Test our Students ―NOUN tells Law School

The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) at the weekend urged the Council of Legal Education to “test” its law students, stressing that the school has done its part and deserves to be given its “quota” at the law school.

The Dean of Law, Dr Alero Akujobi, stated this at NOUN’s First Faculty of Law Public Lecture held in Lagos at the weekend. She said, “The Council for Legal Education has given conventional universities their quota for getting into the law school; what we are asking for is: give us our own quota. If you say we are not competent enough, try us. If they do not pass then do not call them to bar, after all it is not everybody who attends law school that passes the bar examination. But other universities all have their own quota. Some may have 150, 100, 120, and so on.

“Our law students are given adequate preparation. Their course materials are prepared by eminent lawyers and academics. Our curriculum is the same as what you would find in other universities. At the end of the day, they spend the same duration in school, a minimum of five years. They deserve their own quota.”

Delivering the public lecture entitled, ‘Securing the Right to Health in Nigeria under the framework of the National Health Act,’ Dr Obiajulu Nnamuchi, a Senior Lecturer at Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, said individuals and civil society organisations must work together to ensure “effective and efficient discharge of health-related obligations incumbent on public authorities.”

He said, “The inevitable result will be an integrated architecture in which all hands are on deck and directed towards a common goal. This is the key to securing the right to health, whether in this country or elsewhere.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the occasion and Retired Professor of Law, Jonathan Fabunmi, said that for real progress to be made in the area of healthcare, public office holders must be barred from seeking medical treatment abroad for a period of ten years.