The vice chancellor of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, has called on Nigerians to embrace cultural tolerance.

Adamu, who is a professor of Media and Cultural Communication, made the advocacy Wednesday in Abuja during an interaction with the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Institute of Cultural Orientation (NICO), Professor Barclays F. Ayakoroma, who paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

“It is commonly said ‘Let us forget our differences,’ but the right thing to say is ‘Let us accept our differences,’ since it is the acceptance of our differences that will make us tolerate one another because it is our differences that make us the people that we are and there is beauty in diversity. God who created us, created us different people. We must accept those differences. We should collaborate to find a way of removing this stereotype through cultural acceptance,” he said.

“What I urge us to do is to find a way to remove the stereotype that we have against one another. When we see a person, instead of looking at how useful that person may be to us, what we see is this person is Yoruba, this one is Hausa; this one is Ijaw, and so on. A bad person is a bad person no matter the tribe he comes from,” Adamu added.

Ayakoroma, who lauded the achievements of Adamu as a cultural ambassador urged the vice chancellor to explore avenues for possible collaboration between NICO and NOUN in furthering the cause of cultural orientation in Nigeria.

The executive secretary opined that NOUN has made a name nationally, continentally, and globally and that working in collaboration with the university would give credence to what NICO offers and enhance the acceptability of the certificate which the institute offers its graduates.

Responding to Ayakoroma’s request, Adamu directed his Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Professor Patrick Eya, to set machinery in motion and explore within acceptable academic standard of the National Universities Commission (NUC), the possibility of mounting a post graduate diploma in Cultural Orientation in the university in collaboration with NICO.

He also pledged his commitment to mounting the programme as soon as he gets clearance from the NUC.
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