Reign Of Extortion, Restrictions At Nigerian Law School, Lagos

In this piece STEPHEN UBIMAGO writes
about the rot, extortions and restrictions that define the living
and study condition of students of the Nigerian Law School in
Lagos..

Students of the Lagos campus of the Nigerian Law School have
cried out that the authorities of the institution are treating them
rather poorly as though they are infants for whom no rights are
supposed to accrue.

According to our source, pleading anonymity, the institution’s
authorities fleece the students financially, and threaten them with
query if they dared complain about their situation.

He added that the authorities hardly bother to improve on the
living and study condition of the students in the country’s
premiere Law School.

He maintained that the insufferable condition to which the
students are subjected is peculiar to the Lagos campus of the
School, since there is no parallel of such in the other five
campuses of the institution – Yenagoa, Abuja, Enugu, Yola and
Kano.

About three months ago, the students were asked to pay N6, 000
in order for the School to print T-Shirts for them. This sum is
quite apart from the regular school fees of N296, 000 paid by the
students.

But till date, neither have the T-Shirts been delivered to the
students nor the sum returned.

“We were made to pay extra N6, 000 which was not part of our
school fees,” our source revealed.

“They said they will use it to print Law School T-Shirt for us.
But up till now, we have not seen any T-Shirt.

“Apart from that, we are not expected to complain. They told us
that we have rights; but we cannot exercise the right; that we
should just endure, because they said the Lagos campus is the best
Law School campus in Nigeria, since it produced 71 first class at
the last call to bar.

“Any time you talk, they threaten you that they will issue you
query. This is because by the time a student has one or two
queries, he will not be able to graduate.”

Our source maintained that the students also have axe to grind
with Mr. Nasiru Tijani, the Director, NLS, Lagos campus, over the
fact that the water being supplied to the School is brownish and
gives off an offensive smell.

He said, “The water here in the hostel is bad. It is brownish.
Every student in the Law School must wear white. But we cannot wash
our white shirts with the water, because the water is brownish. We
rather give it to the drycleaner. And this increases our cost and
puts pressure on our pockets.”

Restriction of students’ movement is also heavily enforced in
the institution. Thus students cannot freely move in and out of the
hostels or indeed the school itself.

“As we are leaving the hostel, we must leave our keys with the
porters. And you will not be allowed to come in till the closing
time, which is usually in the evening,” our source further
indicated.

“If you get to the hostel at a certain time, they will not allow
you to come in. They will tell you that they’ve been given
instructions not to allow you to come into the hostel until the
closing hour.

“So, if you happen to forget somethings in the hostel, and you
decide to get back to the hostel to retrieve it, they will not
allow you.”

Complaining bitterly about the cost of living and study in the
school, our source maintained: “Cost of living in the Lagos Law
School is too expensive.”

He reveled that the students were expected to only buy their
texts from the School’s book-shop, following which the book must be
stamped.

The idea, behind this, he alleged, is that books not so stamped
risked confiscation by the School’s authorities.

To rub it in, the textbooks bought from the School’s bookshop
are very expensive compared to those bought outside.

“The textbooks sold in the Law School bookshop cost an arm and a
leg. A book which is sold for say N2, 000 outside is usually sold
for N6, 000 in the School’s book shop,” he said.

“For example, the text on Civil Litigation costs N6, 000 in the
School; whereas outside, the book is sold for only N2, 500.

“They actually don’t allow us to buy outside the School. They
threaten us with raiding our hostel. Since we are usually in the
class all through the day, there is no way we can tell what is
happening in the hostel, because we leave our keys with the
porters.

“So, in our absence they can burst into the hostel and
confiscate any textbook that does not bear the School’s stamp. That
is to let you know the extent to which they’ve been able to
restrict us and treat us like kids.

“The lecturers tell us that we must not go outside School
bookshop to buy textbooks with the threat that they will raid
us.”

“They have however never made good that threat,” he added.

He insisted that the lecturers or indeed the institution’s
authorities never made any attempt to explain to the students why
these restrictions were imposed on them.

He said, “No, they gave us no explanations. They only told us
not to go outside to buy our textbooks.

“Although they have not made good their threat, they have said
that one day they will raid our hostels.

“As it is, we are expected to take our textbooks to the class,
especially the statutes. And those who sneak out to buy the
text-books take the books to the class, but hide them.

“And there is another way they hide them, like when they are
going to the class, they tuck it into their luggage and lock it
up.

“To a very large extent, about 95 percent of the students are
thereby forced to buy the very expensive books being sold in the
School’s bookshop.

