The House of Representatives has stepped into the long-running controversy over the exclusion of more than 5,000 law graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) from admission into the Nigerian Law School.
The affected graduates, under the aegis of the Backlog of Law Graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria, are asking the National Assembly to intervene in a dispute that has left them stranded after completing their LLB programmes and unable to proceed to Bar training and examinations.
The House Committee on Public Petitions took up the matter on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, summoning NOUN and the Nigerian Law School, under the Council of Legal Education (CLE), to explain why the graduates have remained shut out of professional legal training.
But the much-anticipated hearing ended without either institution appearing before the committee.
NOUN wrote to explain the absence of its Vice-Chancellor, while the Nigerian Law School, in a separate letter, cited official engagements and requested another date to appear.
The petitioners, represented by officials of their association, told the committee that they had fulfilled their academic requirements and should not be punished for disagreements between government institutions.
Speaking to journalists after the hearing, the association’s Public Relations Officer, Chibueze Obochi, said the graduates had exhausted other avenues before turning to the National Assembly.
He argued that the affected graduates were innocent parties caught in a regulatory dispute between NOUN and the legal education authorities.
“We should not be made victims of inter-agency rivalries,” Obochi said, insisting that the graduates were not involved in whatever disagreements had occurred between NOUN, the CLE and the Nigerian Law School.
Obochi also invoked Section 18(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which provides for equal educational opportunities, arguing that the graduates should not bear the consequences of institutional disagreements.
At the centre of the dispute is a list of 1,883 NOUN law graduates submitted to the authorities in 2019.
Obochi challenged the interpretation of the figure, pointing to the wording that described them as graduates produced “so far.”
According to him, the phrase could not reasonably be interpreted to mean that the 1,883 graduates represented every law student who would eventually complete the programme.
The association also disputes any suggestion that students admitted before the suspension of NOUN’s LLB programme in 2015 lost their pathway to professional legal training simply because they completed their degrees later.
“When you stop admission, it does not mean that you have chased away those who are already studying,” Obochi said.
He maintained that the affected graduates possess matriculation numbers and other records establishing when they were admitted into NOUN.
The graduates are therefore asking that students who began the programme before the 2015 suspension be treated in the same manner as earlier batches who were allowed to progress.
NOUN: We Stopped Admission in 2015
In its submission to the House committee, NOUN welcomed the intervention and expressed support for efforts to find what it described as an equitable and lasting solution.
The university traced the dispute to 2015, when an accreditation team from the National Universities Commission (NUC), led by Prof. Nsongurua Udombana, visited the institution as part of the accreditation process for its LLB programme.
NOUN said that while it awaited the outcome of the exercise, the Council of Legal Education announced its position rejecting admission of NOUN law graduates into the Nigerian Law School.
The university subsequently suspended further admission into the LLB programme in 2015, saying it had not admitted any new students into the programme since then.
According to NOUN, the suspension was intended to prevent the number of affected students from growing while efforts continued to resolve the regulatory issues.
Between 2015 and 2019, the university said it engaged the CLE and other stakeholders in an attempt to resolve the eligibility question.
In 2019, NOUN formally appealed to the CLE to admit its law graduates and submitted a list containing 1,883 names.
The university later discovered that 90 graduates had inadvertently been omitted, bringing the actual number at the time to 1,973.
The Body of Benchers subsequently considered the matter in 2020 and approved a Special Remedial Programme for NOUN law graduates rather than direct admission into Bar Part II, which is the route applicable to graduates of other Nigerian universities.
But the dispute did not end there.
NOUN later submitted another batch of 2,226 graduates, covering students who completed their studies between 2019 and May 2022.
The CLE rejected that subsequent submission.
According to NOUN's account of the CLE's position, one of the issues was an understanding that the 2019 list represented the total number of NOUN law graduates. Another was an allegation that NOUN had continued admitting students into the LLB programme after 2015.
NOUN strongly rejected that allegation.
The university maintained that it stopped admitting students in 2015 and never resumed admissions. The graduates in the later submission, it said, were students who had already been admitted before the suspension but completed their programmes at different times.
Law School Also Absent
The Nigerian Law School was also missing from Wednesday's hearing.
In a letter signed by its Director-General, Dr. Olugbemisola Odusote, the institution acknowledged the committee's invitation but said it could not attend because relevant officials were required for an official assignment.
The Law School expressed regret over its absence and requested that another hearing date be communicated.
It also assured the committee that it remained willing to cooperate with the investigation and appear at a rescheduled hearing.
House Promises Action
The petition was formally laid before the House on July 21, 2026, by the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Publicity, Hon. Akin Rotimi.
Rotimi has pledged support for efforts to resolve the grievances of the affected graduates.
He stressed the need for a fair and lasting resolution, particularly for graduates who have completed their academic programmes but remain uncertain about their eligibility for professional legal training.
For the thousands caught in the dispute, the central question is now before the National Assembly: can graduates admitted into NOUN's LLB programme before the 2015 suspension be denied a pathway to the Nigerian Law School because of a regulatory disagreement between institutions?
With both NOUN and the Nigerian Law School expected to return before the House committee, the next hearing could prove crucial in determining the fate of the affected graduates and the future handling of NOUN's law graduates.
House Probes Exclusion of 5,000 NOUN Law Graduates From Nigerian Law School
