That fateful Tuesday, the new intakes of the Law School on Victoria Island, Lagos had resumed for lectures at 9 am as it was customary.Dressed in white tops over black, they all hoped for a great day.
Before settling down for the day’s lecture, each of the 1,400 students queued up at five points to use the thumb-printing machines. That is the school’s idea of signing in for class everyday. Students are expected to do same to sign out of class everyday after lectures.
This done, the day’s lecture started as Dr. Suleiman took the podium and taught Civil Law. The school runs a lecture per day schedule, which should terminate by 2pm.
Suddenly, at about 1 pm, there was a stir from one end of the hall. Students raised the alarm that another female student had fainted out of suffocation.
That was the second time in two weeks in November that female law school students had fainted in the hall while receiving lectures.
After our correspondent’s visit, a source within the school said that four other students had fainted consecutively and were rushed out of the lecture hall to get medical attention. One lady reportedly fainted on Thursday of the same week; two young men on Friday and another lady on Monday.
In each case, lecture was halted temporarily to resuscitate the students and rush them to the nearest hospital.
The fainting students were taken away in severe condition to the nearest hospital in a privately-owned vehicle. The school bus was said to lack fuel to serve the purpose when it mattered most.
Also, the school clinic could not manage the situation as it could barely boast of pain relieving medicines. Some students who gathered in clusters spoke about an earlier case of a lady, who had menstrual pain but could not get a pain relieving medicine from the clinic.
Seeing the conditions under which the incident occurred, some were heard saying, “We just resumed lectures in November and two students have fainted while in class. How many of us will be rushed to the hospital before the end of session?”
The latter incident was witnessed by our correspondent who was in the lecture hall having disguised as one of the students.
Since students have no identity cards, it was easy to get into the campus and mingle with them without anyone suspecting foul play.
Granted that the gates were manned by some corporate security guards, the Law School appeared not to live with the reality of the current security demands in the country.
Saturday PUNCH undertook the adventure to experience the plight of the students having been earlier alerted to the deplorable state of the lecture theatre, halls of residence, water, electricity, toilets among other failing facilities in the prestigious post-graduate training institution.
No doubt, the story of deprivation in the nation’s law school aptly paints the condition that the average Nigerian undergoes everyday.
But the question on the lips of many is, “Why pay so much for no comfort at all? Why so much denial of rights in an institution which should raise people to fight for the rights of others?”
Our correspondent learnt that each of the students in the law school paid N295,000 as school fees for a session. The breakdown of the amount should pay for tuition, accommodation and medicare among others.
With a current student population of 5,500 across the six campuses in Nigeria and each paying N295,000, the Nigerian Law School must have raked in over N1.6bn from the intakes.
This is apart from the fees for application forms for the incoming students which was also reviewed upward from N15,000 to N20,000.
Inside the law school lecture hallJust one day in the lecture hall showed the level of urgency for action in the premier law school campus. Nothing outside may suggest this as many of the walls were recently painted to mark the 50th anniversary of the institution.
For about nine hours everyday, the poor-ventilated, stadium-styled lecture hall plays host to 1,400 students. That is the number of the 2013/2014 intakes, who resumed lectures in November this year.
The school management reportedly has penchant for admitting more students than the hall was originally designed to take.
Currently, about 100 students sit on white plastic chairs in addition to the immovable chairs and tables meant for use in the hall.
At the back side of the hall, towards the main entrances, there were students who used their laps as tables when taking lecture notes.
There are over 10 tired air conditioners in the hall but the students lamented that they never felt the cooling effect because scarcely would there be electricity supply to power them.
Usually, all the main doors of the hall and the iron-bar-fitted windows remain perpetually open. Still this is inadequate, especially because of the population of students.
Since the events of students fainting, it had become common sight to see scores of students taking a walk out of the hall to get some fresh air once it got really hot in the afternoon. When they do this, they miss part of the lectures because the lecturer won’t take a break because of them.
The effect of the overcrowding and poor ventilation speaks volumes because of the stench and carbondioxide that ooze out of the hall due to over-worked sweat glands.
Once the day’s lecture was over, fatigue, boredom and saturation were usually written all over the students, who still had to patiently endure another one and half hours to sign out for the day by a second thumb printing exercise.
The school expects students will to be called to the bar to fulfil a 75 per cent minimum class attendance, among other requirements.
Students said that everything about the hall appears to work against good learning conditions as it is so badly lit. This makes it difficult for the students to see their books clearly in class.
Thinking that our correspondent was one of his new class mates, Edem (not real name) complained bitterly about the situation in the school. The class is so large that even the students hardly spot a new face.
