JONAS EZIEKE, Abuja
The House of Representatives Committee on Polytechnics and other Higher Technical Education has charged Rectors of Federal Polytechnics to be innovative by introducing courses and programs that will help utilize all potentials in their catchment areas.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon.Fuad Kayode Laguda and members made the call at an oversight session with Rectors and some management staff of Federal Polytechnic Kauran-Namoda, Zamfara State; Federal Polytechnic Bauchi; Federal Polytechnic Kaltungo, Gombe State and Federal Polytechnic Bali, Taraba State on Monday.
Speaking after a submission by the Rector, Federal Polytechnic Kauran-Namoda Zamfara State, Jonathan Murdi, Chairman of the Committee said, as an institution in the state, it should introduce courses in Geology, Mining and other related courses in order to help educate youths and help in rescuing them from becoming bandits or their agents.
He said, “Like we discussed earlier, we were talking about why don’t you have courses in mining in your place. Because if you have courses in mining, some of these gold and things that they find in the soil there, they’ll be coming to do the test in your school, which is also a source of IGR for you.
“So things shouldn’t be right under your nose and you skip it like it’s impossible. It is the happenings of today that you would apply. And that is part of what they call innovation. So please look into this”.
The Chairman noted that bringing such courses would address the declining student population as a result of insecurity in Zamfara State.
Rep. Laguda said, “We’ll be glad to hear that our students are not reducing, they’ve started increasing. And all this can be done by the standard that you keep, or that you give to the students. If we are producing A-list students, and by the time we start working with places and they are giving good results, you will be surprised by the multiplier effect that that will bring to you.
“Because the employers will always tell, look up, in my factory room, there’s somebody that finished from Zamfara Poly that I collected and he has done wonderfully well. I’ve collected them in two years and they’ve been doing too well. Students will hear of this, parents will hear of this, and they’ll send their children to your school”.
After his presentation, the Rector was directed to present among other things, Evidence of Insurance payment, an increase in personnel cost in 2024 despite a shortfall of 50 personnel.
In his presentation, the Rector, of Federal Polytechnic Bauchi, Dr. Sani Usman informed the Committee that, the institution established in 1976 has 2,112 academic and non-academic staff, Six Schools and runs 36 academic programmes with 11,000 students.
After presenting the budget performance of the school from 2021, the Rector and his management were directed to bring fresh, more detailed documents in seven working days.
In his presentation, the Rector, of Federal Polytechnic Kaltungo, Gombe State, Dr Sulaiman Lame informed that the institution was established in 2019 and recruitment for key staff was done in 2020.
He further informed that he have 500 academic/non-academic staff in 2021 with 65% academic Staff and 35% non-academic staff.
According to him, they were given a temporary site by the state government but development started immediately on the permanent site.
Dr Lame said they have Four schools which include; Schools of Engineering, Science, School of Management Studies and School of General Studies running Eleven programs with 300 students.
The Rector informed us that, they have built two Hostels Males and females with 200 and 350 capacities respectively.
He informed the Committee that, they have a plan for more academic courses to maximize the use of their staff.
After his presentation, the Committee directed that he should provide details of the School’s Nominal Role, and Procurement process and re-appear in seven working days.
In the same vein, the Rectors of Federal Polytechnic Bali, Taraba State, Dr Mohammed Usman; and his team also made presentations before the Committee.
In his opening address earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Fuad Kayode Laguda explained that holding the oversight function interaction at the National Assembly was necessitated by the issue of insecurity and other factors.
He said, “Ordinarily, you should physically be in your institution. But due to timeline and most especially security reasons, which our Rector from Zamfara can share. The last time that we were supposed to meet, we were attacked on two occasions that we were supposed to meet.
“And on that same road that we were supposed to pass through, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sokoto was murdered on that road. It’s not as if the National Assembly members are not thoughtful or caring enough to say that you should come here while we should have come to you. But due to the reason that the timeline, as I said first, in between this period, we’ll be going to other institutions to carry out oversight”.
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