Our pain as new session of Nigeria Law School begins

It is with excruciating pain that one starts writing something of this nature. Studying in a Nigerian public university comes with a series of frustrations. When ASUU embarked on strike in 2020, Nigerian students spent eight months at home, which prolonged their stay in the university by one year. As ASUU called off the strike […]

It is with excruciating pain that one starts writing something of this nature. Studying in a Nigerian public university comes with a series of frustrations.

When ASUU embarked on strike in 2020, Nigerian students spent eight months at home, which prolonged their stay in the university by one year. As ASUU called off the strike that year, students thought things had once again become normal because of the temporary stability of academic activities. On 14 February 2022, the news of the strike hit our ears while receiving lectures in our respective classes. The shock of that news is still in us!

The hope of the final year Law students in public universities to make it to the Nigerian Law School this year reached its crescendo before ASUU struck began. Some of us had already started writing our project while others had even finished. One can imagine the pain of staying for additional two years in the university with no certainty of even rounding off in 2023. It is even more painful when we look at our school ID cards and realise they bear “2021”, the year of our graduation. Seven years for a five-year programme.

As the new session of the Nigerian Law School begins in October this year, Law students in public universities have nothing to do except look at the graduates of private universities and foreign institutions marching into the school, most of whom are the children of our leaders. Whether ASUU calls off the strike this month or not,  students in public universities cannot make it to the Nigerian Law School. The year is a waste for us!

Thus there is  a need to bring to an end this perennial dispute between the government and ASUU.

For this to happen, the federal government must be serious in negotiating with ASUU, by exhibiting its concern for the poor condition of service of lecturers and the future of education in Nigeria.

Secondly, the management of the Nigerian Law School should extend its calendar in order to accommodate candidates from public universities. Thirdly, after the strike is called off, the management of public universities should hasten to round off the session with some level of leniency to the students. Lastly, the students must be relentlessly prayerful for these miracles to happen. May these challenges become blessings to us.

Abdul Mutallib Muktar is a Law student, ABU, Zaria.