Will do so soon

When the idea of engaging the management was birth, many students criticize the move. They said we want to chew more than we can swallow. But to us, the fact that we are being argued about and being criticized is a sign that we are doing something worthy of concern. It is our believe that, such argument and criticism if done objectively would serve the general interest of the students. So, while some students are indeed criticizing objectively and adding value to the issue, others are being mischievous. They just felt we shouldn’t do anything beyond staying online, but that is not our vision. We have a dream of championing to the end, the liberation of NOUN students to have a formidable and recognized student body which shall not only communicate and protect students rights with the school management,but that which shall also popularize the quality of our students to the world through variety of means as a means claiming our rightful status among other institutions.
While the argument lasted, something came to my mind, that instead of direct engagement with the management, we should use diplomatic engagement. As a result, we propose to publish CONS magazine and a letter was sent to the management for notification and approval. Here, we must note that, management have no right to stop our magazine, in fact, we do not need any approval to publish a magazine, but we decided to notify the and seek for their approval to create an avenue for formal communication.
Some students mock us, they say it would be rejected. They criticize and did all sort of things to undermine our efforts. Their reason for such attitude is unknown, because if the efforts we are making succeed, they stand to benefit from such as students. But they seems to constitute themselves into major opposition. Instead of contributing ideas on how best to get it done, they are rather trying to mock our efforts, describing it as fertile. They didn’t know our major target was not to do the magazine, but to establish a formal communication. While we want to do the magazine, we want the communication more. With or without the management approval, we could have done the magazine if wanted to.
Finally, the letter seeking approval for the magazine was sent to the school and after about some weeks, we have a response. It was from the office of the registrar.
In the response, the registrar commended our efforts and recognize that we indeed mean well for the school, but our request for approval was declined. No reason was given.
On my part, I know there can’t be any reason since the school don’t have the power to approve or disapprove our magazine. We can always do our magazine when ever we wish, but we decided to start from that premise for strategic reason.
Those against our move were happy about the decline, they thought they had won. Many came to the page to boast of how they had earlier warned us not to try it, in their mind, they have won because our request was declined by the management. They boast about their intelligence and about how we are wasting our time.
On our part, we know we won. For the first time, the management raised a letter that was addressed to us as congress of noun students. That is an evidence that the management can’t deny in the future. What ever we do, management can’t claim not to know CONS, we have a letter from the management in which they recognize our efforts, though deny our request. To us, this is the beginning. As a peace student, I know that the first means of achieving any thing is communication. Now, we have opened a channel of communication with the management. While to those thinking from a myopic perspective, we lost, to us, we are moving forward.
To get clarification about why our request was declined, we raise another letter to the management, making some clarifications and asking some questions. We know the management cant find answers to those questions, they are legitimate questions that the management cant afford to answer because if they do, that is a direct victory that would jeopardize the stance of the management on discouraging students from having an association. So, we raised a letter without expecting response and truly, no response came.
After that, we begin to address issues by raising letter after letter, notifying the management about students challenges.
We raise several letters to complain about many issues, one of which is inadequate course materials in our study centres. we also gave suggestion and recommendation on how best to address the problems. We do get response from the management promising to address the issue or sometimes saying such complain should go to our study centres.
To be continued.

H

Since establishing CONS, many things have been achieved. We have been able to raise student awareness about the issues needing attention. We have also tried to connect students with each other. We were also able to open a communication channel with the management and all these are geared towards making NOUN better for all. To be able to engage the management on issue of student association with intellect, we have developed charter of demands, which contain best practices as seen in other Open universities across the world. Before now, students are deceived that in open universities, there is no room for student associations, but with a well researched document titled charter of demands, we have been able to prove that all over the advanced world where Open university exists, there are student associations contributing to the development of the school. We picked U.K, India and China as a case study. In U.K for example, student have representative the institutions senate. That representative is appointed by the UK Open University Student Association. With such an expository document, it is impossible for anyone to say Open university students cant have a student association. Besides, Students Associations in Open Universities in other other countries are playing major roles in popularizing the school and making the public recognize its capacity. Through the activities of their Open University Student associations, the public are able to access their quality and by such, accept them to be of high standard. We intend to replicate the same in NOUN.
Also, CONS was able to engage the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). We were formally accepted into the association after much deliberation at the senate and NOUN was given a go ahead to field candidates to contest for election in NANS if we deem it proper. Furthermore, we have been working on getting a special and permanent position in the association in case we can’t be contesting for elections.
Additionally, we have developed a constitution for the association. A draft of the constitution was made from contribution of all members and Mr. Elias Ozikpu as the committee chairman along with other members were appointed to review and make further edition. This was done and finally, the constitution was adopted.
As we speak, the charter of demands which shall be tabled before the management as our official request for student association is ready and the constitution is also ready.
These two documents have been available since early 2014, but due to numerous challenges, we couldn’t present it to the management. As at when the document was completed, examination was fast approaching and since we can’t afford to place other interest ahead of academic interest, all engagement was suspended until after examination. Then after the exams, many issue also came up like the increase in tuition fee and others. Those events were very vital because at a point, many students thought that staging a protest would be the best option to express our displeasure with the situation. As a matter of fact, students from Benin Study centre indeed staged a protest. Lagos protest was averted.
Despite the fact we didn’t participate in the protest, we were blamed for the protest. The management were said to have held that, the protest was spearheaded by CONS. So, we have to take a more wiser approach to avoid jeopardizing our efforts. It seems some people are trying to blame us for what we didn’t do, more like calling the dog a bad name to kill it.
Without shying away from the truth, it was indeed suggested by students that we should stage a protest to reject the increase, but we ensured to get the true feeling of the majority of the students and from our observation, many students didn’t support the idea. So, since majority of the students disapprove of it, we advice those pushing for it to step back and they did.
We had no hand in the Benin protest whatsoever and we can’t be held responsible for it. While the management knew this, it seems some people are bent on blaming us for what we knew nothing about. This is not unconnected with our intention to present our charter of demand to the management, as the school are up to date with all our activities. If we had presented the charter at that time demanding for official recognition of the student association, the protest staged in Benin would have been used against us. We are aware of this and for that reason, decided to put a hold on the associations demand.
Besides the above, some of us had been questioned or cautioned by the management on few occasions, some were even threatened with explosion or withdrawal from school I was told.
Someone once called me and said the management had threatened to deal with anyone involved in our activities, they might not graduate it was threatened. But such cannot be the case as far as I am concerned. Provided we didn’t violate any law, such threat can’t come to pass and even if it did, it shall be reversed I am certain.
Prior to that information, report that got to me indicate that, the VC called a senate meeting to address the growing influence of CONS and they warn study center managers/directors not to allow students engage in our activities.
More than 5 times, management had sent letters to my study centre asking them to caution me. At others times, they were told to query and warn me to desist from all we are doing in CONS. But we are not doing anything bad, we are not violating any law, we are good students who want the best for ourselves and for our institution. We are promoting quality ideas, promoting our institution and developing socio-political understanding of our students. But i had it on good account that the study center manager was warned that if they can’t caution me, it might affect the manager employment because it would mean that they are not capable of controlling their student. I know this is taking a more strong dimension and I can’t afford to put anyone in trouble because we want an association. Our aim is not to cause any trouble for anyone, but to make our dear NOUN better. I want NOUN students to be able to do,what other Nigerian students can do. I also want NOUN students to be able to do, what other Open University students across the world are doing. Why should that be seen by the management as being rebellious to the authority? After all, this is a democracy and it is only natural for us to demand for the democratization of our institution to serve our interest better as students. To avoid any ugly scenario which is unplanned for, we employed the use of diplomacy to reduce the tension and since then, normalcy had returned. Let me state it once again that, we at CONS are not trying to undermine the authority in whatever way, we are only seeking for the managements understanding on the need to grant students the formal recognition to have a student association which can be used to advance the interest of the institution.The management also stand to benefit from such association.
To be continued

