Tension at UNN Over Omission of 70 Students from Law School, UNN Reveals Why They Did It

Cursory: The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and some of its 2021/2022 Law students graduates are in dispute over the exclusion of 70 students from admission to the Nigerian Law School.

The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), and some students from its Faculty of Law are currently engaged in a dispute over the exclusion of 70 students from being admitted to the Nigerian Law School for further training and certification to practice law.

These affected students graduated during the 2021/2022 academic session. The students feel sidelined as those who graduated earlier this month have been selected for Law School admission.

The students argue that attending Law School later would mean an additional year, despite having no carryovers or reasons for further delay. Some students, speaking confidentially, claim that unfair criteria were used to determine the selected candidates.

However, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Ifeoma Enemo, defended the management, stating that the delay was due to an eight-month ASUU strike during the final exams.

“Early last year, the affected students were supposed to sit for their final papers and we were ready to organise that. However, the students said they should be given more time to prepare even when they were told that nobody knew what could happen. It was at the time the ASUU strike was looming. Unfortunately, the strike started.”

The Nigerian Law School requested a list of graduates, and the faculty management decided to call back some students who had resolved their issues, resulting in only 29 students during the strike period.

“The strike lasted exactly eight months. In the course of the strike, the Nigerian Law School wrote to us around July last year asking for the list of our students to come for their programme. Our quota is 220 students. We had to start calling some students who were yet to go to the Law School for one reason or the the other but who have got over such issues to come. It was in the midst of the strike and eventually, we only got 29 students.

“You can imagine the number of slots we could not fill. No one can blame the Law School, they have their own schedule and it is not only students from the public universities that they handle. If you are not ready, others may be ready.

“Early this month, the Law School requested our list of graduates, remember that our quota is still 220. What we did was that the faculty management held a meeting and it was resolved that two-thirds of the slots be given to the 2021/2022 session graduates who eventually finished their course last November after the strike and the rest to the current students who just concluded their programme.

“To avoid any rancour or allegation of favouritism, selection of those to go was based on their academic performance, that is their Cumulative Grade Point Average, CGPA.

“So the 147 selected among that group were based on their CGPA likewise the ones picked from the current set.”

Enemo urged anyone with evidence contradicting the selection process to present it openly.

“Anybody who has anything to contradict should bring his facts to the open.“Some lecturers even have their own children and wards that were not selected. In fact, the faculty management had to pet the current set who felt that they should be given the total slots to understand and bear the situation. They were saying they were not responsible for last year’s set’s travails,” she said.

Enemo added that it would be mischievous to accuse the faculty management of any wrong doing in the matter.“We had no control over the strike that took most part of last year and we cannot also say the whole slots be given the previous set and totally leave out the current ones,” she stated.

Enemo urged the Nigerian Law School to consider increasing the admission quota for UNN, citing its status as the country’s oldest law faculty. It is essential to note that after completing Law School, lawyers are called to the Bar and then proceed with the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme before officially commencing their legal practice.

Source: Vanguard

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