BY CHIKA ABANOBI
The posting, on February 1, 2007, by, obviously, a concerned student,
to Nairaland, one of Nigeria’s most-visited blog sites, read: “Please, I
will like to know what is going on about Yabatech case. Is it now a
university? If yes, I will like to know their mode of admission: is it
going to be (over-the-counter) sale of forms or through POLYJAMB?” Five
years down the line, nobody has been able to answer that enquirer’s
questions.
And, five years from now, there is no assurance that anybody can
answer them, with any degree of certainty. Not the Nairaland global
readership to which they were originally addressed, nor the authorities
at Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech) and Federal Ministry of
Education, headed by Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, the Minister of
Education. Not even the Senate Committee on Education that once visited
the institute on a fact-finding tour and expressed immense satisfaction
with its findings, nor its counterpart, the House of Representatives’
Committee on Education, nor the Federal Executive Council, headed by
President Goodluck Jonathan, can say, with certainty when Yabatech will
transform into a university.
But is Yabatech now a university? Prof. Rufa’i said something along
that line while receiving the report of the Implementation Committee on
Guidelines for Degree-Awarding for Colleges of Education and
Polytechnics, on Tuesday, July 20, 2010.
She announced that four federal colleges of education and two
polytechnics had been converted into universities, among which is Yaba
College of Technology, billed to be known as “City University of
Technology, Yaba”, although its stakeholders are rooting for “The
University of Technology, Yaba.” She promised that Federal Executive
Council would give necessary approvals for the affected institutions to
commence full activities with their new status, although she was to say
about a month later that the matter was being sent to the highest
executive decision making body only as a proposal or recommendation, as
against what was initially widely reported in the papers. Prof. Julius
Okojie, Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) and
head of the committee, had, while presenting the report to the minister,
noted that the selected institutions (including Yabatech) met
“stipulated guidelines, in line with an earlier recommendation of a
report for their conversion.”
But of all the selected institutions, Yabatech is the oldest.
Established in 1947 as Yaba Technical Institute, before it was renamed
Yaba College of Technology in 1963, by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the then
Governor General of Nigeria, it has the enviable distinction of being
the first institution of higher education in Nigeria, even before the
establishment of University College of Ibadan, in 1948.
REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
“The earlier recommendation of a report” Okojie was referring to was
the one presented by Dr. Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, former Minister of
Education, but now, World Bank Vice President for Africa, to the Federal
Executive Council, headed by President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Head
of State. Titled “Consolidation of Tertiary Institutions” the document, a
copy of which is now in the custody of Education Review, noted, among
the other things, that “Yaba College of Technology and the Kaduna
Polytechnic have the requisite staff as well as infrastructural and
instructional facilities to commence undergraduate studies in select
programmes.
In addition, they have produced their Academic Briefs and by doing so
have satisfied the requirement for licensing as a University.” Making a
special case for its take-off, which it noted, may be hampered by space
constraint, it pleaded for the transfer of the Federal Science and
Technical College (FSTC), at Yaba.
“They are geographically located within the same premises and the
FSTC can be integrated with the College’s staff school while availing
itself of the site and extant facilities to smoothen its transition to a
university in the short-term and for expansion in the long-run,”
Ezekwesili recommended in the document. In reference to The Presidential
Technical Committee which did the groundwork earlier, Ezekwesili noted
that “the conversion of Yaba College of Technology and the Kaduna
Polytechnic universities have been well-received by stakeholders within
the system and the community.”
Similar reaction had trailed the public presentation of the report of
the Implementation Committee on Guidelines for Degree-Awarding for
Colleges of Education and Polytechnics, on July 20, 2010 and the
announcement by Prof. Rufa’i, the Minister of Education, that two
polytechnics, namely Yaba College of Education (Yabatech), and Kaduna
Polytechnic (Kadpoly), had been converted into universities, which she
noted, will not only help to improve access to university education in
the country “where less than 15 per cent of candidates seeking
university education were successful” but also take care of the
perceived discrepancy between HND and B.Sc/B.A degree, through their
award of Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree to their graduates
. A statement issued by Yaba College of Technology noted that “the
entire College community received with great pleasure, the news of the
transformation of the college into a full-fledged university, a status
it has yearned for over a very long time. As the premier higher
institution of learning in Nigeria, the college community strongly
believes the time is quite ripe for the attainment of a university
status, and the management, staff and students of the college are
extremely grateful to the Federal Government for this kind and
magnanimous gesture.”
“We welcome the upgrading of the two polytechnics and four colleges of education,” S
aturday Sun
added, in its editorial of July 24, 2010. “The selection of
institutions for the upgrading is okay. The Yaba College of Technology
and others on the list are credible institutions which have been in
existence, and have been delivering quality education to students, long
before the establishment of the universities in the country today. They
have produced competent graduates in the fields of education and
technology over the decades and there is no doubt that they can rise to
the challenge of their transformation into universities.”
But it noted, however, that “the upgrading of the institutions, has
thrown up new challenges which they must address to justify their new
status.
The transformation calls for improvement in the standards of
excellence with which the institutions have been associated over the
years. The new status of the institutions calls for upgrading of
infrastructures, faculty and management. Both the government and the
management of the schools cannot afford to go to sleep after the
laudable transmutation. They have a responsibility to ensure that the
institutions truly live up their new status as universities.”
