Maiduguri Law School Campus: Shettima’s ‘Obsession’ with Education
By Lawan Bukar Maigana
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”
– Malcolm X
Senator Kashim Shettima is ‘addicted’ to education and what it does to elevate minds and move the society forward.
His love for education is sacrosanct but it grows in hundred folds at every given opportunity. He strongly believes education is the most effective solution that can be used to end terrorism, religious extremism and various social vices. His passion for education is immeasurable and cannot be overemphasized.
Due to his incredible passion for education, Shettima was the driving force behind the success of the bill for the establishment of six new campuses of the Nigerian Law School across the six geopolitical zones in the federation, which was sponsored by the Senator representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, Smart Adeyemi.
Senator Adeyemi knows Shettima gets excited and jumps from his chair anytime he is approached by a bill or proposal that will advance or deepen education anywhere in the country.
He knew Shettima would support his bill for the establishment of more law school campuses in the country and he must have approached him to lobby and ask for his input. And as a first-rate intellectual, Shettima’s contribution to the literature submitted before the Senate would have been so deep and too robust to say no to. Though there were initial hiccups with some persons querying the need to establish more campuses when the existing ones can be expanded, reason later prevailed and the all-important bill scaled through.
Interestingly , Maiduguri, Borno State capital, where the Lawmaker represents at the National Assembly, was among the beneficiaries of newly approved new campuses.
Read Also:
While expressing his ardent support for the success of the bill during plenary, Kashim said: “My constituency is the larger public and I am standing here to speak for the people of this country. One person that I hold in the highest esteem is Senator Ike Ekweremadu. He is a complete gentleman, a man of honour and integrity but this time around I beg to differ with him.
“You know, I am not a lawyer. I am an agricultural economist by training. A banker by profession and a politician by calling. But lawyers with your black suits, you know that you have a sense of exaggerated self-importance. So, I differ from you. You are learned. We are laymen.
“But coming to the issue, on a more serious note, and with no intent to play to the gallery, Governor Nyesom Wike, as controversial as he is, is undoubtedly one of the gadflies of Nigerian politics today. But we have to give it to him because he believes in the Nigerian project and has invested heavily more than anyone in the legal profession in this country. He single-handedly built a law school campus.”
Shettima said that his investigation revealed that Nigeria has approximately 200, 000 lawyers for a population of 250 million people and the country has only 70 thousand law students across the federation which is worrisome considering the population of the country and the spate of uncountable criminal cases recorded every day across the country.
He said Brazil has the same population as Nigeria but it has 800,000 lawyers and has more lawyers per capita than the USA which has one million and three hundred thousand lawyers.
Because of his passion for education, First Lady, Aisha Buhari, also recently appointed him as the grand chairman of the Future Assured School, another testimony to Shettima’s reputation for education and selfless service.
As governor of Borno state in 2018, Shettima built 37 mega schools in Maiduguri alone and gave free uniforms and breakfast to the pupils that were enrolled in them.
Congratulations to the good people of Maiduguri and others who are the beneficiaries of the newly approved law school campuses. Borno has everything it takes to have a law school campus, being the political, economic, and educational center of the North-East where the first institution of learning was established.
