Category: Saturday

FOR too long, there has been an avoidable controversy on the certificates of the products of universities and polytechnics in the country. But the argument has not yielded a final solution to put either side where its certification should be. 

This has made it imperative to ensure parity between the university and polytechnic to halt discrimination between the products of the tertiary institutions.

The discrimination even extends to polytechnic lecturers who, at the peak of their teaching careers, are perceived as inferior to university professors.

The mindset that the polytechnic is inferior to the university is a disservice to technological education in the country.

B.Sc and HND, according to university authorities, are not the same, although their holders participate in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.

A Bill before the National Assembly to lay to rest the dichotomy  was passed by the House in November 2021. It was earlier passed by the Senate around May 2021. It is awaiting presidential assent.

Instead of the President signing the bill into law, the Federal Government, through the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), re-emphasised the existing dichotomy via a recently leaked letter.

The letter dated August 1, 2022, noted that “all HND holders terminate on SGL.14 in the Public Service; whether with or without Professional Qualification.”

But the baseline for parity should be the unity of vision and mission of the two divides and merger of university and polytechnic curricula to enable youths become better equipped as graduates, in theory and in practice.

Life after school, sometimes, is a nightmare for polytechnic graduates. The HND, obtained after five years of higher education-two years for ND, one year for industrial attachment and two years for HND-could sometimes be a stigma, a source of trauma and a regret of sort. Holders of HND complain that they suffer discrimination in the employment market, civil service, and in multinational companies.

Today, some governors are transforming state polytechnics into universities. Yet, in Nigeria’s march towards technological development, polytechnics are the acclaimed institutions for breeding competent professionals who will be required to actualise the national dream.

The scope of the polytechnic education includes teaching, research, public service, and the production of technological manpower, new knowledge and innovations in technology for the technological advancement of the country.

Historically, the first tertiary institution in Nigeria, Yaba High College, was established in 1932 and renamed the Yaba College of Technology. It started full studies in 1934.

This higher institution, essentially, was conceived to midwife practical education in the technical and technological fields.

But, in the public perception, polytechnic engineering and science products are not at par with their university counterparts. The perceived low rating has drawn the ire of polytechnic-trained engineers and technologists who decry the discriminatory policies, in employment and conditions of service, which tend to depict them as inferior to their university colleagues. While university engineering graduates are described as “engineering graduates,” their polytechnic counterparts are regarded as “technologists”.

It appears the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN) also has a different view about the quality of accounting graduatesfrom the two divides. At a time, ICAN described university accounting graduates as “accountants” while National Diploma (ND) and HND holders from polytechnics are “book-keepers.”

After leaving the polytechnic, HND holders cannot secure admission for Master’s programme in the university. They have to enrol for a one-year post-graduate diploma programme, while holders of B.Sc, BA, B.Ed are enrolled directly.

Also, polytechnic teachers often complain about the disparity in the conditions of service for tertiary institutions. When members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embark on strike, there is anxiety in the country. But when those in the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) give a notice of industrial action, government and the general public appear indifferent. When ASUU coughs, government shivers; when ASUP cries, government is unperturbed.

When university teachers are on strike, the media, parents and other people usually appeal to the government to negotiate with them. But when their counterparts in the polytechnics embark on similar industrial action, some people even claim that they are not aware, after several months.

Majority of those handling the polytechnics do not have their children there. While a university professor can be appointed as vice chancellor, the Rector of a polytechnic can never be appointed as a vice chancellor. When professors come to serve as Rectors, they see polytechnics as second-class tertiary institutions.

According to ASUP, “polytechnics are made subservient to the universities through the appointment of university professors as Rectors, although there are experienced lecturers in the system to assume the positions”.

University lecturers who become heads of polytechnics have superiority complex, although they hardly understand the polytechnic system. They cannot come down to the level of principal and chief lecturers, especially if these polytechnic lecturers do not have doctoral degrees.

After some time, promising polytechnic teachers often try to seek greener pastures in industries, if they have university degrees.

The polytechnic system has no clear-cut identity. Polytechnics are lumped together with technical schools under the supervision of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). The Federal Government has not acceded to ASUP’s demand for the creation of the National Polytechnics Commission (NPC), although the agitation has been on for more than two decades.

The picture contrasts sharply with the universities and colleges of education, which are supervised by the National Universities Commission (NUC), and the National Colleges ofEducation Commission (NCEC), which supervises the colleges of education.

Also, while the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is the Visitor to fiederal universities and governors to the state universities, a decree made the ministers, who are products of the polytechnics, the visitors to the polytechnics.

