It started out as Ogun State Polytechnic, Abeokuta, in 1979. Few years later, it was renamed Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY). Two years ago, the government upgraded it to Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (AMUSTECH). But today, MAPOLY, MAUSTECH and Ogun State Polytechnic, which was founded in 2017, share the same campus at Ojere. The students are confused about the status of the institution. Is it MAPOLY, MAUSTECH or OGUNPOLY. Micheal Babatunde, HND 1 Mass Communication asks.
Students of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, (MAPOLY), Abeokuta, are confused over their status.
Reason: the school and two other institutions-the Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (MAUSTECH); and the Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia share the same campus at Ojere.
MAPOLY was upgraded to MAUSTECH by Ogun State government in 2017; it was replaced with OGUNPOLY, which is to be sited in Ipokia.
MAPOLY was to gradually metamophorse into MAUSTECH, and then pave the way for the coming of OGUNPOLY.
Since the announcement of the upgrade, MAPOLY has ceased to admit students for its national diploma (ND) programmes. But its doors are still opened for the higher national diploma (HND) programmes. Ogun Poly is expected to admit its pioneer ND students for the 2018/19 academic session at MAPOLY, Abeokuta.
Investigation by CAMPUSLIFE showed that graduates of MAPOLY who have been mobilised for the mandatory National Youth Service Corps have Ogun State Polytechnic written on their mobilisation credentials, a development that further compounded the students’ woes.
As things stand, lots of questions are hanging in the air on the specific status of the institution! Ogun State Polytechnic is at present admitting into ND programmes, MAPOLY, into HND programmes, with a possible commencement of admission into degree programmes by MAUSTECH, all in MAPOLY campus in Abeokuta.
Ahead of the upgrade, MAPOLY had a record of a peaceful institution. After that announcement however, the institution has continued to witness series of strikes, social media bullying, protests and even prolonged academic calendar.
As the popular saying goes, when two elephants fight, the grass beneath pays the price! It is common knowledge that the current predicament of the students emanated from the rechristening of MAPOLY and the fallouts pertaining to workers, students and representatives of government.
However, to resolve the impasse, some experts have intervened, advising that MAUSTECH should take off on a new ground, while MAPOLY should remain because of the status it has earned for itself over the years.
During the institution’s 14th convocation in March 2016, Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun announced plans to upgrade MAPOLY to a degree awarding institution. The announcement, which would see MAPOLY rechristened MAUSTECH, was received with exhilaration by the entire polytechnic community. Incidentally, the announcement came at a time when there were arguments across quarters over HND/B.Sc dichotomy. Lecturers and other non-teaching staff also saw prospects of a leap in their careers. However, the biggest gladiators were the students who saw it as a victory over the B.Sc intimidation.
Determined to walk its talk, the state government in January, last year, signed a bill passed by the Ogun State House of Assembly. The bill which in part also sought the establishment of Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia, enjoyed a speedy passage and became a law two month late.
Meanwhile, almost everyone at the time, hailed government’s move, thinking it would follow the path of Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE) which metamorphosed into Tai Solarin University of Education under former Governor Gbenga Daniel in 2005. And while the university remains in Ijagun, the College of Education was eventually relocated to Omu-Ijebu.
All seemed to be going well until April 2017when Amosun inaugurated a transition committee headed by a former Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Peter Okebukola. Amosun had promised that the committee would be disbanded once the Governing Council of MAUSTECH was constituted.
In three months, the committee facilitated NUC’s presentation of an approval letter for the upgrade of MAPOLY to MAUSTECH to a delegation of Ogun State government. Pronto! MAUSTECH was declared the 45th state university and the 85th public university in the country by the NUC Executive Secretary, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, who officially presented the approval letter to the state governor at the NUC headquarters in Abuja.
During the presentation, Prof Rasheed had noted that Ogun has managed two state-owned universities (Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye; and Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun) to an ‘enviable level’, expressing optimism that the third would not be an exception. Nonetheless, the NUC helmsman urged the government to do more in infrastructural development of the institution.
He added that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB, the Tertiary Education
Trust Fund (TETFund); and the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), had been informed of the institution’s new status.
Interestingly, all the aforementioned bodies have since remained silent on the status of MAPOLY, MAUSTECH and Ogun State Polytechnic.
