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ASUP calls on NBTE not to sanction ‘illegality’ over new Ogun poly

By Charles Coffie Gyamfi, Abeokuta
28 September 2017   |   3:40 am
The government had upgraded the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta to Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (MAUSTECH) and established a new Polytechnic in Ipokia in Ipokia council of the state.

The ASUP leadership disagreed with the governor over 43 programmes said to have been accredited for the Ogun Poly, saying those programmes belonged to MAPOLY.

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has called on the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) not to sanction ‘illegality’ in the controversy over accreditation of 43 programmes for the newly created Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun, while laying the foundation of the new state owned polytechnic, disclosed that 43 courses had been accredited for the school’s take off in November.

The government had upgraded the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta to Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (MAUSTECH) and established a new Polytechnic in Ipokia in Ipokia council of the state.

The government also constituted a transition committee on MAUSTECH led by Prof. Peter Okebukola. This had led to a faceoff between the local chapter of the ASUP, the government and the committee over the future of the academics.

The ASUP leadership disagreed with the governor over 43 programmes said to have been accredited for the Ogun Poly, saying those programmes belonged to MAPOLY.

The ASUP National Vice President, Timothy Ogunseye, and Southwest Zonal Coordinator, Olawale Omobaorun, while addressing journalists at the MAPOLY campus, Ojere, Abeokuta, challenged the NBTE to speak out on the controversy and make its position known.

They lamented that the regulatory body has refused to talk on the true status of the polytechnic. Ogunseye explained the union was not against upgrade and creation of new polytechnic, but there is no accreditation of courses, infrastructure and other amenities for proper take off of the new polytechnic.

Describing Ipokia as ‘barren’, the vice president added, “there is lack of consultation and discussion with ASUP on the future of its members.” He also demanded co-habitation between staffers of the new university and the polytechnic to guarantee effective take off the Ogun Poly.

According to him, the polytechnic’s hasty take off as planned by the government would only put over 700 academics staff and 18,000 students in untold hardship.

Ogunseye said: “We are calling on the regulatory authority, NBTE, they should not sanction illegality, they cannot come and accredit a programme in a place where there are no classrooms, buildings, workshops, and laboratories. If there is anything at all, the entire infrastructure here belongs to MAPOLY, if the government wants to have a change of name Ogun state polytechnic, there is no problem about that, but all this assets here belong to the polytechnic system.

“Let the university take off on a clean state by government acquiring his own assets, they cannot retain the building and ask people to move to a place, I will call virgin land for now because there is no infrastructure in place.”

On his part, Omobaorun expressed dismay that the MAPOLY “is being killed” for a university “on the altar of politics.”

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