Funding is critical to the development of tertiary institutions. The universities enjoy more funding than polytechnics. In the past, when the Federal Government unfolded plans for the eradication of cultism from tertiary institutions, the disbursement of cult-eradication mobilisation grant was only limited to universities while polytechnics were left in the cold.

Government usually avoids the polytechnics while sourcing for personnel for community service under military and civilian dispensations, unlike university teachers, who have remained attractive to the corridors of power.

Curiously, the polytechnics also suffer from self-inflicted pains because they discriminate against themselves. They have the reputation for digging the career graves of their products employed in their own service.

The reality of self-liquidation is underscored by the polytechnics’ recruitment and placement whereby HND holders are placed on ranks lower than their B.Sc counterparts, despite the absence of marked difference in experience and years of graduation.

The polytechnic system underrates its products. The word ‘diploma’ has different connotations to different people. No HND holder can aspire to teach in the university. In the polytechnic, a university graduate begins his teaching career as an “Assistant Lecturer,” but a polytechnic graduate starts as an “Instructor.”

Polytechnic graduates in the administrative cadres are not faring better than their colleagues in the academic positions. A polytechnic graduate may be senior in terms of emolument, but in terms of nominal role, the university graduate is the senior. This simply explains the discrepancy in the employment ratings of polytechnic and university graduates in the service of the polytechnic.

In the civil service, there is discrimination against polytechnic products where HND holders are placed a step lower than B.Sc holders. HND holders may not get to the zenith in the civil service; they may not get to the director’s level. There may be career ceiling by the time they get to Level 14. There is glaring inequality.

In some banks, HND graduates who are chartered accountants may be denied promotion while their colleagues or juniors with bachelor’s degree are promoted. Some of the affected had to return to the university for degree programmes to earn promotion.

Polytechnics also have limitations in terms of post-graduate programmes. They do not run Master’s and doctoral degree programmes. To make progress, their products have to turn to the university where they sometimes meet a brick wall.

In many universities, they suffer the indignity of going through the lengthy process of registering as part-two or part-three students to bag a B.Sc degree before proceeding to the post-graduate school.

The effect is the mass migration of polytechnic students to the universities and the growing distaste for polytechnic education by parents and secondary school leavers due to the preconceived belief that the polytechnic is inferior to the university. This is why most youths prefer university to polytechnic education. Indeed, many parents do not want their children in the polytechnic, except when they could not secure admission into the university after several attempts.

In fact, some parents withdraw their children from the polytechnic at a later stage in their studies whenever they secure admission for them in any university, in some cases, after the children would have spent some semesters or even sessions.

For decades, the parity phobia has lingered in the education sector. Amid the parity struggle and competition between the university and polytechnic, the polytechnic sunk deeper into identity crisis. The Longe Commission on the Review of Higher Education said the identity crisis rocking the polytechnic arose from the wrong perception of their role in national development.

What is also most striking is the gap in research activities. Research in the polytechnic system cannot compare with the university’s effort. In the past, due to staff shortage in the polytechnics, there was the invasion of part-time lecturers, who were not committed to the cause of the polytechnic. It was a case of half a loaf is better than none.

In the Seventh National Assembly, Senator Ayo Akinyelure from Ondo Central District sponsored a Bill, titled: ‘Dichotomy and Discrimination Between the HND and B.Sc Certificates in the Public and Private Sectors of the Economy.’ The Bill passed through the second reading. But it could not get to the third reading and final reading before the dispensation ended.

It appears that the parity struggle by polytechnic teachers can only be meaningful if polytechnic lecturers can achieve parity in academic attainment with their university counterparts. In the university, lecturers are not recognised as lecturers unless they bag Ph.D and publish books and journals. It is either they publish or perish. But it seems the only way the polytechnic can achieve parity with the university is to incorporate the university curriculum into the polytechnic curriculum so that polytechnic graduates can become masters of theory and practice.

FEARS are rife that next year’s polls may be in jeopardy in some parts of the country, if the attacks on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) facilities persist.

The electoral body is being distracted by arsonists at a time it should focus on preparations for the 2023 general election.

Generally, elections create nightmares in Nigeria. The polity is usually enveloped in anxiety. Voters often doubt that their votes would count. There have been instances when elections were stopped abruptly and postponed due to certain challenges, although INEC had prepared for months to conduct what it envisaged would be seamless polls. The job of an electoral officer hardly elicits envy in Nigeria. It is laden with thorns and twists because elections are always problematic in the country.

However, INEC is rising to the occasion and the current leadership of the electoral umpire has been working assiduously to overcome identifiable pitfalls. The public is never sparing the electoral body for gaps in role fulfilment. In particular, as the polity gazes at 2023, eyes are also on the commission.

