The potential of not being mobilized for the Nigerian Law School in 2022 has caused some final-year law students in Nigeria’s public universities to sob. This is because the Academic Staff Union of Universities is still on strike.
Some of them lamented that their institution had not even processed their final year results when they spoke to Newsmen on Tuesday in separate discussions.
A student of Obafemi Awolowo University, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “This experience is traumatising. We have been at home since last year. My colleagues from other universities are already in Law School and would be my senior at the bar. If we miss this opportunity again, our colleagues would be our two-year seniors at the bar. We hope this issue is resolved.
“Because of previous strikes, OAU has always had a backlog of students who don’t follow their set to Law School. OAU students at Law School at the moment are our immediate seniors. They are there with students from other schools that are our set.
“So, we are supposed to go to Law School this year. If we don’t go this year, it will be next year.”
Another kid, simply identified as Tolani, stated, “Our friends from other institutions are right now in law school. Our one-year juniors from other institutions are moving on to the next one; they are currently registering for law school and will start in October 2022. They advise us to hold off until 2023.
Additionally, she bemoaned the delay in processing their findings, adding, “Our first semester results since April 2021 haven’t been fully disclosed. After finishing our second semester exam in November 2021, we have yet to receive any results.
In a telephone discussion with our correspondent on Tuesday, Professor Adedeji Adewole, Dean of the OAU Faculty of Law, said that the matter could not be separated from the present ASUU strike.
“I don’t see the reason why anybody should be worried. We all know ASUU is on a national strike. Before ASUU’s strike, there was a local strike (within OAU), which started in early January. If they don’t work, who will process the results? If the strike is over and normalcy is restored, then the system will keep on moving smoothly.”
Adedeji bemoaned the fact that the lecturers hadn’t received their pay and were likely trying to endure the situation.
“People have not been paid salaries since February. Everybody is looking for how to survive,” he said.
However, he noted that “We’ve started working on law school mobilisation. The people whose results are ready will be processed as we normally do.
“Those that their results have been approved by the Senate are automatically eligible.”
Richard Abayomi, a law student at Osun State University and the president of the Law Pupils Association of Nigeria, South-West Zone, responded by noting that the students might not enroll in the law school until 2023 and that the law school calendar required fresh intakes to begin in September.
“They are supposed to be in the NLS by September 2022, but unfortunately, they can’t make it. Even if ASUU calls off the strike now, they can’t make it to the NLS this session unless by 2023. The law school already released a circular that new intakes are to come in by September.
“The sad part is that they have automatically become juniors to their contemporaries from other institutions who would be eligible to enroll.
“Because the legal profession is built on seniority, which is determined by the year of graduation from the Nigerian Law School,” Abayomi said.
In order to be mobilized for the NLS this year, the students further pleaded with the administrators of their schools to see that the processing of their results was completed.
According to information obtained, the Part II NLS cohort must finish enrolling in the NLS program by August 19, 2022, at the latest.
ASUU had been on strike since February 2022, and the union stated on Monday that the walkout will now last an additional four weeks, according to InsightnaijaTV. Many students had hoped that it would end soon.
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the union’s president, revealed this in a statement made available to InsightnaijaTV.
