The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, FCVSN, last Friday, 27th of June, 2025, received in audience the Chairman of Centre for Legal Education, Barr. Emeka Ngige, SAN, who came to interface and discuss inter-agency matters, in his office.
Briefing the Executive Secretary on his specific mission, he said the CLE was glad that an insider in the Nigerian University System (NUS) was appointed as the substantive Executive Secretary of the NUC and expressed optimism on his ability to deliver on the job with his qualifications and record of service in the system.
Barr.Ngige said CLE became a legal entity in 1962, exactly the same period NUC was established, noting that their working relationship had been existing since then, marking over 60years between the two organisations.
He explained that when the present Council came on board, the management discussed some matters relating to co-operation, especially on areas where the Council had continued to experience challenges in the discharge of its duties.
He stressed that they came to explore on those issues of cooperation and collaboration between the two organizations, including the granting of new private universities the approval to run law programme.
The CLE Chairman said it has been the tradition that new private universities have at least 3years after obtaining licence to stabilize before they are granted approval to run law programme because of the obvious challenges of inadequate manpower, infrastructure and quota allocation.
He expressed dismay that when the Council visited some universities, it found out that most of the facilities fell short of the required standard, urging the NUC to work in synergy with them in order not to sacrifice quality.
He said another issue observed by CLE is the issue of admission quota given by NUC, which some of these private universities flout on commencing the law programme, which eventually constitute a problem when their graduands seek to go into the Law School because of a particular quota they cannot exceed.
Barr. Ngige also said when NUC write to these universities for accreditation there is no mention of the fact that other professional bodies like CLE will visit them concurrently with the universities claiming that the Commission did not indicate another body was coming for such accreditation.
He also mentioned the issue of academic staff in Nigerian universties teaching in up to three to four Faculties of Law, urging the NUC to do a profiling of the academics and the creation of a data base to track them.
He further said that there is an existing law that Law programme should not be run in part-time, stating that any institution that does so will not get the recognition of the CLE.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary, NUC, Professor Ribadu thanked delegation for making out time to visit the Commission and for some of the issues raised, explaining that NUC remained the sole agency charged with the orderly development of the Nigerian University System (NUS).
He said when a Proprietor wishes to establish a university and meets all the set standards, NUC cannot deny them but only advise them to conform to the established guidelines.
On the issue of not adhering to quota, the Executive Secretary agreed that sanctions should be meted on universities that do not follow the standards given by NUC.
Professor Ribadu pointed out that for the issue of letters of approval to the universities that the NUC management will look into it, while noting that on the issue of lecturers teaching in more than one school, the maximum a lecturer teaches and sanctioned by NUC is two schools.
He promised that the NUC management will look into all the issue raised by the CLE delegation.
In the CLE delegation were the Director-General, Law School, Professor Isa Hayatu Chiromah, SAN; members of the Council, Ibrahim Sani Mohammed, SAN; Umar Salami; Aderonke Osiho, Secretary to Council;President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN and Professor Mamman L. Yusufari, SAN. At the meeting were the NUC Deputy Executive Secretary, Administration (DES), Mr. Chris J. Maiyaki; the Ag Directors of: Research, Innovations and Information Technology (DRIIT), Mal. Farouk Lawal; Inspection and Monitoring (DIM), Mrs. Lydia Imoroa; Accreditation, (DA), Engr. Abraham Chundusu; Executive Secretary’s Office (DESO), Mr. Jubril Momoh; Deputy Dirrector Legal Services,Barr. Pascal Eruaga; as well as Representative of the Directorate of Academic Planning and Deputy Director, Curriculum Development, Dr. Esther Meka.