The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), has charged Nigerians to forget their differences and embrace other’s cultural differences.
The Vice Chancellor of NOUN, Prof Abdalla Uba Adamu said, “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.
“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,” he urged Nigerians.
The executive secretary, Nigerian Institute of Cultural Orientation (NICO), Prof Barclays F. Ayakoroma has commended the achievements of Adamu as a cultural ambassador, urging him to explore avenues for possible collaboration between NICO and NOUN in furthering the cause of cultural orientation in Nigeria.
Ayakoromae said that NOUN has made a name nationally, continentally and globally and that working in collaboration with the university would give credence to what his institute offers and enhance the acceptability of the certificate which it offers its graduates.
The NOUN VC said it will 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.
