Boniface Ihiasota
Ex President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has reacted to the statement credited to the Vice Chancellor of National Open University of Nigeria, Prof Abdalla Adamu over his N40,000 salaries.
Obasanjo on Wednesday stated that his services at the NOUN were free, discrediting an earlier report that he earned N40,000 as a NOUN lecturer.
Several new outlets have before now quoted the VC to have said the former country’s number one citizen was placed on N40,000 per month for his service at the institution.
In a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Abeokuta by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo described his reported position as “embarrassing, uncharitable, mischievous and in bad taste” and demanded that the VC retract the statement and also apologize to him.
He advised the VC to refer to his letter dated 12 April 2018, which he wrote 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 it was clearly stated in the letter that he was willing undertake the responsibility pro bono (free service).
He also emphasized that has not received any payment either as salaries or otherwise from the University and has no plans to do so in the future.
The statement reads: “Ordinarily, this will have been an 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 the right perspective, His Excellency wishes 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 is 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.”