Hum

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In addition to my activities in CONS, I along with my colleagues, Mr. Adedayo Buremoh, Mr. Edwin and Mrs Adeniyi whom I meet at the Center for Peace and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) founded the Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution Students Association (PESCORSA). These people worked day and night to ensure the association became a reality and through the understanding of our study centre and other students, we made it a reality.
Within 3 months of establishing the association, we hosted the first ever Peace Summit in Partnership with Center for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin. This is a landmark achievement which we believe our colleagues shall continue to improve on in coming years. I and Mr. Buremoh walked tirelessly to ensure the summit became a success. The resources spent is beyond account, the time, energy and sleepless nights is also uncountable. Here, I must specially commend the zeal of Mr. Buremoh whom from the first time I suggested the summit, he single handedly took it as a responsibility to implement it for the association, and with the cooperation of all our respected fellow peace personalities, it was accomplished. This credit must go to Mr. Buremoh for serving the association diligently, as he lead Pescorsa by example. Other departments in the school felt challenged by our timely action and are all working to learn from our example. If I didn’t meet someone like Mr. Buremoh, it is very unlikely that such association would be given birth to,neither would we have done such a tasking summit despite not getting one single naira from any quater.
We did the summit because it was very important to the survival of our association and we knew it would also serve as an opportunity to educate the society. As we all know, in contemporary times, peace has become a central issue of concern of research because of the overhanging shadow of protracted internal conflict leading to riots, communal clashes, state failure, collapse, terrorism, thermonuclear, chemical and biological warfare. As competition for global resources between states is intensified; academics have become drawn to how ethnic, regional and class divisions within many states become deepened into fierce and bitter competition over access to resources, intense rivalry among elites, and open conflict that have sometimes led to the break down of law order among ordinary citizens. The peace Summit we held was an event hosted to take a critical look at the unfolding conflicts situations in Nigeria and possibly proffer lasting solution to prevent future recurrences as well as identify mechanism for preventing escalation. The aim was partially achieved as there are ongoing effort to consolidate the gains of the summit.
Also at the summit, we launched a project called child of peace (COP), with its motto, educate a child (EACH). It is a campaign against violence and out of school children in Nigeria. Child of Peace (COP) is a project conceived to reverse the downward trend of out of school children in Nigeria. The project is to campaign for the identification of out of school children from less-preveleged homes and return them back to school.
UNICEF in a recent publication stated that, 45% of the entire population in Nigeria are below 15 years, and 40% of those children between age 6-11 do not attend any primary school. With such a scary statistics, it is safe to conclude that, almost half of the entire children in Nigeria have been robbed of a future, and that future, we must do everything within our capacity to give them back.
The UN also stated in a report that, 57 million children are out of school globally, but Nigeria currently has the highest number of out of school children in the world. 10.5 million children in Nigeria are out of school. In a nutshell, Nigeria account for 20% out of school children in the world.
Also In 2010, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in a report quoted a 13 year old Nigerian child, Aminu Harona saying, I just want to earn some money to help my parents. In search of that money, Aminu became a bus conductor since aged 10. To him and many others like him, there is no thinking of any future, there is no dream, no expectation. The only thing they think of is how to work to feed themselves and assist their parents.
Honorable ladies and respected gentlemen, If we are thinking of educating our children alone without thinking of the less privileged children,those uneducated children may grow up to become threats to our children’s education and even to our children’s life. While the educated children might be hoping to be great, the uneducated may be hoping to destroy all greatness. If we are thinking to build, they might be thinking to destroy and when we are hoping to save lives, they might be hoping to kill. The insecurity in our country now is as a result of such situation. Therefore, We must prevent such a catastrophic future by simply supporting the child of peace project to educate a child.
Furthermore, study also shows that, some children that were enrolled in primary school later dropped out due to compounding challenges. Current data shows that, 30% of pupils dropout of primary school and 54% transit to junior secondary school. Reason for this low completion rate include child labour and economic hardship.
As a result of the above reasons, almost 1 out of every 3 primary school age and 1 in 4 junior secondary school aged children are out of school in Nigeria. We must rescue the situation.
Education is the reason why we are all here today. It is the key to lock and unlock wealth. The roadmap to civilization, tool for growth and route to development. It is the beginning and ending of every successful nation. If we had all been denied access to education while growing up as children, it is very unlikely that we would be where we are today. And if we are not here, ladies and gentlemen, where exactly would we be?
To some extent, all educated children have a reason to dream and look into a future they desire. They have reason to hope and dream of wanting to become a lawyer, enterprenuer,law enforcement agents, doctor,lecturer, engineer, president, governor or peace personalities. What is making them dream and be hopeful in such a bright future is their education.
On the other hand, what can the uneducated children in our society hope for? What can they dream of becoming? I do not know, but all i know is that, an uneducated mind is an ignorant mind, and an ignorant mind is likely to end up a tool for evil agenda. I therefore call on all of us to support the Child of Peace Project by educating a child individually or collectively.

