Nigeria’s legal education system requires greater exposure to practical courtroom advocacy to better prepare aspiring lawyers for professional practice, according to Etigwe Uwa Etigwe, SAN, founding partner of Streamsowers & Köhn (SSK), as Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) emerged winner of the firm’s inaugural Moot Court Competition held in Lagos.
The competition, organised to commemorate SSK’s 20th anniversary, brought together law faculties from across the country in an advocacy contest designed to test participants’ legal research, written advocacy and oral argument skills.
Seventeen universities from Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones participated in the competition by submitting written memorials on a hypothetical legal dispute spanning multiple areas of law. Following a blind assessment conducted by independent legal academics, five institutions advanced to the final stage.
The finalists were the University of Calabar, University of Lagos, University of Abuja, Bayero University, Kano, and Obafemi Awolowo University, with OAU and BUK progressing to the championship round.
The final featured an oral advocacy session before a panel of judges, where students argued opposing sides of a mock case in a courtroom setting. Although the judges found Bayero University to have presented the stronger arguments on the merits of the case, OAU secured the highest aggregate score to emerge overall winner of the competition.