INEC is determined to satisfy the national yearning for transparent polls, judging by the series of programmes it has organised for fostering credibility. It has embarked on reforms that will make it improve on the conduct of the exercise. The country has invested a lot of resources in the electioneering. Therefore, Nigerians expect nothing less than a free and fair election. In fact, many people expect an election that will pass the test of integrity and constitutionality. But the usual phenomenon of shifting electoral battle from ballot box to the court is still worrisome.

A successful election is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders. If INEC is denied cooperation by any segment of the society, then, it may be difficult for the electoral body to avoid some hiccups.

Given Nigeria’s electoral history, it becomes imperative to caution that any form of violence targeted at the commission may divert its attention from effectively implementing the electoral programme it has lined up. It is an ill will that does not do the electoral system any good.

Insecurity is an important area of concern. The war against INEC offices by unscrupulous elements is lamentable. It connotes a threat to electoral democracy, democratic consolidation, constitutional governance, and national stability.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who has painted an awful picture, alerted the country to the danger that needs to be averted. He said: “In less than two weeks, three of our local government offices were attacked across the country, bringing the total number of such attacks to seven in the last four months.

“While we want to reassure Nigerians that we will recover from these attacks, and the election will proceed as scheduled, we would like to appeal to all citizens to see the commission’s facilities as national assets. It is our collective responsibility to join hands in protecting them. The attacks must stop and the perpetrators swiftly apprehended and prosecuted.”

Local offices of the electoral agency have gone up in flames, following onslaught by unknown gunmen, and for inexplicable reasons. It is a strange and unjustifiable aggression capable of subverting or undermining INEC’s capacity to organise untainted elections and denting the image of the electoral process.

The unwarranted attacks have been recorded in Abeokuta South of Ogun State, Orlu and Owerri in Imo State and some parts of Enugu State. On May 2, arsonists burnt the INEC office in Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

On May 9, gunmen razed INEC offices in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State.

On May 13, the commission’s office at Udenu Local Government Area headquarters in Obollo-Afor, Enugu State, was razed down. According to INEC officers, nothing was spared in the office after the attack, including 16 generators.

On May 14, seven Toyota Hilux vans belonging to INEC were burnt in a night attack on the commission’s office in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

On May 16, the Enugu State office was vandalised. Many vehicles were razed.

On May 18, two more offices in Ebonyi and Ezza North local government areas of Ebonyi State were burnt down.

On May 23, the INEC state office in Anambra State was also attacked. On the same day, the commission’s office in Ahiazu Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State was set ablaze.

On May 23, its office in Igboeze South Local Government Area of Enugu State was attacked.

Also, on May 30, INEC’s office in Njaba Council Area of Imo State was burnt by hoodlums.

The list is quite long.

With such unwarranted attacks on the commission’s facilities, there is no way its officials would not be jittery for their safety during elections. This is one of the reasons the deployment of security operatives during elections has been like going to war. This has become a recurring decimal in the polity, unlike what obtains in other climes where people just queue up for a few minutes, get the ballot paper and cast their votes without any ugly incident.

When will Nigeria mature to that level, when our people would understand that elections should not be perceived as winner takes all? Why would some people constitute themselves as the stumbling blocks towards the conduct of transparent, free, and credible polls? What do the merchants of violence gain from the pains they inflict on fellow compatriots?

In many situations of violence, people, including policemen, were either killed or maimed. Valuable equipment, voting crucibles and other materials critical to the conduct of elections were razed, destroyed and vandalised.

Concern has been raised over hundreds of ballot boxes and unknown number of voter’s cards destroyed across the affected offices.

In Ede South of Osun State, there was panic as the local INEC office in the area was torched, throwing workers into panic. In the local office, 65,000 PVCs were burnt.  The identities of the perpetrators are largely unknown. However, the arrest of some hoodlums involved in the recent Imo attack by the police may provide a lead. Investigations are ongoing to unravel the motivation for the irrational crime against popular rule.

Those arrested were armed with AK47, GPD rifles, charms and locally made explosives.

Read Also: 2023: Plateau INEC takes delivery of BVAS

There are puzzles to be resolved: is a dangerous signal not being sent by the orgy of violence? Why are criminal elements waging war against the electoral agency ahead of 2023? Who are their sponsors? Who are those supplying arms to the youths to perpetrate mayhem? What is their goal or agenda?

What cannot be disputed is that the attacks were organised and premeditated. It appears that they were targeted at crippling the commission and scuttling or disrupting the general election.

Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma has repeatedly blamed politicians for the onslaught. He said: “This is a further proof that insecurity in Imo State is politically contrived. In Imo State, you have politicians who want to win elections without going through the electioneering process.”

Mixed reactions have trailed the governor’s assertion. Indisputably, Imo has experienced its dosage of violence, which has given it a bad name. Rivalry has not abated, even after the last governorship poll, which resulted in a protracted litigation.

But other observers believe that Uzodimma’s remark smacked of hasty generalisation or conclusion, when a thorough investigation has not been conducted to reveal the identities of the culprits.

What cannot be disputed is that the Southeast, like other regions, is suffering from the proliferation of arms and other tools of instability.

Although Prof. Yakubu and INEC National Commissioner for Education and Enlightenment, Chief Festus Okoye, have allayed public fears about the threat posed to the most crucial phase of the electioneering, there is panic among the staff members of the commission and other ad hoc workers, including university teachers who are hired as returning officers, and members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Naturally, voters also worry for their safety. If the trend of attacks persists, there may be apathy in some areas.

Yakubu and Okoye may be acting from the vantage of experience. But, the country would need a more concrete assurance from the government that the attacks on INEC offices will not culminate in unacceptable fractional elections.

In 2015 and 2019, when apprehension gripped the Northeast because Boko Haram was on the prowl, there was respite before the poll day. Also, when anxiety engulfed Anambra State ahead of the last governorship poll, reason prevailed at the end. INEC was able to conduct a successful poll, despite the initial constraints.

Election is key to democracy, but periodic and orderly transfer of power is impossible without democratic contest. The only body empowered for the huge task of delivering free and fair polls is INEC. Therefore, any violent attack on the commission is an attack on democracy, the constitution and the entire country. It may be an invitation to chaos, confusion and setback.

It is, therefore, the duty of the police to protect INEC offices. But, what is the numerical strength of the Nigerian Police? Besides, policemen are not spirits. They need the assistance of members of the public to perform effectively and excel in intelligence gathering. Indeed, intelligence gathering is a joint responsibility. That is why Nigerians should cooperate with security agencies to unravel the circumstances that led to the strange attacks on INEC facilities.

For INEC to organise acceptable elections, its confidence should not shake about the likelihood of unfavourable conditions.

INEC is lamenting that the atmosphere is not conducive. Sensitive materials have to be moved to sites or state offices. From there, they are distributed to local government offices. Already, 50 per cent of the materials are in those locations. They are now being damaged or destroyed, if not carted away.

If materials already delivered are going up in flames, it portends the dangers that lay ahead. The cost of procuring the sensitive materials is enormous. It also takes months to manufacture them to specification by the contractors. Timing is important. The ideal time for moving the materials to location is usually adhered to strictly for convenience and effective operations.

If the materials are suddenly destroyed, there is a setback. New ones have to be provided at a huge cost that was not initially anticipated. The time may be too short to procure replacement.

How are Southeast governors responding to the threats posed against the INEC?

Although the governors came up with Ebube Agu, it is only functioning in two states – Ebonyi and Imo; it maintains a skeletal presence in Abia. It does not exist in Anambra and Enugu. Thus, there is no prospect of regional collaboration on security in the zone. The Southeast governors are not only divided by political leanings, there also appears to be a clash of egos.

In contrast, the Southwest perceived insecurity as a collective threat. All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors in the region put their political differences apart and confronted the security challenge jointly. They pooled their resources together and floated a regional outfit, Amotekun, which has assisted greatly in reducing criminal activities in the region. The regional security outfit has recorded a number of successes though more still needs to be done.

It is noteworthy that the House of Representatives has set up an ad hoc committee chaired by Taiwo Oluga. It is expected to submit its report within three weeks for more legislative action.

Also, as suggested by the House, security agencies should synergise with the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to identify, investigate, arrest and prosecute those responsible for the violence.

Besides INEC’s efforts at enlightening its officials about their duty in conducting credible elections, other stakeholders also need to complement such efforts at educating members of the public on the need for everyone to understand that violence against the commission or its officials is an attack on our collective being and a backward step against the country.

Besides, the ministries of Information at the Federal and local government levels as well as the Information units in the local governments need to embark on aggressive enlightenment of the populace on the essence of peace to national development.

The legislature at all levels needs to have sweeping laws that severely punish perpetrators of electoral violence, and the punishment must be seen to be well administered on the culprits.

These steps have become compelling to make the merchants of electoral fury regret venturing into the ugly lane in the future. Obviously, the punishment for past offenders has not been sufficient to deter others from committing the same offence all the time.