About 200 law students and graduates of Atiba University have been left uncertain about their academic and professional future following revelations that the institution’s Faculty of Law did not have accreditation from the Council for Legal Education, the statutory body responsible for approving law faculties whose graduates may proceed to the Nigerian Law School.
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The affected students reportedly include those currently in 100, 200, 300 and 400 levels, as well as students who have completed the 500-level law programme but cannot proceed to the Nigerian Law School because of the accreditation problem.
Counsel representing the affected parents and students, identified in the broadcast as Victor Opasola, said the families were appealing to the Federal Government, particularly the Minister of Education and the National Universities Commission, to urgently intervene and prevent years of academic work from being lost.
Speaking during a television interview, the lawyer said the parents were not aware at the point of admission that the university lacked the required Council for Legal Education accreditation.
According to him, whenever questions were raised about accreditation, the parents were informed that the university had NUC approval, leaving many of them unaware of the crucial distinction between general university accreditation by the NUC and professional accreditation of law programmes by the Council for Legal Education.
“At the point of admission, the parents were not aware. And when they made effort to ask about the accreditation, they were informed that the school has NUC approval,” he said.
He explained that parents without specialist knowledge of the regulatory framework would reasonably assume that NUC approval meant the law programme was fully cleared for students to eventually attend Law School.
The lawyer alleged that even after concerns arose, the university continued assuring students and their parents that the required accreditation would eventually be obtained.
He said those assurances continued until only a few weeks ago, despite what he described as existing difficulties between the institution and the Council for Legal Education.
According to him, the Council had previously visited the university to inspect its facilities and was reportedly dissatisfied with what it found, yet the families continued receiving assurances that accreditation would be secured.
He stressed, however, that while questions about the university’s conduct would have to be addressed, the immediate priority should be rescuing the academic careers of the affected students.
“The issue is we have understood the lapses of Atiba University. That will be revisited. It’s a secondary matter to be revisited. The primary matter is the help that the government can give to these students,” he said.
The lawyer put the number of affected students at about 200, describing them as being “stranded and in limbo” because they presently do not know how to continue their studies or professional training.
He said the parents had formally written to the NUC seeking intervention but had received no substantive response after about two months.
According to him, the correspondence had become caught in bureaucratic processes despite previous instances where the NUC had reportedly intervened to protect students affected by institutional accreditation problems.
“The primary aim here is at least let us salvage the academic and professional career of the students,” he said.
The lawyer also explained why some parents did not immediately withdraw their children from the university after becoming aware of the accreditation problem.
According to him, the institution repeatedly assured them that it would obtain the necessary approval.
He said tension intensified after the Council for Legal Education released a list of accredited law faculties and Atiba University was not included.
Despite that development, he alleged, the institution continued reassuring parents and students that the situation would be resolved.
According to the lawyer, the situation changed significantly when the Council for Legal Education reportedly imposed a 10-year moratorium on the university, effectively preventing it from admitting new law students during that period.
He explained that accreditation by the Council is not necessarily a one-off or annual exercise, but remains subject to periodic review depending on available facilities and compliance with regulatory requirements.
The Council, he said, may grant temporary approval, fix the number of students a faculty may admit, increase or reduce admission quotas, or suspend accreditation where conditions are no longer satisfactory.
The parents have also petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over the circumstances under which students were allegedly admitted into the law programme for several years despite the absence of the necessary professional accreditation.
The lawyer said the petition had been before the EFCC for about two months without feedback.
“The call of the parents to EFCC is interrogate this matter. There are culpable issues, admitting students for years and years when you know full well that you’re not allowed to do that,” he said.
He nevertheless maintained that investigation and questions of responsibility should not overshadow the immediate need to find an academic solution for the students.
The lawyer warned that the psychological consequences for the affected students were already serious, with some experiencing considerable emotional pressure because of the uncertainty surrounding their future.
He said without intervention from the Education Minister and the relevant regulatory agencies, some of the students could potentially lose four, five or six years already spent studying law and might be forced to begin the university admission process afresh.
@thenigerialawyer “NUC Approval Is Not CLE Accreditation” — Parents’ Lawyer Says Regulatory Gap Left About 200 Atiba Law Students Stranded, Unable To Proceed To Law School
“The students actually, they are under psychological pressure right now,” he said, adding that failure to resolve the matter could mean years of academic work going to waste.
He disclosed that before petitioning the regulatory agencies, the parents had approached the university and sought a workable arrangement.
According to him, the families wanted more than verbal assurances. They asked the institution to demonstrate concrete efforts to secure placement for the affected students in other universities capable of receiving them.
“What they wanted was the university create a situation where you can show us concrete plans, concrete efforts you’ve made to speak to other universities,” he said, adding that the parents wanted evidence that other institutions were genuinely prepared to take the students.
The lawyer argued that the Council for Legal Education could play a central role in resolving the crisis by facilitating the redistribution of the approximately 200 affected students to accredited law faculties.
“The CLE can come in and make effort to… redistribute these students to other universities. The CLE can do that as a regulatory agency,” he said.
Beyond the immediate Atiba University case, he identified what he described as a regulatory gap between the NUC and the Council for Legal Education.
According to him, the two agencies should establish a system ensuring that a university is not permitted to operate a law programme where it has approval from one regulator but lacks the necessary approval from the other.
He maintained that such checks should be carried out before students are admitted, rather than after they have spent several years studying.
“If they don’t have it, they cannot operate, because then you’re putting the academic life of the students, of these young ones, in trouble,” he said.
The lawyer also questioned the role of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, arguing that institutions without the required professional accreditation for a particular programme should not be presented to prospective candidates as available choices for admission into that programme.
He argued that stronger coordination among JAMB, the NUC and the Council for Legal Education could prevent similar situations from recurring.
He consequently renewed the appeal to the Minister of Education and the NUC to bypass prolonged bureaucracy and intervene urgently in the interest of the students.
“What is important is the call to the Minister of Education and the NUC to skip the bureaucracy, to skip the file pushes, for the sake of the students,” he said.
The affected parents are therefore seeking an arrangement that would preserve the years already spent by their children studying law, enable those still in the university to continue at properly accredited institutions and ultimately provide a pathway for qualified graduates to proceed to the Nigerian Law School.
The Faculty of Law is headed by Prof. Prince Pius Imiera, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Atiba University, who has been leading the faculty during the period of recent regulatory assessments by the Council for Legal Education.
The faculty was among those subjected to the CLE’s resource verification exercise, during which its facilities and compliance with requirements for legal education were assessed. The regulatory process subsequently culminated in the Council imposing a 10-year moratorium on the university’s law programme, preventing it from admitting new law students during the period.
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