Okia on the bumpy road to becoming  LDC’s best  student 

Emmanuel Okia sat the Bar course at LDC with 278 students at the Mbarara campus, while Lira and Kampala campuses hosted 220 and 584 students respectively.

Together, the institution fielded 1,082 students, passing only 44 per cent of them. 

For anyone aspiring to practice Law in Uganda, the prospect of a glamorous career in the field fails the moment one fails the Bar course, which lately, has become a nightmare for most students at the Law Development Centre (LDC) in Uganda.

Today, passing LDC “at the first attempt” has become fashionable among students, in celebrating their near escapes from an institution that has, in the recent past, gained fame for its turnover of high student failure rates. 

The cream
For Emmanuel Okia, this ordeal is all too familiar.

“LDC is a scary experience. All these stories, which I am sure you have also heard about LDC, are gruesome. It’s a daunting experience for students. You don’t know whether you will come out alive,” the 24-year-old said, before beaming at the prospect of graduating this June, with a postgraduate diploma in legal practice.

According to the recently released results, Okia is among the 475 students who passed the Bar course this year. He set the pace to finish ahead of his 2021/22 cohort.

Okia, in a copy of results that Sunday Monitor has seen, out of 100 per cent scored 72.3 in civil litigation, 75.9 in corporate and commercial practice, 72.6 in civil proceedings, 78.1 in family law practice, and 67.1 in land transactions.

The above course units at LDC form category A, where, if a student fails any two subjects, they are summarily discontinued from the programme, unlike for categories B and C.

In category B, Okia excelled with 83.5 in legal practice skills I, 85.8 in legal practice skills II, and 76 in trial advocacy. And for category C, he pulled off 81 in corporate governance and 83 in clerkship.

All the course units are mandatory for one to graduate, and add up to Okia’s 4.90 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). He leads a pack of 20 students poised to graduate with a first class from the programme at LDC. 

Okia sat with 278 students at the Mbarara campus, while Lira and Kampala campuses hosted 220 and 584 students respectively. Together, the institution fielded 1,082 students, passing only 44 per cent of them. 

Releasing the results late March, LDC director Frank Nigel Othembi, noted that they had registered a general performance improvement from staff and students.

He said: “We congratulate the students and staff for the commendable improved performance compared to the recent previous years.” 

Bumpy ride
Sharing the challenges students face at the institution, Okia said he bears no regrets as he went through the course smoothly. He, however, voiced concerns at the quality of teaching which he said must improve.

“Certain professional advisors should be more of teachers than trauma instruments,” Okia asserted, adding, “We had a number of good professional advisors. But also, some were hell-bent on ensuring that you feel the entire pressure and weight of LDC.”

LDC administers oral and written assessments to students, requiring them to take notes which students use to apply the law in a hypothetical situation, based on the facts of the matter in a challenge presented before them.

However, it is the oral exams that students find the most dreadful at the institution. 

“You have to appear before a panel, you could be fired a question from anywhere. It can be a really pleasant panel or a very unpleasant one, real quick. That is the real moment in my LDC journey where I felt really nervous,” Okia narrated. 

He intimated that the programme, by its nature, is demanding, requiring full attention from the learners. It was this dilemma that made Okia opt to study at the secluded Mbarara campus, which he found to be a more moderate study centre with a serene environment that could enable him concentrate.

Okia’s assertions are supported by Quinto Ojok, the former Guild president of LDC Lira campus, who revealed that his entire cabinet failed the Bar course, a high failure rate that he associated with general student malaise. 

Ojok said the discrepancy between students passing highly at the university and then failing the Bar arises from how they were prepared to come to the centre, whose main focus, he said, is on the practice rather than theoretical aspects of the law. 

“At the university, you can prepare in two weeks and pass an exam, because it’s strictly theory. But at the centre, you ought to have been taken through that, such that you’re only dealing with procedure and documents. But if you still want to go to the centre to study theory, you cannot make it,” Ojok warned. 

Concentration matters
LDC offers students nine months to study legal practice. The students we spoke to suggested that, away from administrative issues, students are challenged by interpretation of the law and management of their time, which affect their concentration levels and performances.

