At UNN Alumni Abuja gathering, Senior Advocate recounts his 1983–1989 journey from Political Science student to law graduate, student leader and, ultimately, one of Nigeria’s foremost legal voices

ABUJA — Four decades after he first walked through the gates of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr. Monday Ubani, SAN, returned to the memories of the young man he once was, and to the institution he says did far more than award him a degree.

It shaped him.

It challenged him.

It gave him friendships, exposed him to ideas, tested his leadership abilities and ultimately helped lay the intellectual foundation for the lawyer, public affairs commentator and Senior Advocate he would later become.

Speaking on Saturday, September 5, 2026, at a gathering of the University of Nigeria Nsukka Alumni Association, Abuja Chapter, Ubani delivered a deeply personal and intellectually charged reminiscence, “The University That Made Me: Reminiscences of My Sojourn at the University of Nigeria, 1983–1989.”

What followed was more than an alumni speech.

It was a journey through memory, education, leadership, friendship, Nigeria’s national aspirations and the enduring responsibility of those who have passed through the nation’s institutions of higher learning.

“There are places we visit, places we live in, and places that live in us.”

With those words, Ubani opened the door to a story that began in Nsukka in 1983 and continued at the Enugu Campus until 1989.

For him, the University of Nigeria was never simply a place where he studied.

It became part of his intellectual DNA.

THE YOUNG MAN WHO ARRIVED IN NSUKKA

In 1983, Ubani arrived at the Nsukka Campus as a young Political Science student.

He was ambitious, curious and eager to understand the society around him.

But the university, he recalled, offered him something far greater than the academic qualifications he initially sought.

It taught him how to think.

Political Science opened his eyes to the architecture of power, government, institutions, ideology and the complicated relationship between those who govern and those who are governed.

The questions raised in the classroom gradually became questions about life itself.

Why do some societies succeed while others collapse?

Why do institutions fail?

What makes government legitimate?

Why do some countries develop while others remain trapped in poverty and instability?

Looking back today, Ubani said he now understands that those seemingly academic questions were preparing him for a professional and public life in which questions of law, governance, justice and accountability would become central.

He recalled the philosophical lesson associated with Socrates:

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

For the young Ubani, university was becoming an examination not only of knowledge, but of society, leadership and the human condition.

WHEN UNIVERSITY MEANT MORE THAN A CERTIFICATE

The University of Nigeria of the 1980s, Ubani recalled, was an institution where intellectual engagement was not optional.

Students debated.

They argued.

They disagreed.

They challenged one another.

Politics, ideology, football, lecturers and the future of Nigeria all became subjects of passionate discussion.

But beneath the arguments was something more profound—a shared belief that knowledge mattered.

The university, he said, created an environment where young people were encouraged to believe that ideas could change society.

His two years at Nsukka therefore became what he described as “years of intellectual awakening.”

It was an education that could not be measured entirely by examinations or captured on a transcript.

FROM POLITICAL SCIENCE TO LAW: THE TURNING POINT

Then came 1985.

Ubani moved from Nsukka to the Enugu Campus, where he commenced the study of Law.

With the benefit of hindsight, he now sees that transition as one of the most significant intellectual developments of his life.

Political Science taught him to understand power. Law taught him how power ought to be restrained.

Political Science introduced him to government and institutions.

Law introduced him to rights, duties, justice and accountability.

And while Political Science asked, “Who governs?”, Law posed the more difficult question:

“By what authority do you govern, and within what limits?”

That distinction would become significant in the life of a man who would eventually build a career around law, public affairs and questions of justice.

At Enugu, he encountered the demanding discipline of legal education.

Words mattered.

Definitions mattered.

Evidence mattered.

Logic mattered.

Precedent mattered.

And, above all, he learned that apparently simple questions could carry profound consequences.

Those lessons, he acknowledged, would remain with him throughout his professional career.

