August 14, (THEWILL) – The Counselling Association of Nigeria (CASSON) has called on Nigerians, especially students, to engage the services of counseling professionals in solving their counselling related academic and non-academic problems.
To this end, the association’s national president, Prof Elizabeth Egbochuku, in a statement, described counselling as centrifugally a school-based activity.
She noted that counselling helps learners to actualise their academic potentials in order to make appropriate career decisions.
The statement further hinted that the goals of the association remain central to its core professional focus, emphasising, however, that with the establishment of and the subsequent passage of the CASSON Bill by the National Assembly, the Counselling Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria(CASSON) is now in a position to offer much more services to the nation.
The association commended President Muhammadu Buhari for assenting to the bill, saying that July 27, 2022, the day the President signed the bill into law marked the beginning of a new era, 26 years after the association got its first certificate of registration, on the 22nd of April 1996.
The association reiterated that following its resolve to fast-track its developmental processes during its first stages of registration, some renowned counselling practitioners were duly appointed as members of trustees of the profession.
The trustees so appointed in the profession’s early stages, according to the association, were Professors Olu Makinde, C.G.M. Bakare, M. P Mallum, Frank Carew and Dr.(Mrs) C.C. Achebe, stating however that on the 14th day of March 2019, the Counselling association of Nigeria (CASSON) went back to the Corporate affairs commission (CAC) to update its certificate of registration.
The association’s statement added that the Counselling Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria bill seeks to establish the Counselling Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria for the conduct of qualifying examinations, regulating the counselling profession, and determining standard of knowledge and skill required of persons seeking to become members of the Counselling Profession in Nigeria.
According to the CASSON, the bill was first read on the floor of the Senate on March 1, 2018, saying that a professional counsellor is a highly trained individual who is able to use different range of counselling approach with their client to resolve personal, social, or psychological issues (problems and difficulties).
