Message from the Executive Council

Dear Nigerian Seeker of Free Virtual Legal Aid Services and Prospective Volunteer Legal Aid Paralegal, and Lawyer,

By way of introduction the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) received its certificate of registration dated 30th December 2025 as the one-and-only umbrella association of non-litigation Nigerian lawyers.

While the Nigerian Bar Association-NBA is the umbrella association of litigation lawyers who have been called to Bar in accordance with the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962.

The lawyers and law graduates of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) are legal professionals in the following areas of law under the following legislation as follows:

1. Paralegals and legal aid professionals under the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria Act, 2011;
2. Legislative drafting lawyers under the National Assembly Service Commission Act, 2014;
3. Arbitrators and mediators under the Arbitration and Mediation Act, 2023;
4. Companies incorporation professionals under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020;
5. Notary Public under the Notary Public Act, 2023;
6. Data controllers under the Nigerian Data Protection Commission Act, 2023;
7. Other areas of law too numerous to list here.

Based on a research study conducted in the year 2021, and updated in the year 2025, we identified that majority of Nigerians (over 70%) of the over 240,000,000 (two hundred and forty million) Nigerians are unable to receive pro bono or legal aid services from the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria whenever they are faced with legal problems and challenges.

The Legal Aid Council of Nigeria was established in the year 1979 by an Act of the National Assembly to provide free legal aid services to Nigerians who are indigent, and cannot afford the services of a lawyer.

We discovered that one of the reasons for this inability is because the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria Act, 2011 does not provide for provision of legal aid services through the use of information communication technology (ICT).

Another limitation of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria Act, 2011 is that the legal aid services is limited to criminal court cases which are already in court.

Legal aid services are not provided for landlord and tenant matters, debt recovery and drafting of legal documents for Nigerians who are involved in small and medium enterprises which is where 60% of Nigerian citizens are engaged in.

Our Nigerian Law Society (NLS) enjoys a dual registration status under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) which was established by an Act of the National Assembly in the year 2003.

At the moment, legal aid services are restricted to physical and face-to-face contact at the offices of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria which are located mainly at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and some of the capital cities of the 36 States of Nigeria.

As a solution, our organisation, the ICT lawyers within our Nigerian Law Society (NLS) has designed a two pronged solution as follows:

1. Virtual Legal Aid Initiative of Nigeria (VLAIN) platform wherein indigent Nigerian citizens can request and receive legal aid services virtually within a 72 hour response time. The definition of indigent is anyone on a salary that is below the current federal government of Nigeria minimum wage of ₦70,000 per month.
2. Training of 100,000 paralegals and lawyers to deliver the virtual legal aid services of VLAIN by them undergoing a Diploma in Paralegal and Legal Aid Programme to be delivered by the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) in collaboration with the University of Abuja. A copy of the curriculum for the said programme is attached.

Both of the above-mentioned solutions are targeted to impact the lives of one hundred million indigent Nigerians within six months of commencement and based on a model of train-the-trainers the initial 100,000 paralegals and lawyers would train another batch of 100,000 within one month so within one year, we are targeting the training of over 1,200,000 (one million two hundred thousand) paralegals and lawyers spread across the 36 States of Nigeria.

We hereby write to announce the launch of this Virtual Legal Aid Initiative VLAIN website and request the support of both indigent Nigerian and law graduates and lawyers who would serve as volunteers to execute these two solutions to provide essential legal aid services and access to justice for over 70% of Nigerians who are unable to receive same.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL,
Nigerian Law Society (NLS),
Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT)