* Appeals to President Tinubu to sign into law HND bills passed by 9th Assembly.
Against the widespread disdain of HND holders against their Bachelor Degrees counterparts, Nigerians of all walks of lives have been charged to join forces with the Executive Secretary of NBTE , Professor Idris Muhammad Bugaje in his struggle to end colonial mentality induced dichotomy in the nation’s tertiary education subsector.
Engineer Ojochegbe Omali, made the call yesterday in Lokoja, kogi state capital,against the backdrop of all efforts including legislation to make the policy makers to freeze the HND holders from the baggages of discrimination place on them for going to the polytechnics to mould their future .
Engineer Omali commended the renewed vigor and energy exhibited by professor Idris Muhammad Bugaje to free the HND holders from the shackles of deprivations and harassment occasioned by the elements in the National Universities Commission NUC and their collaborators in the Federal Ministry of Education to perpetually hold down the technological growth of the nation.
He said while some nations like China and South Korea are vigorously pursuing conversion of their Universities to Polytechnics and Technical and vocational institutes, Nigeria has lamentably held dogmatically to the university certificates being superior to others.
He noted that it is laughable that in the 21st century, a nation would hold on to paper qualifications rather than knowledge and performance and still expect to advance the developmental course of its economy.
According to him, it is only in Nigeria, Malaysia , Ghana and South Africa that are still holding on to the dichotomy, even as Ghana , south Africa have modified their thoughts on HND, saying all other advanced countries of the world have placed premium on knowledge , technology driven education rather than paper certificates.
He disclosed that in the United States of America, Canada , Germany and hosts of others, holders of HND are offered admission for their masters and PHDs, whereas in Nigeria it is not considered a certificate.
He decried the situation where HND obtained from the Yaba college of Technology Lagos ,for instance, even as the first tertiary institution in the country, first to University college Ibadan is being considered less important to a degree obtained, may be, from a University established yesterday.
He likened the discrimination to a husband with three wives whose children are categorised, thereby creating family discord , opined that the attitude of the Federal Government to HND would continue to deprive the nation of her technological growth.
He advise that instead of discrimination, let competence and performance be the watchword for recruitment and career progression, rather than over dependency on paper qualifications which over the years robbed the nation of its potentials.
He, however supported the arguement of professor Bugaje that if the government is not ready to end the discrimination, should rather scrap the HND.
According to him , University is a place where future minds are moulded, so also is the polytechnics, despite the nomenclature, stressing that the discrimination is a retardation to the technological progress of the country.
While explaining that the same Nigerians who are the bulk of lecturers in the Universities are also in the polytechnics even as the students attended same secondary schools and equally passed UTME and at the end, they are being tagged inferior to their university counterparts is inhuman and draconia for a nation seeking quantum leap into the future.
While calling on the National Association of Polytechnics Students NAPS, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics ASUP, HND holders and well meaning Nigerians to join their voices with the Executive Secretary, NBTE to erase the dichotomy appeal
to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to sign all bills passed by the National Assembly concerning the erasure of discriminations against the HND.
