By Gabriel Dike
The non-academic staff of Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), Ikorodu, Lagos, have commended Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for the conversion of the polytechnic to a university, Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUST).
The workers, made up of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), at a briefing, also acknowledged the contributions of Special Adviser on Education to the Governor, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, Lagos State House of Assembly and other stakeholders for making the conversion of LASPOTECH to degree-awarding status possible.
Addressing newsmen at the Isolo campus, Ero-Philips, who was flanked by the acting NASU chairman, Mr. Ahmed Ajasa, and NASU national officer, Mrs. Abiola Obakpolo, said the non-academic staff welcomed the conversion and were ready to support the management to ensure the smooth takeoff of the university.
Executive secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, presented two licenses to Gov. Sanwo-Olu for the conversion of LASPOTECH to LASUST, as well as Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education and Michael Otedola College of Primary Education to Lagos State University of Education.
“The staff unions of the polytechnic will like to congratulate his Excellency, Governor Sanwo-Olu, the Special Adviser on Education, Mr. Wahab, on the successful transmutation of Lagos State Polytechnic to the Lagos State University of Science and Technology.
“This great stride, if jealously and careful guarded, will bring glory and fame not only to your names but also to the name of the state as a whole,” Ero-Philips said.
He acknowledged the assurance of the governor, the SAE and the governing council that no job would be lost due to the conversion. The SSANIP chairman said the institution had over 100 PhD holders to run the new university.
Ero-Philips hoped that the governing council and the management would be also left intact to midwife and nurture the new university.
His words: “This team has worked very well together. In a space of one year, this team has been able to improve the rating of the polytechnic from an embarrassing 19th position to an enviable second in the country.
“The same team will, therefore, be in the position to nurture a unique university to an even more impressive standard. The unfolding events of this past week, have, however, brought a bit of fear and apprehension that things might not go the way we have all envisaged.
“We want to appeal to his Excellency, considering the union’s experience of the past five years, we don’t pray for the revisit of such scenario and therefore calls for caution on the side of the government in the rolling out of the implementations in the coming years into a full blown university
“It is said that, the success of development of a system is measured by the number of people that grows with the system, and not by the number of people that were negatively affected by the growth.