.Abu Juliet, a student at the National Open University of Nigeria, wrote an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari requesting to start an investigation of the corrupt activities the incumbent university authorities are allegedly ivolved into.
Mr Juliet described several cases, in which, in his opinion, the managment of the educational establishment in question went beyond its commission, and asked President Buhari to act in line with his anti-corruption strategy.
Dear Mr President,
I will not bore you with unnecessary stories as I intend to drive straight to the matter that inspired this open appeal.
Your Excellency, it is needless to point out that you are a welcome visitor at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), an institution established to provide accessible and affordable education to numerous Nigerians as part of the government’s effort to bring education to the doorstep of every Nigerian.
Corruption is the plague of the 21st century in Nigeria
Sir, it is now apparent, even from a distance, that these objectives have been abandoned under Professor Vincent Ado Tenebe, who is now the vice chancellor of this great institution, which has unfortunately been infested with the common virus militating against development in Nigeria: corruption. The university has been transformed into a den of corruption and endless extortion against the innocent students through the payment of a myriad of questionable fees. For instance, the NOUN management charges each student over N20, 000 for textbooks alone without providing them to the students. The authorities mandate the students to make a compulsory payment for these textbooks, and they are consequently directed to buy the same textbooks outside the school. There is clearly a collaboration between the management of the institution and the outside sellers. Corruption has never been this bold!
Your Excellency, during the investigation my interaction with the students at the Port Harcourt Study Centre of the university revealed that there were lots of other fraudulent means, through which the management extorted money from the students. It was gathered that a student paid the sum of N11, 000 for embarking on the industrial training, N1000-2000 as the per subject examination fee, etc! It is now on record that the National Open University of Nigeria is the most expensive federal university in the country. This is because most of the fees charged by this university are illegal.
As for the N11,000 fee for the industrial training, it was revealed that the money was acrued to the two separate accounts! Your Excellency, it is necessary to investigate the reason behind this. It is also necessary to know if the federal government is aware of the following fees: the examination fee (N1,000 or N2,000 per subject), the industrial training fee (N11,000), the teaching practice fee (N10,000), etc.
Law students that will never become lawers
The university also runs a law programme, though the management knows the NOUN law graduates cannot be admitted into the Nigerian Law School in order to become the certified lawyers. The implicaton of this is that the university admits these students, make them pay exorbitant fees for years without actualizing their aspiration of becoming barristers! The question therefore is simple: why does the university run the programme knowing it is not approved by the Council of Legal Education? In fact, the Council of Legal Education has made its stance public on several occasions, particularly concerning the reason why law graduates from the NOUN are not eligible for admission into the Nigerian Law School. Why then, if not for pecuniary reasons, does the university continue to run the programme? If this is not fraud, I would require someone to give me an appropriate definition of what fraud really means.
More disturbing, Your Excellency, is that the university in question has recently announced with great pride the expulsion of the two students, Mr Abdulrazaq Oyebanji Hamzat and Mr Elias Ozikpu, “on the basis of being found wanting in character”. The charge of being found wanting in character appeared strange and ambiguous to me, pushing me to find out what truly their offenses were. I have learnt later that these students were expelled for spearheading the formation of the Student Union Government to check the illegal fees draining the wallets of the NOUN students. This is the extent to which corruption has grown at the university. The students have been suppressed and subjected to all forms of intimidation and victimization, including depriving them of the right of freedom of speech and association enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The actions of the authorities remind me of an article published recently by Barrister Femi Falana under the title As Corruption Fights Back. Our fundamental human rights have never been this threatened, even during the days of the most brutal military administrations. This is an entirely new level in the world of tyranny! Tyranny is fast springing back to life, and this is evident at the National Open University of Nigeria.
Your Excellency, the anti-corruption war that your administration is leading is commendable indeed. But it is important that this anti-graft war goes beyond the corridors of the political office holders. I strongly recommend you to set up a strong panel to be headed by the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in collaboration with other anti-corruption agencies to look into the corrupt practices that are so rampant at the National Open University of Nigeria. The proposed pannel should also investigate the dismissal of the abovementioned students.
Yours faithfully,
Abu Juliet.
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