Prof Olufemi Peters Takes Over As NOUN VC

Prof. Abdallah Uba Adamu has handed over to Prof Olufemi Peters as the fifth substantive Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN.

Speaking during a brief handover ceremony, Prof Femi Peters thanked God for making it possible, saying it has been a wonderful and remarkable journey with Prof Adamu.

He commended the outgoing Vice-chancellor for all he had done for the university, praying that his legacy will be enduring and that they will have a course to make reference to them.

The new VC also noted that he had worked with Prof Adamu as a work team that prepared the establishment of the university.

Prof Abdallah Adamu speaks

In his handover speech, Prof Adamu said the last five years has been extremely intense and allowed him the opportunity to contribute the little he could in widening access to higher mass education for the people in Nigeria.

He said being the VC in the last five years was an assignment he took with spiritual vigour of which, God has directed and guarded him to fulfil the mandate bestowed on him.

The outgoing VC said running a complex university such as NOUN posed another challenge to him on a personal level.

“I was worried that my kinetic research might be diffused by the myriad of problems I would face on taking over in 2016, but as of February, I have published both nationally and internationally journal articles and book chapters.”

He said, although there were many achievements that have given him pride during his tenure, “there are certain matters I wish had gone better.

“As an organisational leader, one must embody humility and take ownership and shortcomings of the organisation not just its successes.

“My overwhelming focus on stabilizing the university in terms of its structures, flows of funding, staff progression, infrastructural development, internal control of data workflows, do not seem to have left room for me to focus on the needs and perceptions of my clients, the students, to address them, until the tail end of my tenure,” he said.

He further said: “I am happy, though it has been possible to identify the problem and thus the incoming Vice-Chancellor can aggressively pursue this phase of the development of the university.

“Our lives seemed to be measured in chunks of three to five years and each chunk represents a defining moment in our journey through life.

“I leave NOUN with fond memories of five years of a chunk of my life.

“In these 5 years, I have been in situations where I have thought, it is really special that I am getting to experience this,” he added.