REFORMS AND REGRETS
Investigation by Education Review reveals that the management of Yaba
College of Technology has never really slept before, during and after
the submission of reports by various committees that looked into their
case and gave them a clean bill – The Presidential Technical Committee
of President Olusegun Obasanjo/Ezekwesili tenure, the Senate Committee
on Education, the Implementation Committee on Guidelines for
Degree-Awarding for Colleges of Education and Polytechnics and the
Ministerial Committee that was appointed to oversee the smooth
conversion of the College to degree awarding institution. It was headed
by former vice chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
(LAUTECH), Prof. A.M. Salau.
The committees, Prof. Rufa’i noted, were to propose a workable
document that will guide the ministry in ensuring the implementation of
the approval. The working document, according to her, would contain
issues like staffing, facilities, equipment, students’
admission/transition, funding and accreditation/resource inspection,
among others.
The management of the college worked hard to give the various
committees the documents and information they needed to assist them in
the discharge of their onerous duties. Like Ezekwesili noted in the
document she presented to the Federal Executive Council, during her
tenure, “they have produced their Academic Briefs and by doing so have
satisfied the requirement for licensing as a university.” In one of the
documents titled “Education Sector Reforms: A Presentation on the
Transformation of Yaba College of Technology to City University of
Technology, Yaba,” the management noted that it, currently, has 37
academic departments grouped into nine schools or faculties running
National Diploma (ND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes, a
Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (established in 2003), a
Technical Teacher’s Training Unit (now Faculty of Technical Education
(1992), in affiliation with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for the
award of a Bachelors’ degree in technical education.
The college also runs post-graduate diploma in engineering discipline
in affiliation with Federal University of Technology, Abeokuta (FUTA).
On the entry requirements into the proposed Bachelor of Technology
(B.Tech), Bachelor of Engineering (B. Eng), etc, certificates to be
issued by the university when it becomes fully operational, the
management recommended the retention of the two-year National Diploma
(ND) as a terminal programme, as well as a feeder to the proposed B.Tech
degree (“in relevant programme with minimum CGPA of 3.00 or Lower
Credit for a 3-year B.Sc programe including a six-month supervised
industrial attachment”).
It also recommended that the entry requirements for the ND be based
on the current NUC minimum standards for admission into first degree
programmes. On the staff profile, it noted that although it has, for
now, a total of 414 academic staff comprising 17 PhD holders, with 50 on
the queue, 205 M.Sc/M.Tech, 69 B.Sc/B.Ed, 73 HND holders, and, 254
non-teaching staff, comprising 2 PhD holders with 2 in view, 27
M.Sc/M.A/M.Ed, 61 B.Sc and 162 HND holders, a minimum of 20-25% of
academic staff in each faculty should undertake relevant postgraduate
studies, in 2-year phases and “over a six-year period, the percentage of
PhD holders should increase from 1.63 to over 60% (comprising 40% from
existing staff, and 20% from fresh recruitments).”
The management, comprising the 12-member Governing Council, the
Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff, is not sleeping. It has even gone as
far as drawing up an organogram for the proposed City University of
Technology and new academic programmes from the existing ones,
programmes which the Prof. Okojie-led Implementation Committee on
Guidelines for Degree-Awarding for Colleges of Education and
Polytechnics, insist, should focus on technological education because a
lot of other institutions established for the same purpose had failed in
their mandates.
But as things stand now, the fear is that, of the two partners (the
government and management of the schools) taxed by the Saturday Sun
editorial of July 24, 2010, not “to go to sleep after the laudable
transmutation”, but “to ensure that the institutions truly live up their
new status as universities,” the Federal government which approved the
upgrading in the first is the one which now appears to be sleeping.
A financial document released by the college shows that a total of
N11, 614,077,998.57 is needed to actualize the dream of turning the
college into a full-fledged university. While N5,190,759,750 will be
spent on special capital expenditure like college library, Centre for
Entrepreneurship Development, expansion of college medical centre, Epe
Campus, utility vehicles, resurfacing of university and staff quarters
road, construction of two main gates at Abule-Ijesha end, diversion of
main road from Abule Ijesha end to Atan/UNILAG road, construction of
lecture theatre for 750 students, expansion of college store, etc,
N6,423, 318, 248.57 will be needed for additional recurrent expenditure
like personnel, overhead, expected personnel and expected overhead.
“Unfortunately, after the work done by the Federal government
constituted implementation panel, both in 2006 and 2010 respectively,
nothing has been heard about this laudable decision of the government,” a
source from the college who does not want his name in print, lamented.
“We must put it on record that since 2010 and after the second
pronouncement of Yaba College of Technology as a university, 13 new
universities have been established by the Federal government of Nigeria
and they have taken off.”
Asked to comment on the issue, Mr. Adekunle Adams, the Public
Relations Officer of the college, admitted in a chat with Education
Review, that although like every average human being, they are anxious
to see the university take off, he is hopeful and confident that “the
government will do something about it, after it has finished dotting its
t’s and dotting its i’s.” Alhaji Aliyu Othman, the Senior Special
Assistant (Media), to the Minister of Education said as much when he
told Education Review that there are some legislative processes
involved.
“The process is on and will soon get to the Federal Executive Council
from where it will be sent to the National Assembly as a bill to be
passed into law,” he assured. “From the little I know about legislative
process, it may take some time. We need to exercise some patience. But I
can assure you that Yabatech and Kaduna Poly will soon become
full-fledged universities.”
TheSun
