The foundation Vice-Chancellor of the National Open Uiversity of Nigeria (NOUN), Emeritus Professor Olugbemiro Jegede, has revealed the Open and Distance Leaninig institution came into being in 2003 following the directive of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo to establish “a fresh National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).”
Prof. Jegede said NOUN, which is now the largest ODL institution in West Africa, was diffirent from the one called National Open University (NOU), that “was suddenly truncated on March 31, 1984 by the then Military Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.”
The former VC stated this during an interview in his office in Abuja with the NOUN News media crew, while discussing the challenges faced in the first few years of NOUN resuscitation.
He argued that it was errenous for some section of the university staff to assume that the university was revived in 2003 when in actuall sense it was newly-established following the orders of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“The story of how the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) came into existence is a very long, interesting, fortuitous and bitter sweet journey for me. As at today, half the story has never yet been told,” Prof. Jegede said.
While recalling the difficulties and obstacles of the history of the university’s establishment, Jegede, a professor of Science Education, described the whole experience as “a serious challenge” for him.
He said the declaration of the then Military Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari during the broadcast of the 1984/1985 Annual Budget, made the university “to instantly and totally shut down.
“Nigeria therefore emerged as the only country to establish an open university and promptly closed it one year after. The sad implication of this was that the National Open University (NOU) was stillborn even before arrival. Its death could not be revived.”
Consequently, “at the E-9 Expert Meeting of Countries Ministers of Education held in Beijing, China from 21st to 24 August, 2001, President Obasanjo in the presence of Minister Borishade, Chief Olopade, Ambassador Olusanmokoun, who was the Consul General in Hong Kong and the Nigerian Ambassador to the Peoples Republic of China, directed me to help him establish in his words ‘a fresh National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).’ With a plan to make a formal presidential pronouncement about ODL and the establishment of NOUN during his 1st October address to the nation on October 1st, 2001,” he said.
Asked about his future expectations for the university interms of sustainability and visibility, Prof. Jegede advised the university to go global, by looking for students from the African continent and beyond, especially as ODL has alreadt taken centre stage world-wide.
While stating that NOUN must diversify its programme offerings, thereby leaving the new private open universities to grapple with first degree programmes, he also avised that the university should follow the trends in technological developments in order to host effective and efficient consulting arm for a lot of software development techies to also determine the future of emerging technologies for Africa.
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