NOUN Ready For Law School, NYSC – VC

The VC of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, has said the school is ready for law school and NYSC

President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2013 signed the bill that put the institution on the same level with other universities

Adamu also lamented the fact their intake from northern states have been low when compared those from the south-west

The Vice Chancellor (VC) of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, has said that the school will accept all guidelines by the Nigeria Law School and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

It should be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari recently signed the bill that allows NOUN to be equal with other universities and could participate in the compulsory one year national service and law school, Daily Trust reports.

When the VC was asked what the situation has been since the assent, he said the school is negotiations with the Law School so they can know the conditions for participation for their students.

He added that the school is different from other schools because it is the institution’s passion to not only teach law but to produce lawyers.

He said: “Law School prevented our students from studying there because they were under the impression that we were a part-time institution and their rules and regulations do not allow part-time students. We are now entering into negotiations with the Law School to know what to do and we are willing to accept whatever conditions they will provide to enable our students to participate.

Our mandate is to teach students law but not to produce lawyers like the mandate of any university is to teach students engineering but not to make them engineers.”

The professor also said that NOUN has been in talks with NYSC to know how they could participate, saying though most of their students are above 30 years, the younger ones would serve.

“We are trying to reach out to the NYSC to ask them the way forward. We have graduated 58,000 students since we started and if all these students are yet to do the youth service. They would overload the system but luckily, not all of them are qualified because many of them are much older than 30 years.

We are more concerned with the younger ones, who want to serve our nation, because NYSC currently gives exemption certificates to our students which many employers accept. We are willing to accept, whatever conditions NYSC would provide,”he said.

The VC also lamented the situation that the northern states are far behind in Open Distance Learning (ODL) and that the numbers of students are not up pupils from south-west states.