New Telegraph

Why NLS should increase admission quotas to universities

If the capacity of the existing five law school campuses is anything to go by, Nigeria’s Council for Legal Education, (CLU), and the Nigerian Law School should increase admission quotas to deserving universities in the country. Recall that Nigerian Law School current admission quotas are causing no little disaffection between it and many universities, leading to the suspension of admission into Law Faculties of nine universities, including the Nigerian Police Academy, Kano for exceeding their quotas. However, as far back as 2021, CLE and NLS have been underutilising its seven campuses by 40 per cent, wondering why the council had failed to increase admission quotas to clear the backlog especially in the face of the available facilities. Though they perform regulatory functions in this regard, they might be misleading Nigerians about their readiness to ensure all qualified law graduates from accredited Nigerian universities are admitted to the Nigerian Law School as at when due.

In 2021, the Federal Government, through the Senate foresaw an explosion in the number of law students seeking admission to Law School and proposed creation of additional campuses of the NLS in Ibadan and Ekiti, while considering the amendment of the Legal Education (consolidation) Act, LII, LFN, 2004, (Amendment Bill 2021, and the Legal Practitioners’ Act Cap LII, LFN, 2004 Repeal and Reenactment Bill 2021. But the Chairman of Council for Legal Education, Chief Emeka Ngige and CLE Director General Prof Isa Chiroma, in their memorandum to the Senate shot down the move to create Law School Campuses in Ibadan and Ekiti, asserting that “the issue of backlog of students waiting for admission to the Law School should not be the basis for creating additional campuses.” In its submission, NLS/CLE made bold to say that “every student from accredited faculties of law come to the NLS as at when due.” The memorandum dated October 27, 2021, jointly submitted to the Senate by the CLE and NLS, added that the six campuses of the Nigerian Law School as at then had the potential capacity for 10,000 students annually, but only admitted less than 6,000 ( actually 5,800 students) at its campuses located in Lagos, Enugu, Kano, annually.. A breakdown showed Abuja Campus1,650, Lagos 1,300, Kano 1,200, Enugu 1, 200, Yenagoa 450 and Yola 400. The NLC envisaged that with the Port Harcourt campus built by the Rivers State Government coming on stream, it was projected to accommodate an additional 1,200 students. The document added, “expansion of the facilities in the six campuses plus the newly approved campus (in Port Harcourt), will be more than enough to cater for the admission of students from newly approved faculties of law.”

It added that if the campuses were strengthened and consolidated more students would be admitted. The concerned universities are however, wondering why the same NLC which claimed to have been admitting students as at when due is now grappling with a backlog four years after, despite its much touted capacity for 10,000 students. For instance, though CLE gave a fiveyear moratorium and promised to accommodate Lead City University’s 1000 law students and graduates over time, the concerned universities urged the council to increase the quotas to the various deserving universities, especially since the resource verification indicated that they met the faculty and infrastructural requirements. Currently, CLE quotas for University of Abuja and Afe Babalola University are 160 and 180 respectively, while that of Babcock is 100, Igbinedion University, 100, Ebonyi State University 150, Adekunle Ajasin University 70 and Lead City University 50 a category where scores of private universities belong. This is coming without cognisance of the fact that many of the universities have been in existence for over a decade and have met the fundamental requirements like moot courts, lecture theatres and the rest. “Igbinedion and Babcock have been there since1999; Lead City 2005, Afe Babalola 2009 and Joseph Ayo Babalola 2006. Increasing the quotas to the universities to accommodate thousands of law graduates without compromising standards will enable the students to actualise their dreams.

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