Founder of Southern Atlantic Polytechnic Uyo, Akwa-Ibom, Pastor James Bassey, spoke with Sunday Oguntola on how the institution will break new grounds, among other issues. Excerpts:
What prompted you to establish Southern Atlantic Polytechnic?
It is a private institution and business school committed to developing very high standard of entrepreneurship. We are bringing professors, PhD holders, captains of industries, entertainers and all class of Nigerians who have made it in their various fields of endeavor to come and build a new crop of leaders.
Through the school, we want to mentor our youth, retired public servant young who are aspiring into leadership positions, people who want to go into businesses, who want to become entrepreneurs.
So we are building an enterprise centre that will re-engineer and reconstruct the life style of our people to give them a sense of business.
If you saw the number of young men and women running around political leaders during the 2019 elections, they are graduates, bachelors, masters and PhD holders. The elections not only opened my eyes; it has also given a lot of burden.
Whether in Akwa-Ibom, Abia, Sokoto, Abuja, APC or PDP, APGA, you have the same thousands and millions of followers. At the end of the elections, governors have emerged; ministers and legislatures have also emerged. But we will not have as many as 50 ministers, we will not have more 36 governors and there is no state that will have up 300 Personal Assistants. The others have fallen back to the streets. And so, we want to lay emphasis on entrepreneurship and business development.
There are obviously many private polytechnics. What makes Southern Atlantic Polytechnic different?
If you go to Alaba or Idumota markets today, you see young men who are millionaires that didn’t go to school but they went through tutelage.
They were trained by various masters right there in the market place. Southern Atlantic Polytechnic will train young school leavers and at the end of the day send them to acquire practical trading experience under experience traders.
Again, if you go to Ariaria market in Abia State today, you will see that the people are less concerned about who becomes the governor because everybody is busy there. From that point of view, I am moving Ariaria market to Akwa-Ibom State, to my polytechnic.
I am moving the traders, the shoe makers, the fashion designers and the furniture makers. In fact, it was in Ariaria market that I discovered the secret of producing exquisite furniture, which we have started producing in our school.
We are going to import knowledge from the diaspora and from our people. If you go to churches, 80 percent of young people are unemployed; we are telling them that we will give them a means of livelihood.
Such people should come to Southern Atlantic Polytechnic, to our business team. We will change them and give them a new way of thinking; we want to build capacity.
While we are importing technology from China, Korea and America and from other parts of the world including Dubai, we also want to import the technology that is in the nearby state. The technology that is in Ariara market is enormous.
We are bringing the technology in fashion to combine with what we have because our Fashion Department and Design will be a brand. We are going to go into fashion programme like a factory.
We will build capacity that will enable us train fashion designers, who will not just develop fashion styles for the school but we are going into corporate and massive production of all kinds of fashion.
Our engineering and carpentry workshop is the first of its kind. We are building our carpentry department to be able to produce all classes of furniture, kitchen items and closets. We are also bringing in a special machine that can design any kind of doors and chairs.
Once the entrepreneurship is commissioned next month, we will go into massive productions of furniture for schools, universities, corporate bodies, individuals and governments.
On Information, Communication and Technology (ICT}, we have over 200 computers and we are deploying millions to train young school leavers, civil servants on ICT, Web Design and other areas of Telecommunication and ICT Technology in modern business development.
You must be able to have both practical and theoretical knowledge so that at the time you don’t use your theoretical knowledge you use your practical knowledge.
What extent have you gone with getting requisite accreditation for Southern Atlantic Polytechnic today?
A team from the Ministry of Trade and Commerce and National Board of Technical Education (NBTE) came to inspect the polytechnic in February; I am happy that they came. The team saw what we have on ground and was impressed. We want to do more because we want Southern Atlantic Polytechnic, Uyo, to be one of the best in Nigeria.
We have what it takes because we have large land mass of over 15 hectares which is able to take in the polytechnic, hostel and other facilities. Now we are working on other structures like the banking hall, supermarket and of course we have a Police Station by the side of the Polytechnic.
We have also completed the Science Lab Tech; our library is one of the best. In terms of Electrical and Electronic Department, we have unique equipment and our manpower is up to date.
