The House of Representatives yesterday
mandated its Standing Committees on Tertiary
Education and Services, and Federal Judiciary to
investigate the non-enrolment of law graduates
of the National Open University of Nigeria
(NOUN) into Nigerian Law Schools.
The resolution followed the adoption of a motion
tagged “Call on the Council of Legal Education
and the Body of Benchers to Allow Law
Graduates of National Open University of Nigeria
Enrolment into the Nigerian Law Schools”
sponsored by Hon. Ayodele Oladimeji at plenary
on Thursday.
The House committees are to determine the
reasons for the non-enrolment of NOUN law
graduates into the Nigerian Law Schools by the
Council of Legal Education and report back to
the House within three weeks for further
legislative action.
Moving the motion, Hon. Oladimeji noted that
NOUN is a Federal Open and Distance Learning
(ODL) Institution, the first of its kind in the West
African sub-region and also Nigeria’s largest
tertiary institution in terms of students intake.
He further informed the House that NOUN offers
law as one of its courses and met the
requirements for accreditation for a Law Faculty,
and also has a good percentage of its law
students as already degree holders in various
disciplines who chose to read law out of passion
to further strengthen their subsisting professions.
He expressed concern over the policy of the
Council of Legal Education, established in 1962
to regulate, supervise and be responsible for
accreditation, control and management of legal
profession,for indicating that law should not be
studied on part-time basis.
