Following alleged calls for the sack and petition of the Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University (NOUN), Prof. Vincent Tenebe, a group, the Africa Centre for Education Rights and Advocacy, has called on the federal government to ignore such calls and “rather look into the enviable achievements of administrators, especially the accused vice-chancellor.”
A statement issued by the Centre’s Regional President, Mr. Abayomi Ogundele, condemned the said petition, stating that the “students were ignorant of the towering image of the University, both at home and abroad, in providing quantitative and qualitative education to all with ease and flexibility.”
The statement also stated that the petition was the handiwork of people who were not bonafide students of the institution, but “hirelings acting under the guise of NOUN student’s Congress.”
It said: “The Centre frowns on the recent behaviour of the students acting under the auspices of NOUN students Congress as jobless persons who were expelled from other Universities in Nigeria and hiding under the non-exiting platform to cause confusion and should not be taken seriously at any point in time.
“The management has lived above board in the discharge of their duties to both students and the country and should not be distracted at this critical point that President Muhammadu Buhari is out to restore our lost glory.”
It added it had to wade into the matter “because the Centre is an advocacy and enlightenment unit in the educational sector and so it is also aware that the University has maintained the highest level of accountability and transparency both to students and the federal government in handling public funds.”
The group wondered why the students would plan to physically assault the vice-chancellor and his team and “when caught decided to behave like the average Nigerian politician who uses ‘persecution’ to meander his way out of the consequences.”