“Students do not put the level of concentration required, that’s why they fail. The mode of assessment there is too tedious because at the centre you do an oral exam, and with the oral exam, you either know when they ask you or you don’t,” Ojok concluded.    

Two cents
While Okia passed highly, he did not walk into the Centre on the first day confident that he would pass that well. 

“I was scared of LDC, to be honest,” Okia said, nervously. “But I had a certain belief, both in God and also in the academic progress I had made. I felt if I could get a First class in university, this could be more or less the same.” 

He attributed his LDC success to friends and family, thanking his parents in particular, for affording him the best education he could attain. 

His father, Alex Okurut said: “I feel very happy as a parent. As a family, we are really happy about his achievement. Okia has been number one in his class and his performance has been very good since his nursery.”  

Education background
Okia was born to Okurut, a professional accountant, and Ms Esther Katalikako, a teacher, in Sogono village, Kakoro sub-county, Butebo District in Eastern Uganda, where he spent the most part of his childhood.  

He would go on to attend Nkonkonjeru Primary School in Mbale, a top school in Eastern Uganda, where he excelled with aggregate five, and then go to St Mary’s College Kisubi, where he had set his sights on.

At O-Level, Okia stood out, attaining 13 aggregates from eight subjects, an effort that earned him government scholarship to study Biology, Chemistry, and Math (BCM/IT) at A-Level in the same school. 

A small setback, however, was to come in 2016, when Okia emerged with a dismal 12 points from a possible 20 in Senior Six, an experience that bothers him till today, given his prior academic record. He regrets having done sciences instead of arts, where his strengths lay, he said. 

Initially, Okia’s father had wanted him to do Math, given his (father’s) accounting background, however Okia wanted Biology to arrive at his childhood fantasy of becoming a doctor. An amicable position for both was found in BCM/IT. 

With the above A-Level subjects, Okia struggled to gain his feet, to the point of contemplating a change in combination, however, at that point it was too late. 

“For me, A-level is the hardest level of education. It’s one of those levels where you cannot afford to have a false start. You need to start strong. I tried so much to catch up, but I failed,” Okia stated, saying on a second attempt, he would have done History and Literature, if he  could rewind time. However, along the way, he fell for the law. 

“It is always better to allow a child to identify what they want to be than forcing him to do what you want him to be,” Mr. Okurut advised, as he reflected on his son’s journey so far. 

He said, “It was not simple to accept what Emmanuel wanted, but later I learned that it was what he really wanted. It was even a mistake for him to have done sciences.”

After an inspiring career talk from Mathias V Ssekatawa, a prominent lawyer in town, delivered in his senior six, Okia proceeded to do law at Uganda Christian University (UCU), where he graduated with a first-class degree in 2020, finishing ahead of his class. It is perhaps no surprise that he went on to do the same at LDC this year. 

Dr Peter Davis Mutesasira, his former teacher, who is also the Dean School of Law at UCU commended Okia for his willingness to learn: “Emmanuel is a focused gentleman.

He is down-to-earth, willing to learn, and was one of our best mooters. Academically, it wasn’t a surprise because he was also excelling while he was here.” 

For  Okurut, even after his son completed the law degree, he enrolled him in the CPA and ACCA accounting qualifications, to make good use of his A-level math, with foresight that this will prepare Okia for practice in business and commercial law, an area of legal interest for his son. 

He has also made sure to teach his son about the importance of faith in their family. 

“We introduced Emmanuel to church early; on top of what he does, he does not miss Sunday service. He’s a good boy, we have not had any bad behaviour from him,” Mr. Okurut insisted, adding that Okia has not indulged in gambling, or alcohol, which has helped him concentrate on his studies.

Indeed, Okia says his free time is spent playing football after class or playing play station with his close friends.

The young man is also poised to enter into holy matrimony soon, having proposed to Christine Leah, who he met at UCU. 

He also looks forward to doing a Master’s in Commercial Law from an Ivy League university and operating a successful law firm in town.