NOUN: Exploring public lectures for good governance

The convocation arena of the NOUN hosted distinguished academic, politicians and businessmen and women at the pre-inaugural lecture on anti-corruption. MARTIN PAUL was there and he gives details.

National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is a peculiar institution of learning because of its mandates and mode of operations. Besides running as an open and distance learning institutions, it focus and the desire to reach out to as many students as possible, gives it an edge over other conventional universities.
For once, NOUN has no contestation with other universities in terms of carrying capacity as it could gather for as many as two million students, which is its target in the next few years.

No thanks to former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who ignited the light for the return of the Open University and kudos also go the present vice-chancellor, Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, who has changed the perceived concept of the university to acceptable one.
Until recently, many have regarded the NOUN as a correspondence institution, where only the aged, who desired additional qualification for promotion, were patronising, but suffice to state, that perception has changed.
While the conventional universities are struggling to have people deliver their public and inaugural lectures, many academic are standing by to offer their intellectual prowls to NOUN.
The institution has gone beyond recognition by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to acceptability within and outside the shores of the country.
Little wonder, therefore that the President/Chief Executive Officer of Commonwealth of Learning, Asha Kanwar, in a NOUN first public lecture, delivered at the NUC auditorium on July 27 this year described Open University as a veritable avenue for acquiring university education.
Specifically, she stated in her paper:” Can ODL reach the unreached: Lessons from the Commonwealth” that “Open Universities provide huge cost advantages to both students and government as their cost of operation is much lower than conventional higher education institutions”.

Earlier, the university had held the 10th inaugural lecture titled: “ The need to know and understand recreation, leisure and tourism practice in Nigeria”, delivered by Professor Abubakar Sulieman of the faculty of education.
In August, the university engaged the attention of the general public to yet a faculty of education public lecture entitled: Retooling pre-service and in-service teacher education through open and distance learning in Nigeria.
Renowned educationist, Professor Gidado Tahir, of the faculty of Education University of Abuja, thrilled the audience with the lecture.
Put together, it has never been a dull moment in NOUN since the present vice-chancellor took over the mantle of management in an institution, which had hitherto been left to rot away.
The fourth quarter 2016 NUC parastatals  Servicom committee meeting also was an eye opener for the various initiatives of the NOUN, where the participants were treated to best practice in offices and the university system.

It could vividly be recalled that the vice-chancellor said that NOUN was practicing Servicom to best of its endeavours.
As the year tickled to an end, NOUN, again opened a new chapter by bringing former chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mallan Nuru Ribadu to public lecture delivered by Professor Femi Odekunle.
Odekunle, a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) spoke on the pre-inaugural lecture of the Olusegun Obasanjo Good Governance and Development Research Centre of the NOUN.
With the topic: “Fighting Corruption in Nigeria: The Journey to Date”, Odekunle sub-titled the 29-paged lecture into five  comprising the “status of corruption and its control: Pre-Buhari administration; the Buhari administration’s fight against corruption: Efforts and achievements to date; outstanding challenges: More rivers to cross in the fight against corruption in Nigeria and the imperative of a complimentary approach/instrumentality: a presidential truth and restitution task force on corruption”.
On the status of corruption, Odekunle said virtually every category of Nigerian leaders was implicated in corruption cases and that between 2006 and 2013, N1.34 trillion was stolen by about 50 people.

Similarly, N146 billion was stolen by 15 former state governors, N654 billion by 11 businessmen, N525 billion by eight bankers and N146 billion by 12 federal and state civil servants.
According to him, N7 billion was stolen by four former ministers and this was besides the $2.1 billion Dasuki arms gate that is sucking in more so-called leaders.
“We hear of about $46 million carted away from the Central Bank in suit-case or Ghana Must Go bags, we hear of an official handing over $2 million in cash to Bureau de Change for conversion for business and we hear of Badeh, former Chief of Air Staff removing N538 million monthly for 14 month from funds meant for security and we hear of Justices turning their residence into bank faults”.
Odekunle said of the 10 global corruption-enforcement cases, Nigeria is implicated in six of them, an alarming rate which the phrase ‘fantastically corrupt’ could not be wished away.

However, his belief is that there is a way out of the debacle of fighting corruption in the country, if only leaders could listen and stop further perpetrations.
He said the “central take away from these challenges is that though leadership-character and determination may be a necessary condition in the fight against corruption, it is not a sufficient condition, especially for the systematic long-run, leadership ethos must be institutionalised”.
Against this backdrop, Odekunle suggested the establishment of a Task Force from the presidency to become agents for anti-corruption agencies like the ICPC and EFCC.
The Task Force, according t him, would be saddled with the responsibility of recruiting fresh NYSC graduates from the various relevant disciplines for “indoctrination against corruption, followed by appropriate training at home and abroad with provision of ‘insentivising’ salary and condition of service and subsequent deployment to serve the Task Force.

Odekunle suggested that if the Task Force could deploy the NYSC members to various government departments, they would act as secret watch-dog for government on the happenings in the sector.
In this regard, he said instances where those found wanting would be transferred /handover to the appropriate anti-graft agencies, stating that there would be more effectiveness in fight against corruption.
In this presentation,  I have described the pre-Buhari status of our problem of corruption, highlighted he anti-corruption efforts, indicated the outstanding challenges and suggested remedies, and the outline is the Presidential Truth and Restitution Task Force on Corruption”.
Odekunle lecture, without mincing word, was lively but it became more enliven when he chairman on the occasion, Mallam Nuru Ribadu, gave the synopsis of his capability as a lecturer at the Ahamadu Bello University, Zaria.

“When I look at the topic of today’s lecture, I heaved a deep sigh because of the expansive nature of it, but when I say the name of Femi Odekunle, I felt relieve. I said, well, they have someone, who is equal to the task. I knew Professor Odekunle from days as a student at ABU, where he was a very admirable lecturer and indeed, among a crop of lecturers that as students, we looked up to brilliant, handsomeness, fashionable and yet very radical”, Ribadu remarked.
NOUN vice-chancellor, represented by the deputy vice-chancellor (administration) Professor Victor Adedigbe, added colours to the sweet encomium on the quest lecturer.
Adamu said it was “instructive that this pre- lecture is taking place today, a day specially labeled as global anti-corruption day.
“The Guest Speaker is a member of PACAC and as an insider in the current war against corruption, we seek enlightenment from him on the status of the national war on corruption”, Adamu said.