ASUU: Nigerian Students Lament Fear Of Missing Law School Over Strike

Final-year law students in Nigerian public universities have expressed fear over the probability of not being mobilised for the  Nigerian Law School in 2022 due to the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Speaking to PUNCH in separate chats on Tuesday, some of them said if the issue is not resolved soon, it would delay their academic pace. 

One of the students, identified as Tolani said Our mates in other schools are currently in Law School. Our one-year juniors in other schools are going for the next one, they’re doing registration for law school right now and they’ll be going next – October 2022. They’re telling us to wait till 2023.”

She also complained that their results had not been processed since last year.

"Our first semester results since April 2021 haven’t been released fully. Our second-semester examination was completed in November 2021, till today, we didn’t see any of the results,” she added. 

Another student from Obafemi Awolowo University, who pleaded 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.”

The Dean of the Faculty of Law, OAU, Professor Adedeji Adewole, through a telephone conversation maintained that there was no way the ASUU strike factor could be ruled out of the delay of the students. 

“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,” he said. 

Adedeji added that the lecturers had not been paid salaries since February and are all looking for how to survive.

He, however, said they were working on the mobilisation of the students to law school. 

“People have not been paid salaries since February. Everybody is looking for how to survive."

“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,” he said.

Also reacting to the development, the President of the Law Students Association of Nigeria, South-West Zone, and a law student of Osun State University, Richard Abayomi, said that the students were unlikely to go to law school before 2023, noting that according to the calendar, new intakes were to resume by 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 enrol.

“Because the legal profession is built on seniority, which is determined by the year of graduation from the Nigerian Law School,” Abayomi said.

The students further urged their school management to process their results so they will not miss their mobilisation for the Nigerian Law School this year. 

It was reported that the part II batch of the NLS was to complete registration for the programme on or before August 19, 2022.