It is no longer a news that the Senate has passed a bill creating 6 additional campuses of the Nigerian Law School. The bill has generated mixed reactions across the country with some lawyers questioning the power of the National Assembly to pass the said bill.
POWER OF NASS TO ESTABLISH ADDITIONAL CAMPUSES
It has been argued somewhere that by the provisions of the Council of Legal Education Act, only the Council of Legal Education can establish additional campuses, not the National Assembly.
The question now is: can an Act of the National Assembly (Council of Legal Education Act) take away a power donated to the National Assembly by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended)?
Section 4 of the constitution empowers the National Assembly to make laws. Section 18 of the same constitution empowers NASS to ensure "that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels."
Furthermore, Paragraph 27 and 28 of part II second schedule to the constitution provides thus:
"The National Assembly shall have power to make laws for the Federation or any part thereof with respect to....such professional education as may from time to time be designated by the National Assembly." and "to establish an institution for the purposes of...professional education."
To me, by sections 1(1)&(3), 4(1)&(2), and 18(1) of the constitution reading together with items 27 and 28 of part II, second schedule to the 1999 Constitution, the establishment of the Nigerian Law School campuses is intra vires (within the power of) NASS.
DESIRABILITY OF CREATING ADDITIONAL CAMPUSES
To me, creating additional campuses is not desirable at all. The government should properly maintain the additional campuses first. I don't want to say more on this.