The Vice Chancellor, National Open University of Nigeria, Prof. Vincent Tenebe, has faulted the decision of the Nigerian Council on Legal Education to bar NOUN Law graduates from attending the Nigerian Law School.

Attending the Nigerian Law School is mandatory for law graduates before they are called to Bar.

The Vice Chancellor said the controversies surrounding the Open varsity law graduates were uncalled for.

Tenebe noted that the NOUN’s Law programme was dully accredited by the National Universities Commission, whose mandate it is to accredit programmes of Nigerians universities.

The Vice Chancellor, who spoke to journalists on Tuesday in Kaduna, noted that most of the law graduates of the Open university were tested and experienced academia, who had made their marks in life.

He explained that out of nine Vice Chancellors, who were students of the NOUN, four of them were studying law.

Tenebe wondered why such calibre of Nigerians, who study the course for the interest they have in the programme, would be disallowed from attending the Nigerian Law School.

The Vice Chancellor believed that in other climes that operated similar university system, their law graduates were allowed by its council of legal study to graduate as lawyers.

Tenebe observed that there were some Nigerian lawyers, who were beneficiaries of similar law programmes from Open universities of other countries, who were currently practising law in Nigeria.

He added, “So why are we destroying our own? I don’t want to go to the extend of telling you that we have so many legal luminaries in Nigeria, who even studied law through part-time and today are still practising as Senior Advocates of Nigeria and I can say that they are the best you can even refer to.

“We have Open universities in other foreign countries that produce law graduate and are never prevented from going to the law school. They even produce the best lawyers in their countries.

“I was with the Vice Chancellor of the Open university of UK and he asked me why Nigerians that graduated from Open university in UK are prevented from going to law school in Nigeria.

“Funny enough, what you guys are not asking is that there are Nigerians, who graduated from Open university of other countries, who have attended law school in other countries and are here practising.

“Do you know who are the law students of open university? They are professors already. Out of the nine vice chancellors in the country, who are students of Open University, four of them are studying law.

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