I Offers Free Service – Obasanjo Slams NOUN VC

Emmanuel AmudaMarch 20, 2019

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A former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday said he offers free service at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) contrary to a report that he earned N40,000 as a NOUN lecturer.

This followed a report (not in Newsflash247) which quoted the NOUN Vice-Chancellor, Prof Abdalla Adam, to have said the former President was placed on N40,000 pay for his service at the institution.

In a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Abeokuta by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo demanded retraction and apology from the VC, while describing his reported position as “embarrassing, uncharitable, mischievous and in bad taste”.

He referred the VC to his letter dated 12 April 2018, which was written to the University Registrar, Mr. Felix Edoka, when the Council offered him a Part-Time appointment as an Instructional/Tutorial Facilitator and Project Supervisor in the Faculty of Arts at the Abeokuta Study Centre.

The former President said he specifically stated in the letter addressed to the Registrar that he would undertake the responsibility pro bono (free service).

According to him, he has not received any dime either as salaries or otherwise from the University and not planning for such now or forever.

The statement reads: “Ordinarily, this will have been unnecessary exercise, if it has been the usual shenanigans of the media to sell their newspapers, but, the very clear quotation of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Abdalla Adam on the headline made this clarification imperative and to set the records straight on His Excellency’s engagement with the University.

“In putting the records in right perspective, His Excellency wish to draw the attention of the Vice-Chancellor to his letter dated 12 April 2018, which was written to the University Registrar, Mr. Felix Edoka, when the Council offered him a Part-Time appointment as an Instructional/Tutorial Facilitator and Project Supervisor in the Faculty of Arts at the Abeokuta Study Centre.

“Specifically in Paragraph 3 of the letter, President Obasanjo wrote: ‘I will gladly undertake any of the functions mentioned in paragraph two of your letter pro bono and I hope that the functions will be flexible enough to accommodate my rather tight schedule.’

“The former President affirmed that he has not received any dime either as salaries or otherwise from the University and not planning for such now or forever, as stated in his letter that the appointment was received with “pleasure and duty to give back to others out of what God and NOUN have given me.”

“The publication, which has generated mixed reactions from the general public and calls from far and near on the Elder statesman expressing concern, is to say the least, embarrassing, uncharitable, mischievous and in bad taste, with immediate demand for a retraction and apology from the Office of the Vice Chancellor.”