National President of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Mr. Chubuzor Asomugha, has said that dichotomy between the National Higher Diploma (HND) and Bachelors degree is killing polytechnic education in the country.

Mr. Asomugha stated this in Kano yesterday while presenting an award “of distinction in service to humanity and the nation” to the immediate past minister of education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau.

The ASUP president, who called on the Buhari-led administration to as a matter of urgency end the problem, noted that the union has raised the matter with several governments in the past, but nothing tangible was done.

“Government is not paying proper attention to this issue. If we are ready to make Nigerian economy better, we must address this issue because our industries are being closed on daily basis due to insufficient manpower,” he said.

Asomugha decried what he called the discrimination of HND graduates, saying “HND graduates are not given equal opportunities with university graduates. In some places, HND holders stop their career at level 14.”
He urged the federal government to grant polytechnics right to award degree certificates, adding, “if some polytechnics in affiliation with universities can award degrees, I think polytechnics are matured enough to award same certificates on their own.”

On the award, Asomugha said the union decided to honour the former minister for his “honesty, commitment and trustworthiness”, adding “Shekarau touched our individual lives more than he touched the education sector. There is nothing we brought to him which he did not look at,” he said.

Asomugha regretted that the short tenure did not allow the former minister to reengineer the federal ministry of education and give it the kind of focus it needed.

Responding, the former education minister, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, thanked the union for the gesture, saying “I always reminded myself that it is not how long you stay in a place but how well you perform.”