ASUP berates Nigerian govt for dissolving polytechnic governing councils

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) on Tuesday berated the Federal Government for dissolving the governing councils of federal polytechnics in the country.

The union, therefore, alerted Nigerians that all the federal polytechnics have been operating without the full complement of their governance structures since June.

The ASUP President, Anderson U. Ezeibe, who addressed journalists at a press conference preceding the union’s 17th Biennial National Delegates Conference in Bauchi, said the government’s decision to dissolve the governing councils despite the three-year tenure guaranteed by the Federal Polytechnics Act (2019 Amendment) has left the institutions in deficit of the required governance structures for their smooth operations.

He lamented that some of these polytechnics are in confused states as processes for the appointment of principal officers have been disrupted.

Ezeibe said: “Continued retention of five persons described as unfit and unqualified to be appointed rectors in five new Federal Polytechnics in Monguno, Shendam, Wannune, Ugep, and Ohodo can only be interpreted from the perspective of the government deliberately undermining proper administration of the affected polytechnics. “

He stressed that the decision of the government to buy more time for the unfit persons to see out their terms as rectors in polytechnics was unfortunate.

He added: “The disregard for extant laws in the appointment of principal officers in these Polytechnics by the Federal Government has emboldened different state governments to tow the same path as several state governments are in the business of violating their laws in principal officers’ appointment processes.

“The Scheme of Service for Polytechnics has been undergoing review since 2017 without any conclusion in sight. The implication is that there is no uniformity in the application of standards on issues around duty prescription, career progression, and cadre delineation in the sector.”

“This chaotic situation has prevailed for six years only because of several attempts by persons without requisite knowledge to insert provisions unknown to academics into the new scheme of service.”

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