Nigerians have taken to social media to blame the Minister of Education, Mamman Tahir, a former Vice Chancellor of the Baze University, Abuja, for alleged roles played in the university\u2019s flagrant violation of its admission quota for its law faculty.<\/p>\n
The Council of Legal Education (CLE), the regulatory body for law education in Nigeria, recently imposed a five-year ban on admission of students into the law faculty<\/a> of the institution, citing a breach of strict admission rules.<\/p>\n The council accused the university of violating its approved admission quota of 50 students per session.<\/p>\n The temporary ban followed the review of the accreditation panel to the university and was contained in a statement signed by the CLE\u2019s acting Secretary and Director of Administration, Aderonke Osho.<\/p>\n But Nigerians on social media are knocking Mr Mamman, accusing him of complicity and overseeing the university\u2019s violation of the admission quota while serving as the institution vice-chancellor.<\/p>\n Until his appointment in August as the education minister by President Bola Tinubu, Mr Mamman was the vice-chancellor of the Abuja-based private university which is reportedly owned by the vice-presidential candidate of the opposition Labour Party in the February 2023 general elections, Datti Baba-Ahmed.<\/p>\n Mr Mamman also served as the Director General of the Nigerian Law School (NLS) from 2005 to 2013.<\/p>\n Accreditation panel findings<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking for the CLE, Ms Osho said the decision to temporarily ban admission of law students at the Baze university was taken at the council\u2019s quarterly meeting held on 23 November after considering the report of the accreditation panel to the university\u2019s faculty of law.<\/p>\n She said the panel, led by the Director-General, Nigerian Law School (NLS), Isa Chiroma, a professor, noted that the university had consistently contravened its admission quota, with the faculty now having a backlog of over 347 students waiting to be admitted into the Nigerian Law School.<\/p>\n \u201cSince 2017 the Council of Legal Education has grappled with the excesses of Baze University by admitting over 750 law students which ordinarily would have taken about 15 years of admission based on the quota allotted to the university,\u201d a part of the statement read.<\/p>\n The statement added that the Baze University illegally runs a three-year Bachelors of Law (LL.B) programme for some UTME candidates without the approval of the National Universities Commission (NUC), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB and the Council of Legal Education.<\/p>\n Under the NUC Minimum Benchmark Academic Standard (BMAS) for Nigerian universities, Law is a five-year programme for UTME candidates, and four years for Direct Entry students, the statement added.<\/p>\n Council\u2019s decision<\/strong><\/p>\n After reviewing these findings, Ms Osho said, the council resolved to impose the temporary ban on admission of law students in the university with immediate effect.<\/p>\n She noted that the moratorium would last for a period of five years in the first instance, and \u201cmay be renewed if no satisfactory action is taken to remedy the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThe Council in the interest of the innocent students, parents and guardians will use the five-year period to find ways to deal with the backlog of law students admitted by Baze University in excess of its admission quota.<\/p>\n \u201cThe\u00a0National Universities Commission\u00a0(NUC), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), parents, guardians, prospective applicants and members of the public are hereby put on notice on the status of Baze University Abuja and its Faculty of Law\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2018Not disciplined,\u2019 Nigerians knock minister<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Nigerians on social media are questioning the minister\u2019s discipline as an administrator, maintaining that the violations of the CLE\u2019s admission quota were done under his watch.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current minister of education was their (Baze University) vice-chancellor during these years. This means the man is not a disciplined and good administrator,\u201d Abiola Olumu,\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0on X in what is representative of a widespread opinion expressed on the microblogging site.<\/p>\n Another X user, Tunde Abiodun, @TundeAbiodun12\u00a0posted<\/a>: \u201cBaze University issues: It is an indictment on the current Minister for Education,Prof.Tahir Mamman that under his watch as the former vice chancellor of the school such degree of irregularities occured in d law faculty of d school(admission quota & duration of course). What a shame!\u201d<\/p>\n Another X user with the username @Oserume1,\u00a0posted<\/a>: \u201cTo understand how funny this is, Tahir Mamman, Tinubu\u2019s Minister of Education was VC of Baze University when this \u201calleged\u201d infraction was happening. It is funnier Tahir Mamman is a Senior Advocate and a former DG of Nigerian Law school. So, ordinarily Tahir Mamman should know the consequences of such infractions, but let\u2019s watch and see how this movie plays out\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n