LAW STUDENTS AND PRIDE: AN INSEPARABLE DUO? By Amusan Tawfiiq ’Lekan

In so many times in the past, I had heard people say that the law students are a bunch of prideful and arrogant creatures. Some would even, for the heck of it, go as far as describing them as “a cluster of confused braggadocios”. This myth of the law students being touted or dubbed as prideful creatures has been so much popularized to the extent that it now lives “rent-free” in the heads of not just students in the University (who, at least, will have the chance to share the academic environment with them) but also the students across other cadres of tertiary institution like Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and so on (whose paths may never even cross those of the law students throughout their academic sojourn on campus). Having attained that towering mythical status, shall we then feign an ignorance of the proverbial truism “there are always two sides to a coin”? Doing that, of course, will presuppose addressing the issue with a rather non-objective mind.

A duly objective and inquisitive mind should view the gravamen of this discourse from the two possible sides before finally choosing where to pitch his tenth as, I’m convinced,  only with that will the law students who have now been made “the accused persons” in the court of public opinion be given the needed fair hearing. It’s the humble but firm stand of this writer that law students, just by the mere fact of they being law students, shouldn’t have had anything gumming them with “pride” in the first place. It’s unarguable that hundreds of thousands of reasons can co-operate to make a person’s name be the first to come to mind whenever or wherever pride is being mentioned— the reasons which, I believe, no rightly-thinking individual will think “belonging to a profession” would be one of.

In alignment with an objective thinking, the first of the many reasons which may be responsible for this kind of lag in attitude is being a human being— a fallible mortal. It’s just intellectually engaging to, first of all, trace any or every bit of behavioural issue like this to being a human. Everybody with a critical mind will want to ruminate on whether being a law student, without more, is capable of making one to be prideful even where one was modest and humble before becoming a law student. This is a riddle that should have been demystified by every behavioural detractor of law students but sadly, they would prefer to hold on to that unverified “popular” myth. It’s never a contention from this writer that it could be found among law students, one who would be prideful. Yes, of course, it’s very possible. It’s very possible because such a law student is also a human being just like an engineering or a medical student. Therefore, as can now be seen, it all boils down to the fallibility of human beings. That’s the objective viewpoint.

In addition, a lot of people have been so much blinded with hypocrisy— which, for me, operates on the corridor of subjectivity— so much so that they no longer differentiate between brilliance and pride, as long as the guy from the other end is a law student. A tiny minute of a law student exhibiting brilliance will be quickly dubbed as a show of pride and arrogance. But how is it the fault of a law student that he’s brilliant or perhaps, trying to apply what he’s being taught? An engineering student will not be called prideful if he says “hey man, you just goofed in those numbers you put together”. A medical student will not be called prideful if he ventures into rubbing it on your face, how much of an illiterate you are on issues appertaining to them. But a law student will be called prideful and arrogant if he says— with reasons— he doesn’t really think the submission you made in an (or a legal) argument involving him is that appealing to his own ratiocination, even after being careful enough to not say “hey man, you’re wild off the point”.

The stinking and successively transferred hatred that a certain fraction of individuals nurse for the legal profession, I firmly believe, also does have influence on how law students are seen on campus as well, after all, they—the legal profession haters— do know it’s just a matter of time for the law students to also turn lawyers (pun intended). In the class of those people, the most active “haters” of law students fall within the fraction of those who, ab initio, wanted to study law but couldn’t get it— the lots of our friends studying neighbouring courses who do not even have the slightest idea of how much love we rear for them as our prospective rich clients. For instance, a close friend once told me that at every level, more than 50% of the students studying English at OAU are studying it by accident. He told me that the lots of them often put in for LAW as their most-preferred course. So, instead of running away from OAU (or UI, UNILAG and so on) to take “Law” elsewhere, they’ll prefer to stay put and automatically turn themselves to haters of law students. LOL!

With those few points I’ve made, I believe I’ve been able to convince, and not confuse, you that law students are a good set of humble and friendly individuals.  “T” for “Thanks”.

Amusan Tawfiiq ’Lekan is a 500L Student of the Faculty of Law, Bayero University, Kano. He can be reached via Tawfiiqamusan001@gmail.com as well as +2348108012253.