‘Repentant’ Boko Haram Members Register In National Open University

The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), has said ‘repentant’ members of the insurgent group, Boko Haram, have decided to enrol for degree programmes in the institution, Premium Times reports.

The council chairman of the institution, Peter Okebukola, disclosed this during a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.

”“The most recent report from these centres indicated two repentant members of the insurgent group, Boko Haram, have decided to enrol for NOUN degree programmes, taking advantage of the free facilities provided up to PhD,” he said.

Mr Okebukola also said there is an increase in enrolment of inmates in correctional centres.

When asked if the university has done due diligence on the two Boko Haram members, Mr Okebukola said the university has taken care of that “by investigating the issue.”

The institution also said it now has more female students than male students.

The institution also said 53 per cent of its students are females while 47 per cent are male.

“It is gratifying to note the increasing number of enrolment of women in NOUN. The figures for second semester registration by zone show that 58 per cent of those taking examination in NOUN are females,” the NOUN official said.

He said this provides women with an opportunity for gaining world-class education at their place and pace.

In a copy of the press statement that was given to PREMIUMMTIMES, a total of 110,006 applied for second semester registration, out of which 51, 467 are males while 58,539 are females.

About 39,695 students applied for the second semester registration in the South-west out of which 18,715 are males and 20,980 are females.

For the South-south region of the country, 17, 581 students applied for second semester registration; 7, 662 are males while 9,919 are females.

In the South-east, 9,328 students applied for second semester registration, out of which 3,630 are males while 5,698 are females.

More male students applied for second semester registration in the Northern region of the country when compared to the South.

In the North-central region of the country which excludes the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 13,141 students applied for second semester registration. About 6,857 are males while 6,284 are females.

The enrolment of males also increased in the North-west, a total of 7,116 students applied for second semester registration. 3,873 are males while 3,243 are females.

In the North-east, 3,257 students applied for the second semester registration, 1,744 are males while 1,513 are females.

The pattern of the data indicate that second semester registrations in the Northern region were extremely low.

However, of the 18,991 in Federal Capital Territory who registered for second semester, 8,410 are males while 10,581 are females.

The statement also shows that 641 students from correctional centres applied for second semester registration; 449 are male while 192 are female.

Also a total of 256 students which the document referred to as ‘not specified,’ applied for second semester registration; 127 are males and 129 are females.

The National Open University of Nigeria is a Federal Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institution, the first of its kind in the West African sub-region. It is Nigeria’s largest tertiary institution in terms of student numbers.

The National Open University was initially established on July 22, 1983 as springboard for open and distance learning in Nigeria.

It was suspended by the government on April 25,1984.

However, its resuscitation was begun on April 12, 2001 by the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. At take off of the university, pioneer student enrollment stood at 32,400.