Quality assurance, staff welfare top agenda as Governing Council members tour study centres

The Pro-chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), His Excellency, Malam Isa Yuguda as well as other members of the council have embarked on the nationwide tour of the study centres as part of efforts to ensure a top-notch service delivery by the university staff.

To achieve this goal, the chairman, represented in the tour by a council member, Dr. Godwin Etta, said that the NOUN Governing Council intends to transform the workforce of the university into a fully motivated team.

This was the central message at the teams’respective visits to the Port Harcourt, Enugu and Gombe Study Centres of the University in March, 2025. 

While in Port Harcourt, Etta reiterated the resolve of the council to do its best to ensure that staff members of the university are adequately rewarded and called on every member of staff to put in their best on their assigned duties.

“We are determined to ensure that your due rewards are given to you, we are also determined to ensure that you do not play with your jobs,” he said, adding that the council had already set up a Welfare Committee to look into welfare concerns of staff even before the tour started as a testament to its resolve to adequately motivate the workforce of the university.

He promised that every issue raised during the interactive session with staffers would be appropriately captured in the team’s report to the council to enable it take informed and timely decisions.

Etta commended the efforts of the Centre Director, Dr. Theresa Ucheoma Ettu, and expressed the appreciation of his team for the warm and selfless reception accorded them.

The Director had earlier told the visitors that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olufemi Peters, and his management team have been very supportive to her administration since her assumption of leadership at the centre.

She mentioned the clearing of arrears of electricity bill, prompt approval of request for the construction of students' sit-out pavilion and the installation of internet connectivity at the centre as evidences of support by the Vice-Chancellor and his management team.

She highlighted the needs of her study centre “to include a high-rise building of about three stories, the ground floor of which would house the students’ sit-out, laboratories and library on the first floor, and self-contained rest houses on the top floors where staff newly-transferred to the centre could be housed for a week or two while they are looking for accommodation, and those who come from the headquarters for exams or other activities could be accommodated there as well.”

She further requested for an additional 100KVA power plant (one being inadequate for a big centre such as Port Harcourt Centre) and another smaller petrol generator to supplement the one donated by NOUNAA last year.

Other needs raised by the director were the general renovation of the Administrative Block, especially the roof and the drains, and a routine repainting of the walls, among others.

During the team’s interaction with members of staff, they raised welfare issues in which there were solicitations for the restoration of annual rent subsidy suspended some years ago, and a review of the two percent of annual emolument paid to transferred members of staff.

Other members of the visiting team were Barr. Deborah Appah, Mrs. Vivian Okere Wategire, Engr. Kenneth Obinyan and Mr. Matthew Akpan.

In Enugu, the delegation led by Prof. Iyabode Nwabueze, who was in accompany of Professors A. G.Suleiman and Shehu Usman Adamu, said the council was particularly concerned with the welfare and well-being of the study centre.

As such, the team was essentially mandated to ascertain the first-hand information about the centre's challenges.

Other members of the team were the Deputy Registrar, Mrs. Fadimatu Muhammad Fufore-Ahiwa, Senior Assistant Registrar, Ifeoma Egboh and Senior Project Officer, Mr. Emeruwa Chinonso. 

The Centre director, Prof. Charity Akuadi Okonkwo, thanked the team for the visit and emphasised that Enugu Centre is one of the oldest. 

Okonkwo carefully reeled out the centre's areas of urgent need to include: water availability, work on the auditorium roof, floor tiles, toilets,  reading classrooms for students during exams, among others. 

The director and her staff led the team to visit the administrative offices, auditorium, e-exams hall, Southeast Incubation Centre, physical and e- library, laboratory building and other places.

She thanked the council members for coming and appealed to them to pass the messages to the council while praying to God for journey mercies back to their destinations.

On her part, Nwabueze, while interacting with staff, reiterated that the visit was actually to know how the staff and students are faring and encouraged them to air their views on issues bordering on their welfare so that they can take it back to the council. 

To this end, Mr. Henry Okpara passionately raised the issue of staff welfare with emphasis on house rent allowance and prayed to the council for a consideration. 

In her response, Nwabueze requested that it should be put in writing and to be submitted as part of their challenges for onward submission to the council. 

She encouraged staff to continue to work as a team and to give maximum support to the director so as to increase the number of students at the centre.

While underscoring the importance of promoting cooperate image of the university, the team's leader also explained that staff should see the institution as belonging to them by treating students politely and friendly. 

She further advised them to desist from conniving with students to cheat during exams and other vices that are detrimental to the growth of the university. 

Nwabueze expressed satisfaction on the neatness of the entire premises and encouraged staff to understand their centre director as a person who will always like people to do their work and uses every means to make them to do it.

The team was at the Gombe Study Centre led by the representative of Pro Chancellor and Chairman Governing Council, Dr. Biem and Dr. Etta.

The Centre Director, Dr. Adamu Bappah, welcomed the guests, expressing his delight at the opportunity to showcase the centre's achievements and challenges. 

He highlighted the centre's successes in student enrollment, strategies for attracting and retaining students, and efforts to provide quality support services.

Bappah also drew the attention of the visitors to the challenges facing the centre, particularly the need for a permanent site. 

"We are currently renting a facility, which poses some limitations on our operations. We emphasise the need for a permanent site to enhance our services and better serve our students," he said.

Dr. Biem and Dr. Etta promised to address the challenges raised even as they interacted with students and staff, discussing various aspects of academic activities, promotions, welfare, and technical issues.

The visitors later toured the centre to see for themselves.