He said, “They teach us well but the conditions under which we learn is very poor. My head is empty for now. Imagine having been in class for about seven hours. We got here before eight to thumb print, started lecture at 9 am, took a 30minutes break at 12.30, stopped lecture at 2.30 pm and queue for another one and half hours to thumb print again. We leave this hall around 4pm everyday.
“I have noticed that I get so spent after class that it is very difficult for me to study when I get to the hostel. I just want to go and have a shower if possible and sleep.”
Students living in an uncompleted hostelOur corespondent found that about 50 per cent of the population of students leave the lecture hall without a lodge to retire into. Right in the metropolitan city of Lagos, law school students live in an abandoned uncompleted hostel because they could not afford an extra cost to rent an apartment outside the campus. It was learnt that the uncompleted building was intended to serve as the third hostel facility01 for students but it had reportedly been under construction since 1984. This leaves the Lagos campus with two massive four storey buildings despite its growing population size. Although lecturers and the deputy director general do not live on campus, students say they are aware of this development.
For others who could afford to stay off campus, the journey back home starts after lectures and of course, they are faced with the traffic situation on the island.
Contrary to this scenario, in the headquarters campus in Abuja, lecturers, other employees and students live on campus.
While at least five students occupy a small room in the Lagos campus, one room is allocated to two students in Abuja.
In the Lagos campus currently, 10 students occupying two rooms share one toilet and bathroom. It was observed that the toilets and bathrooms equally called for urgent change.
The reverse is the case in Abuja campus, which sits on three hectares and provides recreation facilities for students’ relaxation.
In spite of this accommodation crisis, our correspondent saw a state-of-the-art office complex which construction is near completion in the heart of the campus. The building is said to belong to the Lagos branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, were likely to be old students of the law school.
After lecture, students discussed the accommodation issue. Esay (not real names), innocently expressed her plight to our correspondent.
She said she had wished to be posted to the Lagos campus for a change having schooled in the North. She, however, expressed disappointment in what she saw when she got there.
She said, “You know people have said a lot about Lagos Law School campus, but they only talk about the prestige of it being the premier campus, the high rate of passes compared to others and so on. If I had the faintest idea that things were this way, I would have opted for a change. I am so baffled that after all the troubles I went through in a public university, I can’t even spot the difference. It still feels like an undergraduate setting and to think that I will be in this condition till October 2014 is scary.”
Water crisis
A typical day for these students actually begins with scrambling for water to have a shower before going to the class. The school has no tap water, so students usually have to go and fetch water from the reservoirs situated to the right-hand side of the halls of residence. The ladies in particular, said they have not been finding this easy, especially those whose rooms are located upstairs.
Magi, a female student said, “Although the school authorities refused to make public the breakdown of the money we paid when resuming, we know that provision for basic amenities like this make it up. That money is not small. My parents went through a lot of hardship to gather that amount but they don’t even have the faintest idea what I have been going through here. This is cheating, yet they expect us to boldly defend other people’s rights when ours are being trampled on with impunity.
“It’s the same problem that we encounter daily with electricity. Usually, there’s no power supply and the school will only put on the generator for three hours in the evening after which we are left to manage for ourselves. We are expected to study volumes but everything is against good training here.”
A culture of silence and intimidationFor most students, the reality of these needs does not do as much harm as the fact that they are forbidden to talk about them.
The consequence is failure to graduate. Threats of risk to graduation are a daily menu, thus reducing the lawyers, who should be vibrant, to tamed pets.
Although some of them had muted the idea of forming a forum to officially approach the school management to lodge complaints on their plight, the question among them is, “Who will take the first step?”
Our correspondent found out that among the rules is that any student who embarks on any form of protest should consider himself “not fit and proper” to be called to the bar.
This has resulted in some lecturers habitually keeping students in the class till 3pm and beyond.
Another student said, “Can you imagine a lecturer in class seizing 15 mobile telephone sets belonging to law school students and saying that they may not get them back? Some of us only have to tolerate the abuses because we have been made to believe that it is a privilege to be a lawyer. It shouldn’t be. That could do harm to the psyche of some students.
“We then become victims of the same things we are supposed to have people conquer. I think it should change. There is a particular lecturer who often tells us that a fight against one lecturer is a fight against all. He tells us to quietly undergo our programmes and graduate or else we could be frustrated.”
When our correspondent sought the comment of the school management on the issue of students fainting and living in uncompleted hostels, the Deputy Director-General, NLS, Lagos Campus, Toun Adebiyi, told our correspondent to investigate whatever report she had heard and report it.
Adebiyi: Yes, that students are fainting in the lecture hall and that some are living in uncompleted hostels? Do you know why they are fainting or who is fainting? What do you want me to say about it? You mean you just saw a tweet and you are calling me to find out what i have to say? Can’t you do investigative journalism?
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