Posted by By GABRIEL DIKE on
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo formally resumed for academic activities at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) on Monday with a pledge to obey the rules and regulations of the institution.
… Promises to be a good student
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo formally resumed for academic activities at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) on Monday with a pledge to obey the rules and regulations of the institution.
At a colourful orientation programme organized by the management of NOUN for the former president in Lagos, Obasanjo said he had started school already and was looking forward to meeting his course facilitators and fellow students at the Abeokuta study centre.
President Obasanjo with matriculation number NOU-060323192 registered to study Christian Theology and was handed several documents, including a school bag which he proudly carried as a 'school boy" with books inside.
The former president, who registered early this year said with the orientation programme, he has started school and asked several questions as regard his study centre at Abeokuta, number of course mates, time for tutorials, examination schedule and submission of assignments.
He promised to submit to the rules and regulations of NOUN, as well as take instructions from his lecturers not minding his status, adding that: 'I will submit my assignment as at when due and will not take offence if my lecturers scold me."
On why he elected to study Christian Theology as a course, President Obasanjo told the gathering that it was not necessary for him to go into church activities but that the knowledge acquired would be useful to him in life and the society at large.
According to him, as a christian and Sunday school teacher, he had the passion for Theology and thus would want to study to know more about it explaining that: 'I have always enjoyed Theology and this is an opportunity to acquire more knowledge on the course."
President Obasanjo used the occasion to debunk the insinuation that National Universities Commission (NUC), Executive Secretary, Professor Julius Okojie, said NOUN academic programmes were not accredited, saying 'the NUC scribe told me two days ago that he visited NOUN and that people would be sent to audit the programmes.
He took on the Nigerian media, accusing them of peddling wrong information to Nigerians. He thus urged the press to stop peddling such information.
He described as untrue, reports that he appointed an Inspector General of Police before leaving office without the approval of the Council of State.
Professor Jegede Olugbemiro, Vice Chancellor of NOUN, who expressed delight at having the former president at the Abeokuta study centre, said the staff had been put on alert for 24 hours to attend to the needs of ‘student Obasanjo.'
The VC said the former president would not be accorded any preferential treatment as NOUN student but that all that was required to make his studentship a success would be made available to him.
According to him, the enrolment of Obasanjo into NOUN had also attracted prominent Nigerians and confirmed that with his orientation in Lagos, the former number one citizen had started school while he continued the audit of its academic programmes by NUC.