I want to thank the Executive Secretary of NBTE for sending the team to Uyo, for inspection of our school. The speed that they came was wonderful. It is a great encouragement from the Executive Secretary and members of the team.
I must say that team represents a different kind of civil servants structure in Nigeria. After they left on February 10, we have been able to put up three more structures on ground.
How much of the physical projects have been completed?
The Entrepreneur and Business School is 90 percent completed and the extension of the Science Lab Tech is 90 percent completed too. Our Engineering Department, Physics Department are completed and we have ordered for more equipment to give the school 100 percent because at the time the NBTE team came, we had about 85 percent of our equipment requirement.
We have already ordered the remaining 15 percent, from China and the goods have also arrived Akwa Ibom State. After installation, we will invite NBTE again for ratification.
But the beautiful thing is that our school is well positioned. It is situated within 10 minutes’ drive from Uyo Airport and 10 minutes’ drive away from Uyo town. So we are in the middle of the town to serve those who are coming from outside Akwa Ibom State and those who are not even Nigerians coming from other parts of the world.
Is it true you are in partnership with Microsoft technology?
Precisely on May 22, we will be commissioning the Enterprise and Business Development Centre of the Southern Atlantic Polytechnic, Uyo in Akwa-Ibom State in collaboration with Microsoft account Imagine Academy.
I will say the idea of bringing Microsoft Academy is a plus for the school, a plus for the state, a plus for the South-South and the South-East. I think we are the first to take advantage of the Microsoft Imagine Academy in the region. We have also put in place lots of programmes for various skills because that is what the federal government is emphasising now.
By the grace of God, it is expected that the Governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel will perfect the commissioning. Microsoft, as an organisation, is very happy to associate with what Southern Atlantic Polytechnic is doing in the area is Skill, Enterprise and Business Development.
What courses are currently available for take-off?
There are about five to six courses the NBTE has given us a letter to work on, which of course they have come for inspection. They have given us approval for Science Lab Tech, which we have the best equipment today. We have Electrical Electronic, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Public Administration and General Administration.
On the Public Administration course, we have built a strong network with so many professors and heads of departments of different universities and they are coming to develop a curriculum for the training of civil servants, for the empowerment of the local governments, especially those who are in protocol management and those who are serving at all levels of governments in the federal states and local government.
We are developing this programme in order to retrain and train those who are going to assist in the governance of the state. Public administration is a very important course that can be used for the development of both the local government workers and state workers, including those in the academia. In the electrical Electronics Department, we have the best.
Our machines are there but we are going to do all lot of thing in business development and we are going to offer scholarships to those who are not capable of paying school fees.
Based on my background as a pastor and as a man who came from a very low background, I will work more to see that scholarships are given to people who deserve it.
We have also opened discussions with other bodies such as security agencies in the states, Police and Army Officers and all the agencies of government to see how we can collaborate with them in training their wives and house helps on dress making, cake making, ICT and catering so you can in the comfort of your office learn a trade.
We have also opened discussions with churches and mosques in Akwa-Ibom and neighbouring states to see how we can move entrepreneurship development to their door steps.
The idea is that if you have 5- 10 people in your house, locality, church, mosque or in your environment, our team of engineers and experts will come to interact with you, train you on any area of your need and give you the where withal and support before you come for the school.
So we are building a relax system of training which is the first of its kind. In our entrepreneurship at your door steps, we want to build housewives, house-helps into entrepreneurs. It’s very easy and achievable. There is no age limit in learning, we will come to you; we will train you, also equip you and send you forth to become a great man or woman.
I want to see how we can share our knowledge bring people from business world, the academia and those who have already been doing practical things to share knowledge with them so that as you leave the school environment you go straight into something. We want to build people.
It is not enough for people to finish school spend one year in Youth corps and yet nothing thereafter. So we are saying before you come out you must go and do something. Here is also what I call Young Entrepreneurship Scheme, where we bring in secondary school leavers who want to go into businesses, who want to learn one trade or the other and train them and build them into trading businesses.
As a pastor, how are you getting funding for this huge project?
The most important thing is not the funding first; it’s the thinking, it’s an idea, idea comes before funding. But where you have an idea you need money to support it. It is very sad that there is disconnect between the business people and the banking industry.
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