by Alexander O. Onukwue

The Senate described Prof Itse Sagay, arguably the most recognized Professor of Law in the country over the last two decades, as being “senile, jaded and outdated”.

He was also said to be titillating over finally having the opportunity to be serving in Government, as if to reflect the anticipation and ultimate ambition of the most high ranking members of the Nigerian academia.

Whenever Prof Sagay appears in the news as a central point of conversation, attention is usually drawn to the fact that he has been one of the compulsory authors which prospective Nigerian lawyers of the past two decades have had to study, particularly under Contract Law. It can be loosely said that the last two generations of persons called to the Nigerian bar have much of Sagay in them.

Those who are going to be called to the Bar by November of this year have a bit of Sagay in them. Yet, the man is “senile, jaded and outdated”. What, then, does that say about the quality of lawyers we will hope to have in the country?

The Senate stopped short of directly calling him a fraud but there could be a bit of that somewhere in the fury that produced that statement. Members of the academia are not untouchable or beyond critique; the nature of academics is for critique. But if those who set the foundations followed by large numbers of the professionals in a particular field bear a stamp of reproach, surely the whole practice of that profession is on bad foundation.

Prof Sagay would have to get his facts right to the T before dishing them out for public consumption, but it is also the responsibility of the Senate to be circumspect in the connotations contained in their rebuttals of caustic critique from the academia. “Outdated” Professors can only produce outdated students and practitioners. Everyone loses.