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| Prof. Vincent Tenebe |
Tenebe stated this on Tuesday during an interactive session in
Abuja noting that the false impression being created in some quarters about the
university is baseless and unfounded. He added that the university was established
by law, and wholly owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria with all its
academic programmes duly accredited by the National Universities Commission,
NUC who exclusively exercises powers of accreditation of the universities in
the country.
The Vice Chancellor who visibly looked worried while
commenting on the development however challenged any person or body who has
been fed with a wrong notion about his graduates to patiently wait to compete
at the law School which he said serves as the “open field” and “test room” for
all law graduates in Nigeria.
He also said that most people that underrate the school
do so out of ignorance not knowing that most of the students are already graduates
and professionals from some of the conventional universities they rate high,
and some are on managerial positions in their respective places of work but for
passion on particular fields chose the university to actualize their lifetime
dreams.
Tenebe, while assuring that the gates of the Nigerian Law
School would soon be made open to his graduates, however, emphatically hinted
that his confidence was anchored on the law that established the university
which he said unambiguously permitted the institution to run ten (10) schools
including the School of Law.
He added that the same NUC that accredited other
universities in Nigeria which CLE freely admit into the Nigeria Law School also
accredited NOUN, and therefore pleaded for continued patience and decorum. On a
lighter note, he compared his school days and concluded that NOUN products are
evidently moulded in character having conducted themselves in such enviable
manners despite various provocations on the Law School issue.
It would be recalled that NOUN School of Law in its first
participation in the National Law Moot-Court Competition in Nigeria involving
all the faculties of Law in universities in the country overwhelmingly emerged
as the overall winner and consequently represented the country in India in 2013
though knocked out along the line.
Since then, it was believably learnt that
the fear of retaining the position led to serious campaigns against the
university by other conventional universities leading the Council of Legal
Education to publish caveats on pages of the newspapers discrediting the
University as unaccredited and unapproved.
Following the predicament, the NUC Executive Secretary,
Professor Julius Okojie on the national televisions and daily newspapers countered
the CLE’s position stating that the regulatory body duly approved and
accredited the university including its School of Law programme.
In a similar
vein, the Minister of Justice/Attorney-General of the Federation who also statutorily
exercises superior powers over the operations of the Council of Legal Education
expressly refuted the position of the Council. From investigations, it was
gathered that the powers of accreditation of universities and its academic
programmes are exclusively vested with the NUC and not the professional bodies
including the CLE.
This development came as the Law Alumni Association in
conjunction with the Law Students Association LAWSAN formally reported the matter
to the Public Complaints Commission on Wednesday in Abuja over the
unjustifiable refusal of the Council of Legal Education, CLE to admit the
graduates of the university since 2014.
Speaking with the Secretary of the Law Alumni Association, Mr. Jide Bello and National President of the Law Students
Association (LAWSAN), Paul Ndi-Oyemike, the duo confirmed that the associations had jointly filed a petition
yesterday (Wednesday) in addition to the earlier one at the National Assembly adding that they are confident that the matter would expeditiously be resolved in NOUN’s favour putting
into consideration all the legitimate steps taken so far by management to
clarify and resolve the contentious issues.
The two bodies are contending that the CLE’s refusal to admit
the students are unjustifiable and unfair putting into consideration that the
NUC which is the only statutory body vested with the powers of accreditation of
universities certifiably accredited the university. Specifically, the
associations pursuant to the Legal Education (Consolidation) Act, 1976 frowned on
the persistence of the CLE against NOUN graduates without regard of Section
1(2)
“The Council shall have
responsibility for the Legal Education of persons seeking to become members of
the legal Profession”.
Above all, it contends that the position of the CLE despite the
clear directives from the office of the Minister of Justice/Attorney-General of
the Federation certifying that NOUN is a recognized and duly accredited federal
university in Nigeria leaves much to be desired and inconsistent with Section 4,
“Subject to this Act, the
Attorney-General of the Federation may give the Council direction of a general
character with regard to the exercise by the Council of its functions and it
shall be the duty of the Council to comply with such direction”.
On further investigations, it was discovered that the
university at the moment maintains a total of sixty (60) Professors in its
payroll who have served in various conventional universities both in Nigeria
and abroad which is evident of capacity to actualize its set goals and service
delivery in pursuit of the policies of the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) 1991.
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