The idea behind the project is to ensure that even students take responsibility and show compassion despite having limited or no resources. And also, the project offer us an opportunity to tutor a child or children in the ways of peace, so they could become future example of a peaceful citizens aswell as be peace ambassadors.
Similar project can be started in our respective places to assist less previlegged children.
As the Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution Student Association (PESCORSA) was birth in Ilorin Study Centre, my aim was to ensure that it spread across the other study centre so we could then have a national body, but time didn’t permit me to complete this project. I urge my respectable fellow peace personalities across the federation to follow suit by establishing the PESCORSA in their respective study centres and someday, form a national unifying body that would standardize our peaceful field of study.
Also, it is in my dream that in a not too distant future, an association of Peace Personalities shall be established in form of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). I look forward to such a day that it would become a reality and we can all be re-united.
Talking about our dear Congress of Noun Students (CONS), now that i am through with my programme, i couldn’t complete the final step of our struggle with you as desired, but I hope that some one from among you will find it worthy to continue the struggle until it become a reality. All the documents are available on our facebook page. All the work has been done by the close to 9000 students who are members of the Congress, they lay the foundation for what we have been able to do so far. Some laboured, spent money, risked their lives to travel, write endlessly and contributing their intellectual gift, but irrespective of what we all contributed, its for the good of the institution and not for personal glory.
Let me place it on the record that, no one single individual has done more than the other, we all contributed what we can and I hope that others who will come after us shall do their best to contribute to the growth of our ‘’first of its kind’’ university.
We are all born free and equal in rights and dignity, so no one can claim superiority over the other. While some might have contributed than the other in certain areas, other also contributed what they can and no one did beyond their capacity. Everyone did what they can, that is what mattered most, doing what you can when you should. What we all contributed is never less than that of others, because without our respective contributions, we would never get here. I have no regret for being one of you and I am proud to be product of this unique institution.
I thank all those who believed in our struggle despite all odds, I also thank those whose criticism helped us become better. I appreciate the contribution of those who didn’t believe in us, hoping that some day in the future, they may find what we did during our time worthy. And hopefully, some day, they may believe in us in future engagements.
We do not see anyone as our opponent, though we may have disagreed on many issues, but it was all to make institution better. I urge you all to show more understanding in the future and extend hand of cooperation to other fellows struggling to make things better for all.
My philosophy of life is that, even if you cannot make the world a better place for all, at least, make a life better for the world. If you cannot feed the world, try to feed one person. If you can’t end poverty in this world, end ignorance of one person by providing information and education. And even if you are not educated enough to do this, try to always give people positive advice to better their lives and enjoy them to desist from bad behavior.. Don’t stand against any positive idea even if you are against it, instead try to aid it and make it better. Help correct some of the things you consider wrong about it. Don’t sit while condemning those standing, you should stand to understand their position. Even while you are standing with them in distress, be the hope that is holding them up,never be the falling pillar that would bring them down. Even if you can’t stand up with them in distress, in your sitting or crawling position, raise your voice up with them and give them hope to stand tall up. You may not have stood up with them shoulder to shoulder, but your voice may become the needed tool to keep them standing firm. Your voice is powerful than you gun. If you bring people down with your voice, they may never rise up again, but if you make them surrender with your gun, when they acquire bigger weapon, they might rise again. Also, if you make people standup with your gun, they may only stand temporarily, but if you make them stand with your voice, they may be up forever. Make use of your voice, not your gun. A single word is far more active than uncountable chemical weapons. When all odds are against positive ideas, be the last man standing with it. Never depart from truth no matter the obstacles, always seek for better ways to make it manifest. Never side with falsehood, let sincerity manifest in your life. Truth may indeed be bitter, but it is better than the lying pit of hell. The comfort we derive from lies may be desirable and sweet, but the seed of lies and deceit is sorrowful, appalling and discordant. Be the light of truth, not the shadow of lies.
The charter of demands to present your case to the management has been prepared, it comprise of the best practices in other Open Universities across the world. The charter of demands is a document that is anchored on the democratization of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and demands for formally granting students its constitutional rights of freedom of association as it is obtained in other Open Universities across the world where ours take as a source of reference for best practices.
The constitution of the association is also ready and if need be, you may edit it. All that is remaining, is for you to proceed to submit the official request of the students to the Vice Chancellor, requesting for a formally recognized student association like it is done in other Open Universities. Ensure that atleast, each of the over 30 study centres in CONS assign their signature to the charter to indicate that this is not just an individual demand or that of some few people, but a demand of the entire students of the institutions from across the federation.

