He Was Deaf. Getting to the Nigerian Bar Took More Than a Law Degree

Nehemiah Danjuma after becoming the first deaf lawyer from Northern Nigeria to be called to the Nigerian Bar. (Digital Illustration: GoBeyondLocal)

He Was Deaf. Getting to the Nigerian Bar Took More Than a Law Degree

In 2017, Nehemiah Danjuma applied to study Law at the University of Ilorin. The admission he received was for Primary Education Studies.

He declined it.

A year later, he applied again. This time, the course was Law.

Danjuma, who is from Jaba in Kaduna State, entered the University of Ilorin to study Common Law. He was deaf, and access to education involved more than attending lectures and completing examinations. Communication was part of the work required to get through university.

He did not treat Law as a course to complete quietly. At the university, he represented students with disabilities as a Students’ Union Senator and took part in work connected with student inclusion.

Outside the university, his work with deaf students also grew. Danjuma served two terms as National President of the National Association of Nigerian Deaf Students.

During that period, he organised the association’s first national conference in 2023 and launched the NANDS Magazine. His work placed him in a position where the problems faced by deaf students were not only personal experiences but subjects he could raise in public.

His advocacy reached beyond student affairs. Between 2021 and 2024, Danjuma served as a Youth Adviser on Human Development with the European Union Youth Sounding Board in Nigeria. His work there touched on education, health and social protection policies affecting young people.

He also received international legal training as a Coelho Law Fellow at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where the programme focused on disability rights law, policy and innovation.

Law school came after the degree.

In 2024, Danjuma graduated from the University of Ilorin with Second Class Upper honours in Common Law. The university’s Centre for Supportive Services for Special Needs recorded his graduation and noted that he had proceeded to the Nigerian Law School.

His next stage took him to the Abuja Campus for the Bar Part II programme.

Communication support became part of that stage of his education. Danjuma later acknowledged the Voice of Disability Initiative for partial support towards his sign-language interpreter. The JASAN Foundation also awarded him a full tuition scholarship for law school as a JASAN Scholar in 2024.

One of his friends at the Nigerian Law School, Chukwu Nzubechukwu, learned sign language to communicate with him more effectively.

The legal training also took Danjuma outside the classroom. He completed externships at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory and the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, where he gained practical exposure to legal research, drafting and court proceedings.

By this stage, the question was no longer whether he could enter a university law programme. He had completed the degree and was now passing through the professional training required before admission to the Bar.

In July 2026, the Call to Bar ceremonies took place at the Body of Benchers Complex in Abuja. Thousands of new legal practitioners were admitted.

Danjuma was among them.

His admission made him the first deaf lawyer from Northern Nigeria to be called to the Nigerian Bar. He announced the result himself in a short post: “First Deaf Lawyer from Northern Nigeria. Called to the Bar. History made.”

He later described the preceding seven years in terms of hard work, tears, sleepless nights, the fight for accessibility and inclusion, prayers and persistence. He thanked his family, friends, teachers and mentors, as well as the Voice of Disability Initiative and the JASAN Foundation for their support.

By the time the Call to Bar was over, the admission that had once been refused in 2017 was far behind him. Danjuma had entered the legal profession as a qualified lawyer.