NOUN COMMISSIONS ANOTHER STUDY CENTRE IN OGORI, KOGI
The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) management team was in Ogori, Kogi State recently to commission and take over the Ogori Community Study Centre. This new centre brings to 41, the total number of NOUN study centres nationwide.
This landmark event in the community had representatives from different segments of Kogi State including Governor Ibrahim Idris, who was represented by the Commissioner for Education, Mr. Sylvester Onoja.
The governor, in his goodwill message expressed his delight and appreciation for the establishment of a second study centre in the state by the NOUN. He said the centre would go a long way in meeting the educational yearnings of the Kogi people who were known for their academic prowess.
Speaking on behalf of the Ogori community, which donated the Ogori Civic Centre to the NOUN, Professor J.S. Odama commended the management of NOUN for the great honour in facilitating the approval of bringing a university to his community. Odama said: 'This study centre will go a long way to satisfy the large appetite for education and to cater for the teeming youths with requisite qualifications seeking university admission every year in Kogi State in general and Ogori and her immediate environment in particular.
'The birth of Ogori Study Centre is a dream come true because it would cater for such candidates in areas within at least 50km radius, reaching as far as Okene and Kabba in Kogi State, Igarra and Auchi in Edo State and some neighbouring towns in Ekiti State. Hence, the centre is a bold attempt at facilitating easier and equitable access to university education by the rural sector of Nigeria'. The establishment of this centre would therefore set the community in a new trajectory, a new path to growth and development, he said.
In his acceptance speech, Professor Vincent Tenebe expressed his joy in performing his very first official function as the second vice chancellor of NOUN in Ogori. He praised the drive of the Ogori Descendants Union, under the leadership of late Otunba Richard Ayeni towards the establishment of the Ogori Community Study Centre. He therefore saw the commissioning of the centre as a befitting memorial to Otunba Ayeni's legacy and also a product of single- minded determination of a people to provide wide access to tertiary education for their children.
Tenebe further said 'with the establishment of Ogori Community Study Centre, the NOUN has taken another giant step in the next stage of study centre development at the local government level.. NOUN intends to use Ogori Study Centre as a special one to develop and offer a variety of programmes and courses that will be compatible with the needs of the people and which will be relevant to the 21st century global economy.'
The VC used the occasion to invite all and sundry, especially the organized private sector and well-endowed individuals, to partner with NOUN to develop and deliver these programmes and courses so as to propel Nigeria as a global force to reckon with in modern day educational development.