CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN THE NIGERIAN LEGAL PROFESSION: TOOL OR THORN?

Abstract

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has become a central feature of modern legal regulation, aimed at ensuring that lawyers maintain competence and professional relevance throughout their careers. In Nigeria, CPD is mandatory for legal practitioners and is largely administered through the Nigerian Bar Association and its Institute of Continuing Legal Education. Despite its importance, the programme has generated growing dissatisfaction among lawyers, raising concerns about its usefulness, accessibility, cost, and overall impact on legal practice. This paper examines whether CPD in the Nigerian legal profession functions as a genuine tool for professional improvement or has become a regulatory burden that undermines its intended purpose. The objectives of the paper are to clarify the concept of CPD, examine the legal and institutional frameworks governing its operation in Nigeria, review existing scholarly views, and draw lessons from selected foreign jurisdictions. Using doctrinal and comparative analysis, the paper finds that CPD is conceptually sound and necessary for maintaining professional standards. However, its implementation in Nigeria is weakened by poor content design, high costs, limited accessibility, and an excessive focus on credit-hour compliance rather than skills development. The paper recommends restructuring CPD content to emphasise practical skills, expanding affordable digital learning platforms, adopting flexible and outcomes-based compliance models, and improving transparency in enforcement. Properly reformed, CPD can serve as an effective tool for strengthening the Nigerian legal profession.