Boko Haram, militancy products of illiteracy –NOUN VC

By Emma Njoku
Vice Chancellor of National Open University of Nigeria
((NOUN), Prof. Vincent Ado Tenebe, has attributed the
current wave of insurgency and militancy in the nation to
high rate of illiteracy in most of the affected parts of the
country.
Tenebe, who stated this during an interactive session with
the media in Lagos, recently, said NOUN is a potent
weapon with which terrorism could be conquered.
“Illiteracy goes with violence. The greatest problems we
have in Nigeria, today, are insurgency and militancy, which
are prevalent in the North-East and South-South regions
respectively. And, if you check the statistics of illiteracy in
the country, you would discover that these two regional
zones have the highest number of illiterates. So, we are
harvesting the products of illiteracy,” he said.
Tenebe said the Open University has “demystified and
democratised education to meet Nigeria’s educational
demand.
“We have demystified and democratised education by
establishing over 70 study centres across the country. We
are present in all the 36 states of the federation and the
Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Unlike conventional
universities, there is no age limitation in our admission
policy. We admit students as from the age of 10. At the
moment, our youngest student is 15 while our oldest
student is 103, a traditional ruler who is a 200 level
student,” the VC revealed.
In a deliberate effort to achieve the objectives of
establishing the Open University system, Tenebe said
NOUN is collaborating with international open universities
in India, Canada and United Kingdom and has special
study centres for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Customs and
Immigration and the Police etc. It also plans to establish
educational centres for market women and women in the
Pudah.