Court denies 1,000 NOUN law graduates admission into Law School
Will the dream of law graduates from the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) to enlist in the Nigerian Law School and become practising lawyers ever come true? The answer is this piece investigated by Peter Fowoyo.
For now, more than one thousand lawyers who completed their studies at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) will not be admitted to the Nigerian Law School to enable them complete their studies and obtain the Barrister at Law (BL) degree.
The implication is that they cannot appear on behalf of clients before a judge of any court of law. Simply put, they cannot practice law.
These aggrieved law graduates had approached a Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, Rivers state following the refusal of the relevant authorities to admit them to the Nigerian Law School.
Joined in the suit are the Council for Legal Education (CLE) , National Universities Commission(NUC), the Attorney-General of the Federation(AGF) and National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
Mr Mark Agwu, Counsel representing Council for Legal Education, had urged the court to strike out the case at the hearing in Port Harcourt.
He told the court that part-time and correspondent graduates were not qualified for admission into the Nigeria Law School. “The certificate from NOUN Law Faculty is not enough to give the graduates admission into the Law school,’’ he said.
But Prof. Abiodun Amuda-Kannike, Counsel to the plaintiffs, urged the court to deliver judgment in favour of his clients in line with the reliefs sought by the affected graduates.
He told the court that the Council for Legal Education was bent on depriving his clients the privilege of being admitted into the Law School.
The Council for Legal Education had issued a public notice in 2015 against NOUN’s admission of its first set of law students in 2004, who later graduated in 2013.
Consequently, the Law Graduates Forum of NOUN filed a suit against the Council, challenging its refusal to admit them into the Nigerian Law School programme.
After hearing the matter on December 7, 2016, in Port Harcourt, the presiding Judge, Justice Babatunde Quadri, failed to deliver judgment on the case on January 27, 2017 as scheduled.
Since then, the law graduates have continued to fight for the judgment with several petitions to the appropriate quarters until the matter was re-assigned to Justice Hilary Oshomah.
However, six days ago, while delivering judgment the judge noted that:”The power to admit students into law school is intrinsic and the first defendant (CLE) does not share its power with any other person,
the issue of who to admit as students and criteria for admitting students is a matter of the domestic confines of Council of Legal Education.
This court cannot decide to order … Council of Legal Education to admit students from National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) into law school, reason being that they obtained their law degree by part-time or distance education.
This is the decision of the Court, that the reliefs sought by the plaintiff are totally misconceived, unmeritorious and not granted… this honourable court dismisses this suit.”
Some stakeholders however believe that the court based its judgment on the facts presented before it, particularly the submission of the AGF.
Basically, the issue did not come from the students, both graduates and current ones, rather, it emanated from the faulty Act that established NOUN and dresses it as a part-time or distant learning institution; and it is erroneously believed that the institution is part-time.
Prior to this time, the institution did not have its personal edifice except the one given to it by Federal Government at Victoria Island, Lagos.
And it was billed to be an effective institution that would give lectures everyday in all designated study centres with qualified lecturers and which would be available in all nooks and crannies of the country.
The institution itself ought to have done the needful before the commencement of the law programmes, to liaison tenaciously with the Council of Legal Education(CLE) for this kind of feud not to have occurred.
The normal two semesters was strictly adhered to since the beginning of the college and all the students do attend lectures everyday during each semester.
It is an open secret that some of the lawyers Nigeria ever had in the past, known to be the best in everything they did particularly the law profession, did not receive lecture within four walls of a class.
Everybody is still jealous of the records of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN, many years after their demise.
Apart from this, does it mean that the law graduates of this institution will be barred perpetually from attending the law school?
Then, this indicates that their labour of many years of wanting to be good lawyers will be in total ruin or jeopardy or remained unfulfilled for life. Why?
Simply because they are victims of uncoordinated, undefined, unarticulated policy and law of our past leaders.
Nursing graduates of the same institution had similar problem, both Council for Nursing and the college resolved it amicably.
It remains unclear whether this hard stance of CLE in the case of law school would ever be resolved?
Now the old Act has been amended, something serious and urgent has to be done even though there’s no indication yet that the NOUN law graduates would challenge the decision of the lower court at the Court of Appeal.
There are also those who are of the opinion that the NOUN law graduates want to become lawyers through the backdoor after studying Law under the shade of trees without qualified lecturers, Law Libraries and intensive lectures.
But in the recent past, what was the result of Bar exams without NOUN law graduates? The students of this institution went to represent Nigeria in the international moot court competition.
Some have equally argued that the falling standards in most professions has nothing to do with the institutions where professionals are trained.
Indeed, going by the fallen standards of our universities, NOUN students enjoy seamless study regime than their university counterparts whose studies are perennially interrupted by lecturers’ strike etc.
Welcoming the judgment and drumming support from his other learned silk brothers, a former commissioner in Ogun State, Mr. Segun Odubela SAN, said:
“I think it’s all about the powers and privileges conferred on the Council of Legal Education by the statutes creating it with particular reference to the exercise of discretion on the schools or institutions from where they could admit students to the law school.
They know the criteria which they have set out and any schools who do not meet those criteria may not be allowed to send their students for admission into law school.
The council of legal education set certain scheme of work or subjects that at least a law graduate ought to have completed before admission into law school so that any school that do not meet up with such standard are not allowed to send their students to law school for admission.
Same thing with quota of students from schools. Once the courts begin to interfere with the exercise of such discretion by the Council of Legal Education then the standard will not only fall in fact the essence of the standard in the legal education will be eroded.
So I believe such judgment must be supported by all lawyers who have the interest of the profession at heart.”
