By Sola Akinwande
As an indigene of Ogun State, I wish to admit that Gov. Dapo Abiodun has invested massively in education in a bid to reposition Ogun State to her pride of place as the foremost educational state in Nigeria.
It is however unfortunate that despite his commendable efforts to ensure qualitative education in the State; political appointees and top career officers in the Ministry of Education have consistently joined hands with some heads of Tertiary Institutions, especially Rectors of ICT Polytechnics to perpetrate fraudulent and unethical practices and acts that are inimical to the educational advancement of the State.
It is only in Ogun State that leaders of Tertiary Institutions attend Overseas conferences in the company of political appointees and top career officers in the Ministry of Education with all the expenses borne by the Tertiary institutions, including payment of out-of-station allowances to the concerned government officials.
The design of such trips is to make the top government functionaries to continue doing the bidding of these managers of Tertiary Institutions who consistently hide under this close relationship to misappropriate funds and commit heinous crimes against helpless and hapless staff and students.
Because of the absence of properly constituted Governing Councils, some administrators continually grease the palms of top government officers in order to have their ways in executing necessary and unnecessary projects and in the employment of needed and unneeded staff.
Based on the fact that the Rectors of ICT Polytechnics sit directly on several millions of naira without being controlled by Governing Councils; they seize the opportunity to employ the cronies and relatives of top government officials, especially from the Ministry of Education.
Ironically, these political appointees and top government functionaries are supposed to advise the Governor on the need to constitute governing councils but deliberately keep mute as they carry out such roles because of the pecuniary benefits arising from such lacuna.
This dereliction of duty by these political appointees and top career officers empowers the Rectors of these Polytechnics to appoint unqualified relatives into top positions to the detriment of long serving staff whose complaints to the Ministry officials are always ignored.
In fact, the quality of education in Ogun State (ICT) Polytechnics is abysmally low because of the employment of Lecturers holding 3rd class Degrees and others Lecturers whose qualifications are not in line with the NBTE standards and who are morally deficient to impart quality knowledge into students.
The highest level of complicity and incompetence of the political appointees and top career officers has now been exposed to the discerning public with the request for the appointment of new Rectors into the four ICT Polytechnics.
Firstly, they used different requirements for the advertisement of the position of Rectors into the four ICT Polytechnics. The requirements for the position of a Rector into Moshood Abiola Polytechnic and D.S. Adegbenro ICT Polytechnic, Itori stipulate the possession of MSC and the attainment of the post of a Chief Lecturer of not less than 5years which is the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) standard while the requirements for the same position in ICT Polytechnics in Sapade, Igbesa and Ijebu-Igbo stipulate the possession of PHD and the attainment of the post of a Chief Lecturer of not less than 5years. What a contradiction!
Meanwhile, the latest requirements for the appointment of a Rector into ICT Polytechnics in Igbesa, Saapade and Ijebu-Igbo was equally rejected by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics(ASUP) at her National Executive Council Meeting held at Jigawa State Polytechnic on the 7th of July, 2022; a day before the controversial advertisement for the position of Rectors for the ICT Polytechnics in Igbesa, Saapade and Ijebu-Igbo was done in the Vanguard newspaper.
Next is the issue of timing. Why did the interview for the position of a Rector for D.S. Adegbenro ICT Polytechnic, ITORI take place more than a year before advertisements were published for the ICT Polytechnics in Igbesa, Saapade and Ijebu-Igbo when the duration of their Rectors expired on the same day?
Also, why did the most senior career officers and the political appointees in the Ministry of Education wait until a week (8/7/2022) to the expiration of the tenure of the immediate past Rectors of the ICT Polytechnics in Igbesa, Saapade and Ijebu-Igbo (15/7/2022) before they published the advertisement for the position of a new Rector.
No doubt, the need to appoint the stooges (most senior academic staff) in acting capacity to cover the heinous crimes of the immediate past rectors necessitated the delay in the advertisement for the position of new Rectors into Igbesa, Ijebu-Igbo and Saapade.
It was alleged that there was a meeting between Rectors of the ICT Polytechnics and a top career Officer of the Ministry of Education at an Overseas conference held in Dubai in the last week of June that an advertisement be placed for the appointment of new Rectors close to the expiration of the immediate past Rectors to allow the most senior academic staff act pending the appointment of new Rectors. The purpose may be to continue to enjoy the largesse of these institutions since the stooges working as the acting Rectors would have been tutored by their predecessors on how the system operates, leading to the deliberate delay in the appointment of substantive Rectors while also devising a means of ensuring that no external lecturer is appointed as full Rector in all these ICT Polytechnics.
On the basis of the afore-mentioned, the following suggestions are hereby offered:
1. That all the political appointees and top career officers in the Ministry of Education should be redeployed or outrightly sacked.
2. That the Governor should urgently constitute a team of experienced and highly educated governing council members for each of the ICT Polytechnics.
3. That all appointments, promotion and contracts awarded by the immediate past Rectors be critically reviewed and everyone found culpable of financial impropriety should be duly punished according to law.
4. That an independent panel of inquiry excluding the political appointees and top career officers in the Ministry of Education be constituted to conduct interviews for the appointment of new Rectors into Igbesa, Saapade, Ijebu-Igbo.
5. That the requirements for advertisement for the position of a Rector used for D.S. Adegbenro ICT Polytechnic, Itori which is the current standard of the NBTE be used for the appointment of Rectors into the ICT Polytechnics in Saapade, Ijebu-Igbo and Igbesa.
6. The appointment of Rectors into the ICT Polytechnics in Saapade, Igbesa And Ijebu-Igbo should be done as soon as possible to halt the continuation of the plundering of the commonwealth of Ogun state and the oppression of the staff of these Institutions.
7. That application for the post of Rector for the ICT Polytechnics in Igbesa, Saapade and Ijebu-Igbo should be submitted to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government to avoid short-changing applicants.
Your Excellency, millions of Ogun State indigenes, at home and in the Diaspora look forward to how you remedy these ugly developments, not only because of the future of our youths cannot to toyed with, also because these greedy Rectors and gluttonous political appointees are a cancer that can consume your administration and give it a bad name.
•Sola Akinwande writes from Abeokuta, Ogun State