Boko Haram Scare: Law School DG Insensitive, Says NBA Chairman

Eromosele Abiodun and Nume Ekeghe

The Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch, Mr. Bath Aguegbodo, has accused the Director-General of the Nigerian Law School, Professor Isa Ciroma (SAN), of being insensitive to the danger students billed to write their examination next week at the Bwari campus of the school would be exposed to due to the scare of bandits’ attacks.

He said the students should be allowed to write the examinations scheduled to start from Monday at other campuses due to the reported security scare in the Bwari area.
Aguegbodo stated this yesterday when he appeared on ‘The Morning Show,’ a breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers.

He said: “I think it would be out of insensitivity on the part of the director-general to continue to insist that the exams would be taken. If you look at the Chibok issue, there was intelligence information to both the security agencies and the management of the school that they were open to attack and they ignored it. I think it is important for everybody to apply pressure on the DG to see reasons.”

The examination, he stated, must not take place in the Bwari, adding that there are other campuses where security concerns are not as serious as they are in Bwari.

“It is a bit sad looking at things the way it is panning out; the security of students writing exams in Bwari should be paramount. I have listened to comments credited to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, and the guarantees are given that security will be provided for students who will write the exams in Bwari.

“But the question on my mind in the issue is security from where? Just last week, we heard there were attempts in the Villa. The Niger State governor had also said on two occasions that there were some communities in Niger State, which is less than two hours from where the law school is located, that has been taken over by the Boko Haram people,” he said.

Aguegbodo added that the argument that JAMB is located at Bwari and some other universities that are located there have not shut down does not hold water.

According to him, the psychological state of the students writing the exams must be considered.
He said: “What would be the mind of students writing exams when they have fears that they may be kidnapped?
“The essence of the exams is to assess students as to their preparedness on what they have been taught. I do not see how a fair assessment would be done when a student is writing exams knowing fully well that the bandits are just about two hours away from them.

“The unsettled mind would definitely reflect in the final result, which would not bring a fair assessment of what the exams are meant to achieve at the end of the day. If they could take their lecture in their various campuses, it would be the necessary thing for the government to look at it, that it is the safety of citizens first before the exams.

“My advice to Council of Legal Education, attorney-general and the director-general of Nigerian Law school is that the safety of the students must be put into place if the examination is to be a fair assessment of what they have learned.“

He also canvassed the postponement of the examination by one or two weeks.
Speaking on who should bear the cost, if the students were to be relocated to other campuses, he said it was the duty of the government to provide a conducive environment for the examinations to hold, adding that if the environment is not conducive, the government would have to bear the cost.

Parents of students at the Bwari campus had called on the management of the school to relocate the students to its other campuses owing to reported security scare in the area.

The worried parents, who insisted that the safety of their wards should be the priority, stated that they did not want to go through the same harrowing experience of parents of the Greenfield University students abducted by bandits in Kaduna recently.

Boko Haram scare has created panic among the residents of the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in recent weeks.
Bwari town, an outskirt of Abuja shares a boundary with Tafa Local Government Area of Niger State.