This good news didn’t last long as the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) of MAPOLY staged a protest over what members described as a threat to their job by the Okebukola-led committee.
The committee had issued a directive ordering more than 250 lecturers in the institution to turn in their resignation letters and reapply. The information had irked ASUP members who immediately took to the streets in protest. The lecturers who chanted solidarity songs and also displayed fetish objects, had shut the school’s gate, blocking it with two vehicles,
Thus, the first strike MAPOLY would have in a long time came sometime in August 2017. The aggrieved workers however, shelved their grievances to resume work. They sent series of letters (which were allegedly not acknowledged) to the state Ministry of Education Science and Technology.
Students of MAPOLY immediately took to the streets in protest of the delay in their second semester examination schedule and relocation of the institution to Ipokia from Ojere.
While the delay in examination was linked to lecturers’ strike action, students in their hundreds headed for the Governor’s Office at Oke Mosan in Abeokuta.
They held Abeokuta to ransom for almost a week, setting social media ablaze with various harshtags to announce their plights to the world.
The governor said: “Creating Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology will not affect you. We have said nobody in the school will be relocated to Ipokia. It will take four years before MAPOLY goes into extinction. The reason is this: those in Higher National Diploma (HND) now, you will leave, those in Ordinary National Diploma (OND) 1, you will be in this Abeokuta. All of you here, you will go through your normal course.”
Calm returned, activities went back to normal and the session ended; but the graduating students who ought to be serving their fatherland couldn’t join their colleagues owing to delayed results, hence another round of protest.
Briefly after the result issue was settled, the institution began to experience a slow academic calendar. Oftentimes, lecturers embarked on industrial action (work to rule) which gave them liberty to act as they wished.
CAMPUSLIFE also gathered that the situation was not unconnected with the failure of the government to offset the backlog allowance owed to part time staff.
While the full-time students were managing the work-to-rule action of lecturers, their part time counterparts were not attended to at all. In show of their grievances, the part time students shut down the school gate, paralysing academic activities for a week.
Speaking with CAMPUSLIFE at the weekend, a Computer Engineering HND 1 of the school, Oluwaseun Adepegba said: “It is not possible for the three institutions to co-exist in the same compound considering the fact that university students will want to be superior to poly students and the professors won’t want to mingle with lecturers. Classes won’t be enough for the three institutions to run.
“If MAPOLY should be eradicated or name changed, which name will be on my HND certificate? is it Ogunpoly/Mapoly? How will I explain to the companies I sent my CV to that MAPOLY is now OGUNPOLY if it’s an international company?
Omokehinde Abdul-Azeez, another HNDI Computer Sceince, also lent his voice.
“Government’s conversion of MAPOLY into MAUSTECH has become a threat to the entire staff of MAPOLY, while also putting the students career at risk.
He continued: “Why asking the lecturers to resign and apply fresh because it is not certain everyone would be reabsorbed into the system. What is the possibility that lecturers that lose their jobs in the process will get another anytime soon. Ultimatum should have been to them to upgrade their credentials while still working as members of staff of the polytechnic.
“I don’t really blame them because none of their children is schooling here in Nigeria to face exactly what we are facing. For this reason, they have total disregard for our careers regardless of efforts our parents are putting to make our lives better here.”
Also Oluwatobi Odeyinka, ND2 Mass communication, added to the heat
“Whatever its name is, whether MAPOLY, OGUNPOLY or MAUSTECH, we don’t even know anymore. We don’t know how long we would remain at home; even the lecturers don’t know their stand or so they claim.
“The studentship of all students of MAPOLY is uncertain. MAPOLY no more exists as an institution and that is evident in its absence in the brochure of JAMB. I am still wondering what institution would award me a certificate after graduation, whether it is MAPOLY, OGUNPOLY or MAUSTECH.
“For me, the government of Ogun State was unreasonable to have taken the decision to scrap MAPOLY and establish a university without taking necessary steps, otherwise.”
Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) of MAPOLY Comrade Kola Abiola, put the root of the crisis in bad advisers appointed by the governor.
He said: “It is a pity that the Ogun State governor appointed bad advisers. I can say that the governor had good intention but his advisers did a bad job and immediately they started, we raised alarm. It was just like taking a carpenter to head an hospital.”
