When I heard the news that Polytechnic graduates would soon be flushed out of the Nigerian Civil Service, my mind was in doubt if this country is sincerely committed to its developmental goals. Why should a country map out goals for development and afterwards erect strictures to stall their attainment?  To discount products of technical education and still hope to achieve the vision 20:2020 is nothing but tomfoolery.
Why are the federal and state governments still funding the polytechnics when the products would later be jettisoned like the appendix. The enthusiasm of these students to learn would be irreparably damaged. They are already aware that Nigerian industries for which they are trained are dead. I weep anytime I pass through Ikeja Industrial Estate and see that many of these factories have been taken over by Pentecostal Churches.

It is the same story with the Challawa and Bompai Industrial Estates in Kano, Trans-Amadi Industrial Layout in Port-Harcourt and Kakuri Industrial Estate in Kaduna. If first rate companies like Michelin and Dunlop could close shop and leave Nigeria, it means those into serious manufacturing still remaining are either buying time or churning out substandard products.

Fifteen years ago, a Boeing 747 was having 6.2 million parts and 245 Kilometres of wiring. Machines are now built to a tolerance level of a Nano. A Nano, in technical terms is a billionth of a metre. This approximates to a strand of hair split into 88,000 units. In the 50 years of our independence, we have not successfully machined out a sprocket much less of manufacturing a bicycle.

There is no empirical evidence by way of an assessment to show that polytechnic graduates are less productive than their colleagues with university degrees. I always give glory to God that William Shakespeare, a literary genius, and James Watt, an excellent toolmaker and the inventor of the steam engine never attended a University. Had they attended Oxford or Cambridge, they would have shared God’s glory with humans.

It is useful to ask the purpose that would be served if polytechnic graduates are flushed out of the ministries of Science and Technology, Petroleum Resources, Works, Housing, and Aviation. Is government telling us that the billions of Naira spent on the capacity building of staff by way of courses, seminars and workshops have been wasted?

If the government is bent on adopting a “Degree or nothing” policy, is it impossible to sponsor these polytechnic graduates in batches to the university for their degrees?

This proposed action of government betrays a complete ignorance of technical education and its value in the economic growth and development of nations. I do agree that polytechnic graduates are best suited for the industry, but one would ask those who gave them employment in the Civil Service to justify why they were engaged in the first place.

In the late 1970s up to 1980, the Federal Government made tuition and feeding free in Nigerian polytechnics. The aim then was to boost technical manpower in Nigeria. In addition to the polytechnics at Yaba-Lagos, Kaduna, Enugu, Ibadan, Ilorin, Calabar and Auchi, federal polytechnics were established then in Idah, Bida, Nassarawa, Mubi, Oko, Afikpo and Ilaro to accommodate more students. It is some of the graduates of these institutions that would soon be flushed out of the Nigerian Civil Service.

The level to which technical education has sunk in Nigeria is appalling. Most of the university graduates interviewed for engineering positions in our factory demonstrated a very poor knowledge of engineering drawing. Many of them could not sketch on paper simple isometric drawings. Some of them could not tell the relationship between a centimeter and a meter.

Some, who were able, could not visualize the magnitude of measurements. If someone says he is 3.2 meters tall, then he should agree that he is taller than a football goal post.  One of them could not identify a vernier caliper on a tools rack.

It is as bad as that. They attempt to cover their deficiency by telling you that they are trained to design. What are you designing when your drawing is very bad? But it is not entirely their fault; it is due mainly to the fact that they had been poorly educated.

Dr. Isaac Nnadi OFR, a renowned engineer, who has contributed a lot to technical education in Nigeria, many years ago, recommended an equivalent of a University Teaching Hospital for Engineering. The last two years of a five-year program should be spent doing project-based courses in a comprehensively equipped machine room cum workshop environment.

If Apostle Paul says, faith without works is dead; I take privilege to declare that engineering without hands-on experience is dead.

We should be prepared for emergency Masters and Doctorate degrees in the light of this new policy. Who doesn’t want to become a lecturer? Thank God for the Internet, some PHD thesis would be written in three weeks.

My advice is that polytechnic graduates should be left alone. Sacking them and retaining university graduates is not necessary. It is like embarking on the sorting of dead bodies in a cemetery before burial into those who died a natural death and those who died by accident. We learnt from the Bible that it is a wasteful exercise to be looking for the living amongst the dead.

My prayer is that government should do something urgently to save technical education in Nigeria.
*Mr. Oluwole Osagie-Jacobs – An Economist and a Chartered Accountant.