How we granted Obasanjo doctorate degree – NOUN V-C

What is significant about your 7th Convocation Ceremony taking place on Saturday?  The ceremony is likely to be the most exciting in the history of this university for two reasons. The first reason is the number of candidates we are graduating and so far, we have harvested and graduated about 14,771 students. And we stopped […]

What is significant about your 7th Convocation Ceremony taking place on Saturday? 

The ceremony is likely to be the most exciting in the history of this university for two reasons. The first reason is the number of candidates we are graduating and so far, we have harvested and graduated about 14,771 students. And we stopped at that number because we have to print the convocation register and there will always be one case to graduate. 

We are graduating the largest number of students because of data management. Before we came on board, data management was handled by external vendors who were not part of the university system and who didn’t know how the university works. We decided to take control of data management and with that we took control of our examinations. 

We had to go over the records to see students that have not been cleared by the former vendors and we are able to clear them now. The second reason is that one of the graduates is the first PhD that the university is going to graduate. The reason is that for you to produce a PhD you must produce undergraduates and you must graduate students at master’s level, which is academic master’s not executive or professional.

However, there is a facility where somebody can join as masters/PhD student and if he is good at master’s he can roll over to PhD. Only one candidate has been able to do that. And that candidate is His Excellency, Olusegun Obasanjo. The university Senate has approved that he should be awarded degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Christian Theology. 

Obasanjo was twice the president of Nigeria who started his PhD from the scratch. He did all the examinations he was supposed to do; he did his proposal, internal and external defence and the results were brought before the university Senate last Thursday and it was overwhelmingly approved that he can be awarded with a doctorate degree. 

So, we are celebrating Obasanjo’s PhD because it shows no one is too old to learn. He was about 80 years old when he started the PhD programme and finished when he was about 82. And an 82-year-old man doing a PhD is clearly looking for a new lease of life. Again, you are never too powerful to learn because he subjected himself to the rigors and discipline of academic work and to us this is absolutely brilliant. 

Learning is a humbling process and while Obasanjo has respect all over the world yet he lowered himself to a level where he says ‘I don’t know and I am willing to learn.’ this is a big lesson for all of us that it is not power that makes a person but the individual; and he has proven to us that knowledge is sought for its own sake. His desire to learn is what he has communicated to the younger ones. 

It is good to also know that the university has keyed into government’s policy of improving employment by establishing a NOUN Business School in conjunction with the office of the Accountant General of the Federation. The Federal Treasury, Academy in Orozo, Abuja has been given to us and will be our facilitation centre. The school would be headed by Associate Professor Sama’ila Mande and would run nine professional courses. We have also created a Centre for Entrepreneurship Studies and students in levels 1 to 3 have to do entrepreneurship programmes. 

We have created a Centre for Human Resource Development to create an interface between the university and the public service. We shall create study centres in West African countries and one of the first points of contact is Niamey, Niger Republic; we received a request from there. 

Conventional universities award honorary degrees to individuals, are you considering that too?

 We are at the moment trying to stabilize the university because when we came on board, we came with a whole range of structural transformation for the university. We want to have a good structure before we do those kinds of things. The Committee of Vice Chancellors has released a guideline on how such degrees should be awarded and we are studying it.

Have you resolved complaints by some postgraduate students about missing results?

Last year we graduated about 12,000 students and this year about 15,000 so, where do the extra 3,000 come from? It is not because we have influx of students; it is because those students that complained were part of those not cleared by the previous data providers. That is why we have missing results and when we took over, we were able to check students’ files individually and locate the problems and cleared them. 

The Senate is said to have passed a bill seeking to allow your law graduates to attend the Nigerian Law School. How are you preparing for that? 

The issue on law school is still ongoing. The Senate of the National Assembly amended NOUN’s law which said it can only offer instructions mainly via correspondence on July 6, 2017. The next thing is it will be taken to the House of Representatives and when they concur, it will be taken to Mr. President to sign. And the moment the law is signed our graduates would be mobilized for youth service. 

 You graduated 14,771 students, the highest by any Nigerian university. Is this also the highest number in Africa? Also, are you considering appointing Obasanjo a lecturer?

 We don’t lecture students here but if he is up to it we will make him a facilitator in our Abeokuta Centre. The minimum qualification to become a facilitator when we came on board is PhD. He has PhD; he can also be a supervisor. 

How many prisoners are you actually graduating?

We have over 400 prisoners as students and most of them do entrepreneurship courses. They are all on scholarship, in fact one of the prisoners refused a pardon because he said if he is freed he will not get money to continue his studies.