The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Uduma Oji Uduma, for the third time in a week have been honoured this time at the Pillars of Integrity Awards 2026 held in Abuja.
NOUN received the Pillars of Integrity Institutional Excellence Award 2026, while Prof. Uduma was conferred with the Pillars of Integrity Exemplary Public Sector Leadership Award 2026, following the University's outstanding performance in the ICPC 2025 Ethics and Integrity Compliance Scorecard.
The awards were organised by Verbatim Magazine in partnership with the ICPC to celebrate integrity, transparency, accountability, ethical governance and service excellence.
In his acceptance remarks, Prof. Uduma described the honour as one that invites reflection rather than mere celebration, noting that an award for integrity should compel an institution to look inward with honesty and forward with responsibility.
“Integrity is not a destination at which an institution arrives. It is a discipline that must be renewed every day. Integrity begins where convenience ends,” he said.
Represented by the Head, New Media of the university Ambrose Bernard Gowong, the Vice-Chancellor said the true test of a university goes beyond students, research and infrastructure, and rests on a more fundamental question of trust — whether students, staff, government and society can trust its processes, management of public resources and the quality of its certificates.
He stressed that a university cannot credibly teach truth without practising integrity in its governance, adding that for NOUN, with its mandate to take education beyond geographical limitations, the obligation to build fair, transparent and dependable systems is even greater.
“Good intentions are important, but enduring institutions require good systems. Vice-Chancellors come and go. The institution remains,” he stated, noting that institutional integrity asks whether a system has been built where doing the right thing becomes the normal thing.
Prof. Uduma dedicated the awards to the Governing Council, Senate, Management, staff, Study Centre Directors and students of NOUN, saying no Vice-Chancellor governs alone.
He however warned that recognition must never become “a pillow upon which achievement goes to sleep,” stressing that to be called a pillar of integrity is an obligation that must be justified daily.
According to him, national development rests not only on infrastructure but on the infrastructure of trust, which must be earned through fairness, accountability and responsible stewardship.
“Public office must be understood as a trust. We occupy offices; we do not own them,” he said.
Prof. Uduma thanked Verbatim Magazine for the recognition and said the awards would serve as a summons for NOUN to deepen transparency, strengthen its systems and uphold academic standards.
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