More than 500 prospective Nigerian law students
who are expected to commence the 2013/2014 law
school programme by the end of October may
boycott the programme.
Their reason for the likely boycott is hinged on
posting of students to campuses under the state of
emergency, against their choices by the authorities
of the school.
The affected students accused the school authorities
of insensitivity to security of life saying the
campuses under state of emergency ought to have
been suspended given the terrible situation of
insecurity in those states.
According to some of the students who spoke to our
reporter on condition of anonymity, the law school
authorities posted them to Yola and Kano campuses
without minding the security implications involved.
They expressed serious fear over the rampant
insecurity in the affected states and called on the
Ministries of Education and Justice as well as the
Presidency to prevail on the law school authorities to
repost them to secure areas before it becomes too
late.
Most of the prospective law students affected by the
posting had chosen four law school campuses
according to their preferences as provided in the
admission form they filled to indicate their intention
for participating in the 2013/2014 programme.
When the admission list was published last Sunday
however, it became clear that the Law school
authorities did not consider the voluntary choices of
the prospective students before posting them to
those dangerous areas.
Traditionally, prospective Law students are entitled
to four campuses of their choice in order of
preference and these are often filled in the
application form long before postings are done.
Strangely, however, most of those posted to the state
of emergency areas this year did not choose any of
those areas and none of their preferred areas was
considered in the posting exercise.
Unless an urgent action is taken by the government
to rectify the posting situation most of the affected
students may not go to law school this year a
situation that is capable of aggravating the already
tensed education condition in the country.
Meanwhile, the enrolment for law school this year is
lower than those of the previous years due to the
ongoing industrial strike embarked upon by the
Association of University Unions (ASUU) which
prevented most final year law students from
graduating and meeting the schedule of law school
this year.
Following its establishment by the federal
government in 1962, the Nigerian Law School (NLS)
was situated in the former federal capital of Lagos
until 1996 when the late General Sani Abacha regime
moved it to the new federal capital of Abuja.
Subsequently, NLS was decentralized thereby paving
way for six campuses with one located in each of the
six geopolitical zones of the country. The campuses
are located in Kano, Northwest; Yola, Northeast;
Abuja, North-Central and Lagos, Southwest. Others
are Enugu, Southeast and Yenogua, South-south.
Two of the geopolitical zones (Northwest and
Northeast) are now affected by the insecurity
engendered Boko Haram insurgents who claim to be
fighting for the obliteration of western education in
Nigeria.
The current Director-General of NLS, Dr. Tahir
Maman, who is said to have hailed from Yola,
Adamawa State assumed office in 2005