Abuja — I want to appeal for space in your well read paper to reply to an opinion written by one Kola Ibrahim from Education Rights Campaign (ERC), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, entitled Nigerian Law School and high fees, which appeared in the Nigerian Tribune of Monday, 29th September, 2008; page 14, Leadership newspaper, Thursday, October 2, 2008; page 42, Sunday Independent, October 5, 2008; page B11, et al, Daily Trust, National Mirror and many other papers with variations of titles, but the same content and wordings.

Kola Ibrahim, the writer, might be an educationist and of the Education Rights Campaign as he so said and attributed to himself, he could have compassion for those who were unable to have mobilised the N200,000 fees or he could have been right in his view considering other factors, but his criticisms are undue, unfair and skewed and much more of sponsored than an opinion or concern for those who wanted to make their B.L. at the Nigerian Law School.

This is not the first time that the writer has been shooting his arrows aimlessly without good reason and meant only to stain someone. Sometime last year around the same period, the same author circulated such write-ups in many national papers complaining and grumbling with that same mindset of pulling down some persons undeservingly. He wrote that he was decrying the adjustment in school fees, but who does not know now that to meet skyrocketed cost of books, instructional materials and facilities and literature is a Herculean task?

You cannot compare law and history. You cannot pair and par a professional field, professional course and any other disciplines. In our demand for excellence, in our quest for distinct professionalism and being able to be productive and proficient, we must learn to meet the demands of modern education that is competitive.

In a situation whereby our Nigerian university graduates are unable to express themselves fluently and eloquently, there must be the need to remedy the inadequacy. And that includes law graduates from our various universities who have to recover and go beyond this point at the Nigerian Law School, Bwari. Some persons have always thought that since the movement of Nigerian Law School from Lagos to Bwari, Abuja and headquarters and the headship, the Director-General changed hands from the consistent regular Southerner to Northerner, some have tried to find faults with the set-up and changes.

No education is less expensive. I don't want to keep repeating this cliché that if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. We must realise that the cost of education must continue to be on the higher side in whichever field and whatever profession, talk more of law that needs articulate, meticulous and practical individuals that must have access to good information. What is the cost of good personal computers in the first place? Two hundred thousand naira only is not enough to buy a new Dell computer, a laptop, talk more of a desk top, which the Nigerian Law School has under Dr Tahir Mamman since his appointment as the Director-General two years ago. Information technology is expensive, talk more of other paraphernalia that the students have in the law school like the library that is up to date, moot court, environment that is conducive for learning, security, accommodation and other necessary infrastructures. We should remember that these are applicable in other campuses in Enugu, Lagos, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Yola, Kano and Abuja, the headquarters.

Education is dynamic, changing, restructuring and transforming with time. We cannot ignore this dynamism in totality and the attendant costs, its rising cost, complications and implications from whatever angle. Do we have to call to the bar half-learned, half-educated, half-polished and half-tutored lawyers that are ready and quick to load injustice on us, compromise positions and upturn justice on its head because they are ignorant of relevant books, unable to tame chapters, sections, subsections and articles and clauses 'a' 'b' 'c'?

The Nigerian Law School is on the right course. Let me make it clear that the increment in the enrolment of fees of the Nigerian Law School is not one man's decision, neither is it the school management's alone, but a board decision with consent of the Council for Legal Education. It must be borne in mind that the cost of education generally must continue to rise. The cost of literature and electronic facilities will increase too. I was thinking Kola Ibrahim would have called upon the Federal Government to increase the subvention and funding of the Nigerian Law School. If I am not mistaken, as at December last year 2007, the monthly allocation to the Nigerian Law School was N120 million. After salaries, utility charges and other deductions for compulsory measures of water, light, security, nothing is left. Imagine subsidising five campuses and more hostels and lecture halls in various campuses.

Our debates and arguments should be based on logic and not sentiments. It amounts to treachery and treasonable felony for Kola Ibrahim to incite and to have ended his skewed view like this and I quote: "It is sad that the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has not deemed it fit to resist this policy while other student organisations, especially the various law students societies' and NANS have maintained studied silence. Gone are the days when Nigerian students teamed up with workers and professional organisations like NLC and NBA to defend common interests. Progressive Nigerian students must rise to this historic challenge." He should be arrested for incitements not only against the management of the Nigerian Law School, but also the Federal Government of Nigeria.

To have also said that it is 'criminal' for the Law School management to commercialise what should be for public good is to the say the least crude. The usage of the word 'criminal' is barbaric for a 'learned' man like Ibrahim. Has he ever taken a visit to some private universities to know how much is paid per term for BSc Political Science in a term or session? BSc Political Science, single honours in a normal private university, not a post-university institution like the Nigerian Law School where the nitty-gritty of professionalism is learnt is not one institution that we play politics with.

Some persons only believe that they are the most qualified for certain positions all the time. For the first time in the history of the Nigerian Law School, they have produced a good leader of this institution, but others with narrow and contaminated thinking keep on bashing and misrepresenting, misinterpreting and turning tribalism into commercialisation and other unheard of issues. We should stop it. Law is not like marketing as a discipline or profession. We must rise above pettiness if we desire purposeful development in earnest and wholeheartedly steer away from syndicated write-ups.