Obasanjo explodes, speaks on ‘receiving’ N40,000 salary from NOUN

Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday charged the Vice-Chancellor of National Open University of Nigeria, NOUN, Prof. Abdalla Adamu to tender an apology over his claim of him collecting a salary of N40,000 annually from the institution.

Adamu had on Tuesday disclosed that the former President receives N40,000 annually as allowance for being a facilitator at NOUN.

“Mr Obasanjo’s allowance is N40,000 a year and he is happy being our facilitator. He has an office in our Abeokuta Study Centre, where we attached to him two students of Christian Theology,” he had said.

Reacting to Adamu’s claim, Obasanjo insisted that he renders service to the university free of charge.

In a statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo said: “The very clear quotation of the Vice-Chancellor made it necessary for him to make the clarification and to set the records straight on his engagement with the university.

“Ordinarily, this will have been 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 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.”

The former President recalled that in paragraph 3 of the letter, he 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.”

Stating that he has not received a dime either as salaries or otherwise from the university, Obasanjo stressed that the statement by the university’s vice-chancellor was embarrassing to him, “having generated mixed reactions across the globe, hence, the need for the Vice-Chancellor to retract the statement and tender an apology.

“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,” the statement said.