Ibrahim Gamdeh Adamu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has told the Supreme Court that criticism of the legal profession by social media activist VeryDarkMan at the Nigerian Bar Association’s recent conference hurt him, but that there is “some truth in what he has said”.

Adamu, who spoke on Monday as spokesman for the 68 newly conferred Senior Advocates, said the comments call for introspection within the profession. He referred to the NBA’s 66th Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt, where he said a person who barely had a secondary school certificate was given a platform to address the largest gathering of lawyers in Africa.

According to Adamu, the guest said law had lately ceased to be a noble profession, described it as one of the poorest in the country and questioned how many lawyers actually go to court.

Adamu used the remarks to argue that the profession is producing too many lawyers. He said only 501 people were enrolled when he was called to the bar in 1981, compared with over 13,000 enrolled between February and July this year. He said this has lowered standards and left many qualified lawyers doing odd jobs. He also said he was shocked to learn that the National Open University has a backlog of more than 5,000 law graduates waiting for admission into the Nigerian Law School.

He urged the Council of Legal Education to act urgently to curb the surge. His proposals include stricter accreditation of law faculties and tighter discipline in admissions, treating law as a second degree, and an entrance examination for the Law School in addition to a law degree. He also called for at least two years of mandatory internship before newly admitted lawyers can set up their own firms.

In the same session, NBA President Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, warned that paying young lawyers salaries that cannot cover the basic costs of working and living should cease to be an accepted model of practice, likening it to modern slavery.

VeryDarkMan’s appearance at the conference had drawn criticism. He later apologised to security agencies over separate remarks about them made during a panel on insecurity.