New Telegraph

Students’ skill acquisition our priority –Council chair

Waziri Bulama is the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Waziri Umoru Federal Polytechnic, Birini-Kebbi in Kebbi State. He speaks in this interview to some journalists on the vision of the council for the institution, plans to prioritise students’ skills acquisition, among other issues.
JOHNCHUKS ONUANYIM was there

 

 

As the Chairman of the Governing Council or Board of a polytechnic, how do you feel particularly at this time?

 

I have just been appointed by the Federal Government and by our leader President Muhammadu Buhari as Chairman of the Governing Board of Waziri Umoru Federal Polytechnic, Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi State.

 

I have received this assignment with gratitude and a deep sense of humility as a call to serve our country and to contribute my quota in any position or way towards advancing the cause of peace, prosperity and unity in our country.

 

We were sworn-in two weeks ago in Abuja by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, and we have collected our letters of appointment and those of us assigned to the Council of Birnin Kebbi Federal Polytechnic immediately convened a meeting here in Abuja.

 

We held a meeting among us, and again with the management of the polytechnic immediately after the inauguration of the Council to review and take a holistic look at our assignments and the task before us in order to know what next.

 

At the brief meeting, we agreed immediately for the date for the inaugural meeting and we also agreed with the management on the agenda for the meeting.

 

Have you appraised the status of the polytechnic in terms of the challenges, problems and possibly how to go about solving them?

 

We have not yet been briefed on that at the moment. We expect that it is during or after the inaugural meeting that the Council will be giving the necessary briefing to know the peculiar problems faced by the polytechnic.

 

This is suffice to say that we are all aware of the numerous problems and challenges faced by tertiary institutions in Nigeria. I can, for instance, cite the issue of lack of stability and peace on our campuses.

 

The issue of industrial harmony in our campuses, the good working relationship among academic and non-academic staff, and the management is a key issue facing all tertiary institutions in the country.

 

The issue of paucity of funds is also another critical challenge confronting all tertiary institutions in the nation. Again, above all, is the crisis of employability of graduates from tertiary institutions. It is also a big issue because there are students, who graduated from these institutions who find it difficult to secure employment for several years.

 

It is either because there are no employable positions in the country or few available employable positions or the skills impacted on the students  are not marketable and irrelevant for the job market to require such skills.

 

Of course, the students themselves are armstrong by the fact that they have skills but that they cannot put the skills into proper use either because they do not have the entrepreneurial skills or they do not have the resources to invest in the skill.

 

So, these are some of the issues that are generally the challenges in tertiary institutions.

 

We have all this in mind to address when we get a proper briefing from the polytechnic management. Of course, we will address those issues peculiar to Waziri Umoru Federal Polytechnic.

 

Let us talk about security considering the location of the polytechnic, which is in the area prone to banditry. How is the Council going to address this?

 

First, we thank God that at the moment we have not received or heard of any involvement of the students of the polytechnic in any case of violence, kidnapping or banditry.

 

We also thank God for that. But on the other hand, we are going to pay special attention to the laws governing security of lives and properties on the campus. There are laws that govern students’ conduct, laws that allow and prevent some certain things and the conduct and students’ behaviour on campuses.

 

We will encourage the management of the polytechnic and work closely with the laws in order to ensure that there is high discipline on campus.

 

Besides, we will ensure zero tolerance for all acts of indiscipline that may result in any threat to peace within the campus, to the students, staff, management and other members of the polytechnic community, as well as the institution’s host communities.

 

So we are going to work with the polytechnic management to ensure that there is zero tolerance for indiscreet behaviour and for bad conduct.

 

We will also work very closely with the host communities, the security arms, particularly the police and other agenup  cies of intelligence gathering and the traditional rulers to ensure that they work and help the polytechnic authorities in ensuring security on campus.

 

However, any criminal act or bad behaviour coming from the polytechnic would be nipped in the bud immediately.

 

In any case, we will also work to ensure that we do not allow idleness on the campus; we will ensure that the students are properly occupied with their studies and monitored for the period that they are on the campus.

 

Towards this end, we will make sure that anything they do will be productive and would be something that can contribute meaningfully to their education and orientation on the campus.

 

We will always keep the students occupied by giving them less time to engage in any anti-social behaviour.

 

For me and other Council members, we will walk along these lines to prevent and ward off any threat to peace on the campus or within the host communities.

 

How do you intend to achieve this?

 

The polytechnic system was set up in this country to impact technical and vocational skills that are not only relevant, but also useful in productive activities of the country.

 

These are skills that contribute to productive sectors such as manufacturing and extractive industries, transportation, construction and mining, among others.

 

That actually is the main aim of this polytechnic. The students are trained to acquire practical working skills and managing skills so as to feed the economy. While the university system is designed to produce administrators and executives, the polytechnics are designed to produce skilled manpower.

 

Thus, what we planned to do is to ensure that the quality of education imparted on the students is the one that would fit and capable of ensuring that at the end of their graduation, the students would be found to be employable and hence we shall ensure that the quality of the education is high.

 

Secondly, we will also collaborate with the polytechnic management, as well as seek the assistance of the Federal Government towards ensuring that the students acquire the skills and ability to be self-employed by engaging them in rigorous ICT training. We will avail all the students the opportunity to have skills in ICT and also create enterprising culture in the polytechnic.

 

As a Council, we will also work with the management to create investment in several areas to improve the polytechnic IGR profile, while every student will be equipped with the right ability and trained to invest and how to create value and wealth for themselves.

 

Again, my plan is to develop a special memo to the Council for approval in order to partner the management and seek support of all the stakeholders, including the Federal and state government, TETFund and the Federal Ministry of Education to develop a programme in which every student would develop the capacity to do something that can bring them income.

 

This is to ensure that when they graduate, there will be quality transformation of skills to farming, agro-processing, mining or in the productive sector. So far, the transition from school to life after school will not be a hopeless one for the products of our polytechnic.

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