Boko Haram, Militancy Products of Illiteracy –NOUN VC

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.