Group Calls for NOUN Ingenuity Across States
Kuni Tyessi
Initiative for Leadership and Economic Watch, a non-government organisation for the unemployed youth initiative and 17 allied civil society groups, has called on the government and other institutions across the country to emulate the pace and standard being set by the management of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) in its administrative ingenuity.
The Executive Director of the organisation, Ambassador Agbonkpolor Splendor who briefed Journalists in Abuja , said this has become necessary as a result of investigation into the activities of NOUN which has received several criticism.
“Prior to the new order, the entire information management and learning platforms of NOUN were being handled by two private firms; Cyber space and Emerging platform whose contract were terminated by the present leadership of the institution led by its Vice Chancellor, Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu”
He added that the termination is a healthy and welcomed development as staff of the institution are competent enough to operate the information and learning system. According to him, “the present government in NOUN is anchored on transparency, prudent management of resources and efficient utilisation of manpower as vehicles of delivering the dividends of good governance to the larger populace. It is therefore important that the administrative ingenuity exhibited by NOUN management be replicated across all offices and institutions of government with no exception.
The development of any society, Splendor said, is anchored on the quality of education available to its citizenry and the capacity of educational institutions to initiate positive change.
“The greater bulk of the work was being carried out by NOUN staff paid by the federal government with minimal inputs from these private firms, in line with due process, is a healthy and welcome development.”