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I Read all your post my brother, Majority of the new student from 100L to 400L will not understand all these things they will think is just a write up or we might be just some attention Seekers.
For example, I'm a NOUN student also That just finished my Second Semester Examination this year October, having passed through alot like you have mentioned in your posts Finally I thought it is time for me to rejoice but it wasn't how I envisaged things will be, I registered all my registrable both necessary core courses and elective courses, Did all my Exams from 100L to 400L including industrial training and my Final year project, I satisfied NOUN 100% according to Necessary Credit unit and her requirement,You wouldn't believe it that the list of names of graduating student that came out earlier this month for convocation non of us that just finished saw our name in the list. it was all the list of Student that were done since 2012 and 2013 that came out with few of students that did this year April exams, I even Learnt that Some student had done with there courses since 2011, 2012,and 2013 and there names were not enlisted.I was very inquisitive and curious about my own particular case that I just finished examination and hoping to convocate come January and things weren't such. also Confused, so I left the notice board and walked into the office of one of our Staffs of my centre I conversed with him to enquire what happened. He told me it was because I just finished my second Examination and the result hasn't been release yet to ascertain the totality of my credit unit or to know if I was able to meet up with the requirements.
Questions begging for answers are: We all know Noun Convocate once in a year,
1 Does that means I'll have to wait till January 2016 before I Think of graduating?
2 What of if new courses shows up in our profile, (because this is not a new thing in NOUN) can't that give excuse to NOUN prevent some Nounite from graduate
3 Aren't we supposed to be carried along about the issue of Mobilising student for service
4 Why a Tertiary institution like NOUN banned Student Union?This is Barbari. Does that means the institution rely on her counselors From all the centres to convey necessary Information to the approprite authorities?

These are one of the things that keep happening and hasn't been addresses as far as NOUN is Concern.
Now Result will be out December ending or by January from information I got was that situation will still be the same i.e we are still not going to convocate with them to me as a student is a great disappointment.

Relax bro. More names would be released b4 convocation. Make sure you have done final screening.

There is no way I would write about my account of life and struggle at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) that 4 names won’t be mentioned. These four people are prominent part of our struggle and they contributed in no small ways to our journey so far.
These for (4) people are:
Iyinkaye Al-Ameen (Lagos), Elias Ozikpu (Lagos), Adedayoh Buremoh (Ilorin) and Tewe Taiwo (Benin).
Al-Ameen is a vibrant fellow who detest falsehood in all dimension, he always strive to stay on the path of truth in all his dealings. Due to his conviction in our struggle, he took a prominent role in all our activities and he his never scared to stand alone. He his a leader and a true example of a good friend.
Elias Ozikpu is cool, calm, focus and assertive person. He knows what is good and he his always with it. Elias is also a prominent part of our struggle, he was the Chairman of our constitutional review committee. While others take pleasure in condemning without proffering solution, Elias object and proffer way forward. He his a balanced personality.
Adedayo Buremoh is another person I can’t forget. With him, we founded the Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution Student Association (PESCORSA) and also organized our first Peace Summit after 3 months of starting the Association. He his never tired of doing good things, just mention anything good to him, he shall ensure it is accomplished. He his currently the President of the Association.
Tewe Taiwo is another down to earth fellow whom I have so much respect for. He his always there initiating good ideas to advance the interest of NOUN Students. While doing his part in CONS, he his equally taking a leading role in LAW society.
These four people are part of my life in NOUN. I can’t also forget ID Collins who is part of CONS from its early stage and till date, acting in leading role. I wish I can mention the names of all our respected friends and colleagues who made CONS active till date, but be rest assured, we shall make a more comprehensive listing of all those who contributed to this struggle for future references.
Finally, let me conclude this writing by telling you in confidence that by the grace of God, you are special. By being a student of this first of its kind University, you are indeed a very special person. Don’t betray the specialty in you by acting contrary to your rightful being.
Anywhere you find yourself, you must be a proudly nounite. Represent the slogan, ‘’first of its kind’’. You must keep your head up, knowing you are first of its kind. And talking about quality, you are unmatched. You are first academically, better in conduct and most especially,a self developer. You are from Open University, the first of its kind university.
Anywhere you go, you have to act special. You must act special in conduct by being of the best conduct, you must think special in reasoning by being creative and anywhere you are found, you must indeed show them how special you are by being distinguish with substance.
Don’t allow any one strip you off your specialty, you are first of its Kind.
I look forward to meeting you someday in the future, looking forward to being invited someday to this school as a guest speaker, looking forward to a day when all of us would take more active role in shaping the life of the Nigerian people and even beyond, shaping the world to be a better place.
Don’t be mistaken, its still the same person, Abdulrazaq Oyebanji Hamzat aka. Mr.Rights.
B.Sc. Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution.

bilms:
Relax bro. More names would be released b4 convocation. Make sure you have done final screening.

Which one is Final screening?

You must have done final screening for your name to come out...go with all your original certificates for verification...make photocopy...your admission letter etc inclusive..

before it ends get it right
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