“For example, there is the book “Law in Practice in Nigeria.” it
is authored by one Obi Okoye. There is another textbook, “Corporate
Law” written by one Badmus.

“In the Law School Bookshop each of the books cost N6, 000; but
outside, it is only N2500. In fact there is no textbook being sold
in the Law School bookshop that costs less than N6, 000,” he
further alleged.

“Even ordinary statutes that are sold for N1, 000 outside are
sold for N4, 000, N4, 500 inside the Law School.”

Speaking further on the living condition in the School, our
source said, “In every room at the Law School you have seven
students. And you have 14 students attached to one toilet and
bathroom. This is because two rooms, each of which carries seven
students, are serviced by one toilet and bathroom.

“There is a way the rooms of the hostels are built. Two rooms
are linked by a toilet and bathroom.

“I cannot say that is the original plan, but that is the way we
met it. But in Abuja you have just two persons to a room. There,
they have good reading tables, in fact good facilities. This is
unlike what obtains in Lagos.”

He regretted that student unionism is disallowed in the School;
hence the students lack a representative body that can liaise with
the authorities, ventilate their grievances and push for their
interest.

According to him, “During our earliest days at the school we did
induction, where we asked a lot of questions.

“But we were merely told to focus on the exam we came to the
school to write; that we should overlook all the inadequacies and
inconveniences, focus squarely on writing our exams and passing
with our certificate.

“They told us that whatever we see should be borne with
equanimity.”

Unlike any other campus of the NLS, students are made to part
with a whooping and unconscionable N1million to be able to secure
accommodation in the School’s so-called “Executive Hostels.”

Our source explained: “I can tell you that there are hostels
here where you pay N1million.

“In the Law School here, we have two types of hostels: the
regular ones and the ones they call Executive Hostels.

“You pay N1million for the Executive Hostel. It is one room to a
student at the Executive Hostel. The N1million is outside the
school fees. Yet this hostel that goes at the rate of N1million
belongs to the Nigerian Law School!”

On whether the water supply situation in the Executive Hostels
is better than what obtains in the regular hostels, at least given
the extortionate amount students pay to secure accommodation in
them, he said, “It is the same thing.”

He added, “And when we don’t have water or the water supply runs
out, they are also affected the very same way.

“The water smells both in the regular and executive hostels. So,
every student, whether rich or poor, buys the water he or she
drinks.”

Despite these extortions and excesses, the students are hardly
allowed to enjoy uninterrupted accommodation in the hostels for the
full period they are in the School.

According to him, “I was surprised that the during the Xmas
period, the authorities shut the hostel, refusing to allow even
students who reside in far places in the country like Zamfara from
staying in the hostel, despite knowing that the cost of
transportation during the Yuletide is prohibitive, and also knowing
it was more economical for the students to stay put.

“This is because, even if they travel, their parents might not
be able to afford giving them more than N20, 000, which will even
be consumed by transport back to school.

“So many students who were living in faraway parts of the
country had insisted on staying in the hostel during the Xmas
season.

“But bluntly, the authorities declined their request, saying
everybody should go home for the Christmas.

“Even those who paid N1million for the hostel were also chased
out.

“Now, in the next two months we will be going for our extenship,
which will last for three months: one and half month each for court
attachment and chamber attachment.

“Some students want to do their extenship in Lagos, so they
could leave their hostel rooms in the morning to the courts or the
chambers they will be attached to and return later in the day.

“But the Director here is putting his foot down, saying ‘no,’
that everybody must vacate the hostel during the three month period
of attachment.

“Before our set, the School had allowed the students to stay in
the hostel during the attachment period.

They were however made to pay extra N50, 000 for them to be able
to stay, notwithstanding the fact that they’d paid school fees that
included accommodation fee.

“Today however, they’re telling us that we might not be obliged
even payment of the said N50, 000 unlike in the past.

“They say we are licensees and not tenants; and so we do not
have an option in the matter – that a licensee does not enjoy
exclusive possession.

“The sad part of it all is that this is peculiar to the Lagos
campus of the NLS. In Abuja, as we were told, the Director there
even made sure that cows were slaughtered and used to prepare food
for the students you decided to stay over and spend the Xmas in the
School.

“But here we were ordered to leave!”

If the foregoing is anything to go by, then the questions must
be asked: Why are students of the Lagos campus of the NLS subjected
to these most superfluous and unconscionable restrictions and
extortions?

Is there a deliberate policy in place, which is furtively
promoting such discriminatory conditions of study and living
between the various campuses of the Law School?

The Body of Benchers, Senior Advocates, judges, lawyers
generally, and concerned Nigerians must intervene to stop the
shenanigans taking place at the Lagos campus of the Nigerian Law
School.