefit of indigent communities under the supervision of professionally qualified members of the staff. The Law Clinics are registered with the Network of Universities Legal Aid Initiatives (NULAI).

As one of the 10 pilot Law Clinics in Nigeria, the Ahmadu Bello University Law Clinic (ABULC) was established in August 2006. Since then, under the leadership of a Student Clinic Head and with the supervision and support of staff Coordinators and its Amicus Curiae, the ABULC has handled over a thousand pro bono cases ranging from criminal, civil, landlord-tenant, matrimonial, and other domestic cases.

Since its establishment, the ABULC has carried out several projects and programs within and outside the university. To have the human resources to carry out its activities, the Weekly workshop for clinicians is the cornerstone of its programs. The clinicians, who register voluntarily with the clinic, are empowered through these workshops with skills and knowledge on, inter alia, client interviewing and counselling skills, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Legal Writing, the Litigation Process in the ABU Law Clinic, and Mock Trials.

With these skills, the Clinicians carry out many programs like prison visitation, brief taking, preparing bail applications, street lawyering, and so on, which have all resulted in reuniting inmates with their families, securing bail for Pretrial Detainees, and enlightening the public on their civil rights. More so, the ABULC has carried out a number of projects which were supported by NULAI, Amnesty International, the Legal Aid Council, and other non-governmental organizations. The most outstanding amongst these projects are:

• The Access to Justice for the Poor Project, funded by the Japanese Social Development Fund and administered by the World Bank in 2010.
• The Justice for All (J4A) Project, supported by NULAI in 2013.
• Capacity Building for CBOs on the Freedom of Information Act 2014.
• The Prisons Pretrial Detainees Project 2019, supported by NULAI.
• The Young Persons in Peace and Conflict Transformation (YPPCT) Project in 2018, supported by NULAI and funded by the United States Embassy.
• The Human Rights Education (HRE) Workshop 2023 by Amnesty International.
• The Access to Justice Project Phase II by the Private and Public Development Center (PPDC) - still ongoing - and a bunch of other projects.

Furthermore, the ABULC has organized various competitions and programs within its faculty, like the Client Interviewing and Counselling Skills Competition, Special Workshops, the Annual ABU Law Clinic Week, and a host of other programs. These activities shape the legal skills of the Clinicians and provide them with hands-on experience that complements the theoretical aspects of their learning. However, the clinical activities are indeed demanding and tasking, as the clinicians are expected to dedicate their time to providing these legal services to the community. Nevertheless, the energy spent on it is indeed worth it as they, the students, get to render all legal services under the supervision of their qualified coordinators, which subsequently sharpens their legal skills.

In addition to the non-governmental organizations that the law clinic engages with, to have a smooth execution of its activities, the law clinic establishes working relationships with governmental organizations like the Ministry of Justice, the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigeria Correctional Centers, etc. These relationships are usually established through courtesy visits which set the tone and foundation for support in providing access to justice.

Aside from the success stories the ABU Law Clinic has achieved, there are numerous challenges bedeviling the institution and likewise similar institutions across faculties of law. For example, a lack of adequate funds to run student-designed social justice projects. This poses a limit to the potential the clinicians can attain. Lack of adequate knowledge of civil rights among indigenous community members is another challenge. Despite efforts by the Law Clinic and other NGOs to sensitize community members on their rights and opportunities for access to justice, they seem not to be fully harnessing the opportunity. Additionally, not all law students understand and appreciate the learning opportunity that lies in the Clinical activities. This means only a handful of students actively engage and support the clinic. This poses a clog to the limit and height the law clinic can reach in its impact.

To solve these problems, adequate funds and more capacity-building opportunities should be provided by NGOs and concerned stakeholders to the clinicians in order to maximize the impact of the clinic. Also, more focus should be given toward empowering local communities on their civil rights, which will aid the overall struggle for access to justice. Law students should also embrace the Law Clinic and commit themselves to serving the less privileged, as it offers them an avenue to give back to their communities and learn more about the practical aspects of the law.

The ripple effect of Law Clinics in providing access to justice can never be overemphasized, as the student-led institutions stand tall as beacons of hope for the common man and learning platforms for the next generation of social justice actors. The Law Clinics are to law students what laboratories are to pure science students.

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Aliyu Musa Joda writes from the Faculty of Law, ABU Zaria. He's the Deputy Facilitator, ABU Law Clinic 2024/25. He can be reached at aliyumusajoda@gmail.com or +2348160402948.