The Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), has applauded the National Open University of Nigeria for accepting to open a Study Centre at Ikom, Cross River State.
Ndoma-Egba, who represents Cross River Central Senatorial District, has also secured the use of facilities of the Youth Development Centre in Ikom as a temporary centre for the NOUN Study Centre.
In an October 22, 2014 request letter to the NOUN Vice chancellor, Ndoma-Egba explained that owing to “the large population of our citizens who yearn daily for university education without access, the peculiar geography of Cross River and the distance from Ikom to Calabar Study Centre at the southern tip of the state, I am compelled to apply for a community study at Ikom, the headquarters of the central senatorial district”.
The Senate Leader vowed to “spare no effort in developing it within the shortest possible time”.
In his effort to make sure that certain basic facilities were on ground for the take-off of the NOUN Study Centre, Ndoma-Egba on January 8 applied to the Minister of Youth Development, Boni Haruna, for the use of the expansive youth centre at Ikom, which was lying fallow and in disuse.
He assured Haruna that “a more permanent site would be secured soon….”
The minister’s approval was conveyed to the Senate Leader on February 12 on the premise that a Memorandum of Understanding would be signed on the utilisation of the Centre with the ministry.
The ministry also attached some terms and conditions for the utilisation of the youth centre.