Students of the National Open
University of Nigeria, under the aegis of the Congress of Noun Students, have
called on the Federal Government, President Muhammadu Buhari and the new
Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to hurriedly see to the removal of the
institution’s top hierarchy over alleged extortion.
Claiming that the Vice Chancellor,
Prof. Vincent Ado Tenebe; the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Patrick
Eke Eya; the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Prof Victor O. Adedipe;
the Registrar, Josephine O. Akinyemi; and the bursar, John M. Onyeme, have conspired
to turn the institution a money draining organization, the students, in an open
letter signed by some officers of the Congress, alleged that NOUN has become a
“den for endemic corruption”.
According to the press statement,
signed on behalf of the Congress by all its officers, including the President,
Abdulrazaq Hamzat, and General Secretary, Iyinkaye Alameen, said the school,
which was “established to provide flexible, accessible and affordable education
to Nigerians has now been turned to, where certain cliques of academia extort
helpless students, whose only crime is their quest for University education”.
The group also went down memory
lane, cataloging some of the happenstances that transpired between the
students’ union and the school management, while noting that the University has
prevented students from having a formal student association because of the
fears that such association will “challenge corrupt practices taking place at
the institution”.
The statement further reads:
“Congress of Noun Students, an unofficial group for Noun students across the
federation had severally, but unsuccessfully sort to understand why those
irregularities continue to happen, but the more we look, the greater corrupt
intent we perceived in
affairs of the institution.
“However, rather than respond to
legitimate questions being asked by the students in our numerous
correspondence, our management said it owe no student any explanation, neither
is it ready to stop violating students rights. As a result of students’ insistence
over the numerous issues, the management felt threatened and sort to silence us
by all means.
“On 9th of September 2015, leaders
of the Congress of Noun Students honoured an invitation by the Nigerian Police
at Ikeja police command, over a petition submitted by the management of our
institution.
“In the said petition, the
management had falsely claimed that, we threatened the life of the Vice
Chancellor, planned to vandalize government properties and incite violence
against the institution.
The aim of the baseless petition was
to criminalize leaders of the student Congress, simply because we asked the
University authorities to respect the Nigerian constitution, by granting
students rights of freedom of association as contained in section 40 of the
1999 Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria and to desist from what we
adjudged to be extortion without justification.
“The police, upon seeing such a
petition swing into action with all seriousness. They invited us for a chat at
the police command, and after which they also invited us together with the
representative of the University to meet face to face. At the second meeting
which took place on 10th September 2015, it was agreed that, there was no
threat to the life of our Vice Chancellor.
It was also agreed that, there was no plan to
vandalize government properties or incite students into violence. The
resolution at the police command was that, all claims in the petition were
spurious, unfounded and baseless.
“Right before the representative of
the University, the police asserted that, the Congress is only fighting for
student’s rights and all we wanted is to resolve issues affecting students.
In an effort to demonstrate our
readiness to internal resolution, the Congress went ahead the following week to
present the management with a list of 10 points demand, which are valid issues
that should be looked into. Prominent on the list was the issue of student
association.
“Some other issues mentioned in the
demand include the fact that, students pay for course materials without
receiving the course materials. The total amount received for these course
materials annually is over 14,000,000,000.00 (Fourteen Billion Naira).
We asked why students should
continue to pay since they don’t get the materials paid for.
“It is not clear, why the University
charges a COMPULSORY registration fee for research project for final-year
students. Last semester (2014/15 academic session), this fee was charged at
N10,000. Now, the University has, for unknown reasons, and without any official
notice to its students, decided to increase this fee to the sum of N15,000. For
its post graduate students, the University increased the research project fee
from N15,000 to N40,0000.
“Also, the University charges a
COMPULSORY registration fee of N11,000 for Industrial Training which is usually
deducted directly from the student portal. The University also charges the sum
of Ten Thousand Naira (N10,000) from each student in the department of
Education before they under-go teaching practices.
“As at today, National Open
University of Nigerian currently has three sets of law graduates of which, none
has been mobilized to the Nigerian Law School. Also, each students of NOUN had
been paying N6, 000 as NYSC regularization fee, yet no students had ever been
mobilized. Again, after paying for a session fee, the University receive
separate fee in second semester. They call it, semester fee. We engaged in the
management internally in a civilized manner, hoping to understand the rationale
for all these fees.
“However, while we have been
exploring this internal means since 2012, no positive result was derived,
instead, management continue to increase these fees without any communication
or justification. As a result of our insistence on transparency and
accountability, the management believes we ought to be cut to size, through
intimidation and threat.
This warranted their false petition
to the police. When their malicious intention failed to fly at the police
command, they resorted to other forms of discrediting us by tarnishing our
image, hoping that we would be deterred from standing for truth and Justice.
“It should be noted that, the
management of our institution has made every effort to make us half baked
graduates, but we refuse to be half baked. Only half baked graduates conform to
negativities and accept injustice to strive without questioning, we can’t be
half-baked, we refuse to conform to the violation of our rights.
“It is also pertinent to state that,
while the University should be proud of its students for standing for truth and
justice, it is busy trying to criminalize us. On the 28th October, 2015,
management of our institution circulated a memo to all study centers, informing
the directors to ban students from having any gathering.
In this memo, they repeated the
false claim of threat to life of the Vice Chancellor after it had been properly
cleared to be false at the police headquarters.
“It became very clear to all that,
the management knows that the existence of Student Association will paralyze
myriad of irregularities from which the management presently benefits, hence,
the efforts to deny students, their rights. While they had consistently failed
to get our law graduates to be mobilized for law school since 2013, failed to
get our graduates mobilized for NYSC despite receiving fees in this regard,
they are vehemently making efforts to cripple justice in their favor.
“This unresponsive attitude,
extortion and flagrant violation of student rights had provoked the entire
students of the institution across the federation so much that the call for a
nationwide protest had reached its ultimate high. In view of this, it is
necessary to state that, this is an era of change, and this change will not
leave without paying a visit to NOUN.
“We also call for the immediate
overhaul of the senate of the institution, as members of the senate are active
accomplice and beneficiaries of the numerous irregularities taking place at the
institution. Furthermore, the sack of the above individuals is not all we are
demanding, we also demand for their immediate prosecution over the endemic
corruption that it currently taking place at the institution.
We shall immediately proceed, after
this release, to submit a comprehensive petition, detailing all allegations against
these individuals to the EFCC, ICPC and other relevant agencies for onward
prosecution. We shall make the petition available to the public immediately
after submission.
“Let it be known that, should the
appropriate authorities not act swiftly on this call, students may be left with
no option, than hit the street in a peaceful protest to press home our demands.
What are we demanding? Tenebe Must Go. What are we asking for? Our school
flexible, accessible and affordable. What do we want? Our freedom to
association, Admission to law school and mobilization for NYSC must be
sacrosanct.”
Source: Eagle online
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