 

“UBANI CJ”: THE STUDENT LEADER

But the Enugu Campus was not simply a place of lectures and legal textbooks.

It was also where Ubani’s leadership instincts came to the fore.

During his first year, he entered the House of Representatives as a representative of a defined constituency.

His involvement in student governance later culminated in his emergence as Chief Judge of the University in 1988.

The title followed him long after graduation.

Some of his classmates, he revealed, still call him “Ubani CJ” to this day.

The experience gave him an early taste of representation, leadership, institutional responsibility and the demands of serving a constituency lessons that would resonate throughout his later public and professional life.

THE PART THEY DON’T TEACH IN THE CLASSROOM

For Ubani, however, the true university experience existed beyond lecture halls and examination rooms.

It was found in hostels.

In friendships.

In long walks.

In shared meals.

In borrowed books.

In the struggle to survive when money was scarce.

In waiting anxiously for examination results.

And, occasionally, in matters of the heart.

With characteristic humour, Ubani recalled that he could not definitively say whether he fell in love with women during his university years.

Then came his lawyer’s defence:

“I have a right to remain silent, as anything said can be used as evidence against me!”

The laughter that such a remark inevitably provoked also captured something important about his reminiscence: the university was a place of seriousness, but it was also a place where young people lived, laughed, struggled and grew together.

Students from different backgrounds and with different personalities were forced to learn how to coexist.

That, Ubani suggested, was itself an education.

The university was a laboratory of life.

A GENERATION THAT BELIEVED IN NIGERIA

Perhaps the most profound part of Ubani’s reflection was his assessment of the Nigeria his generation dreamed of building.

They believed education could transform the country.

They believed the educated class had a responsibility to society.

They believed Nigeria could become a great nation.

Their optimism, he admitted, may sometimes have been youthful and naïve.

But it was genuine.

The university therefore prepared them for more than employment.

It prepared them for nation-building.

From that generation emerged academics, doctors, engineers, lawyers, entrepreneurs, politicians and professionals across different sectors.

But irrespective of profession, Ubani said, one principle remained:

Education carries an obligation beyond the individual.

FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE COURTROOM

Today, the young student who entered Nsukka in 1983 is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

He has participated in public affairs, constitutional debates, professional organisations and national conversations on issues affecting the country’s development.

Yet, when he traces the journey backward, he sees Nsukka and Enugu as critical points on the map.

The young Political Science student could not have known what lay ahead.

The young law student could not have imagined the courtroom battles, professional responsibilities and public engagements that would eventually become part of his life.

But that, Ubani said, is the mystery and power of education.

“Education does not tell you exactly where you are going. It equips you for destinations you cannot yet see.”

THE UNIVERSITY HAS CHANGED. HAS EDUCATION?

Ubani acknowledged that the University of Nigeria has changed dramatically since his student years.

Nigeria has changed.

The world has changed.

Technology has transformed education.

Today’s students can access information almost instantaneously, something that would have seemed extraordinary to students of the 1980s.

But Ubani warned that access to information should not be confused with wisdom.

A computer can provide information.

A search engine can produce answers.

Artificial intelligence can process enormous amounts of data.

But none of these, he argued, can replace judgment and character.

That is why the fundamental purpose of the university remains the cultivation of the human mind.

The university, he stressed, must continue to produce people capable not merely of graduating, but of thinking, questioning, leading and serving.

 

HIS MESSAGE TO TODAY’S STUDENTS

Ubani’s message to today’s students was direct.

Do not measure your university experience only by your grades.

Grades matter.

Degrees matter.

Professional success matters.

But character matters more.

He urged students to build meaningful friendships, read beyond their syllabus, engage with people whose views differ from theirs, participate actively in university life and develop the capacity to think critically.

Most importantly, he urged them not to leave university with only a certificate.

They should leave with a philosophy of life.

Because a certificate may hang on a wall, but character travels with its owner wherever he goes.

THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION: A SECOND UNIVERSITY

For Ubani, the significance of the Abuja alumni gathering extends beyond nostalgia.

He described an alumni association as a kind of “second university.”

The first university gives knowledge.

The second gives fellowship, memory and responsibility.

And that responsibility, he said, should compel alumni to ask a difficult question:

What will the next generation inherit from us?

Will they inherit only stories about how great the University of Nigeria was?

Or will they inherit scholarships?

Mentorship?

Infrastructure?

Research support?

Professional networks?

Opportunities?

For Ubani, remembering the past must lead to action in the present.

“Reminiscence should not become nostalgia without responsibility,” he cautioned.

If alumni genuinely appreciate where they came from, he argued, their memories should inspire them to give something back.

THE LESSON THAT REMAINS

Looking back at his journey from Nsukka in 1983 to Enugu and eventually graduation in 1989, Ubani said he now sees the experience as a process of intellectual formation.

Nsukka gave him the foundation.

Enugu expanded it.

Political Science taught him to interrogate power and society.

Law taught him to interrogate authority, rights and justice.

Life taught him that the two disciplines are inseparable.

“Politics needs law. Law operates within politics. And both must ultimately serve society.”

For a country grappling with questions of governance, justice, institutional accountability and national development, the lesson remains remarkably contemporary.

“THE UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA WAS PART OF THE MAKING OF ME”

As his reminiscence drew to a close, Ubani made perhaps his most powerful statement of the day.

He did not want to say simply that he attended the University of Nigeria.

That, he suggested, would be an inadequate description of what the institution meant to him.

Instead, he declared:

“The University of Nigeria was part of the making of me.”

He arrived at Nsukka in 1983 as a young student.

He moved to Enugu in 1985 as a law student.

He left in 1989 with a degree.

But he also left with friendships, memories, intellectual curiosity, a deeper understanding of Nigeria and a conviction that knowledge carries responsibility.

And, perhaps most importantly, he left with an enduring sense of belonging.

WHEN TITLES DISAPPEAR, MEMORIES REMAIN

There was a particularly poignant observation in Ubani’s closing reflections.

When alumni gather, he said, the distinctions accumulated over decades suddenly become less important.

Age becomes irrelevant.

Titles become irrelevant.

Professions become irrelevant.

For a moment, everyone becomes a student again.

The Senior Advocate becomes the young law student.

The executive becomes the undergraduate.

The accomplished professional becomes the young man or woman who once dreamed of what life might become.

And in that moment, they remember the institution that gave them their beginning.

That, Ubani said, is the true power of reminiscence.

It is not merely about looking backward.

It is about looking backward to understand how far we have travelled and looking forward to decide where we must go next.

A LEGACY THAT DEMANDS MORE THAN REMEMBRANCE

Ubani’s message to his fellow alumni ultimately transcended nostalgia.

His story was not simply about the University of Nigeria of 1983–1989.

It was about what education does to a person and what that person owes society in return.

The university gave him knowledge.

It gave him leadership experience.

It gave him friendships.

It gave him a platform from which to discover himself.

But the greater test of that education, his reflections suggested, lies not in the titles attached to his name today, but in what he and his generation choose to do with the opportunities education gave them.

As the gathering ended, Ubani offered his final tribute to the institution that helped shape his journey:

“Thank you for the years. Thank you for the lessons. Thank you for the friendships. Thank you for the memories. And, most importantly, thank you for helping to make us who we became.”

Then came his final salute:

Long live the University of Nigeria.
Long live the spirit of Lionism.
And long live the enduring fellowship of the University of Nigeria Alumni Association, especially the Abuja Chapter.

For Dr. Monday Ubani, SAN, the journey that began in Nsukka more than four decades ago may have ended on a university calendar.

But the university itself never really left him.

And perhaps that is the highest tribute any institution of learning can receive, not merely that its students passed through its gates, but that its lessons passed through them and remained.