Engr. Mustapha Zubair is the Acting Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Auchi in Edo State. In this interview, he speaks on his efforts to improve the quality of training in the school, the importance of technical and vocational education among other issues.

By Ozioruva Aliu

WHAT has the experience been since you assumed office?  

When you come into an office, the expectations will be high and everybody wants attention. The first thing is to let the people know that in as much as we want to resolve so many issues, we would have to work within the available resources because globally it has been a critical time in terms of finance. On assumption of office, we had to go for accreditation that was to have been done in 2019. 

So, the struggle started because if our courses are not accredited, it is as good as we are not existing and people would not want to hear that it was the change in leadership that made us fail accreditation. We have just come out of the COVID-19 lockdown, however, within our limited resources we had to do the accreditation. Some classrooms, offices, and even residential accommodations were in a bad state.

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Even water supply too was a problem because before now we were being supplied water with tankers, but to the glory of God, that issue has been resolved as  we now have boreholes that supply water directly to the homes in the two staff quarters that we have. We extended the same to offices and our KG, primary and secondary schools. The accreditation was a test of my administration and it scaled through. We have 21 programmes from 17 departments that faced accreditation and we scaled through in all of them.

Staff taking the institution to court

Legally, when a case is in court, you cannot meddle into it, as advised. Most of the cases were determined by either the council or the ministry of education. Those who felt aggrieved are the ones that went to court and what we have advised them is that if they want their cases to be looked into they should consider withdrawing them from the court and some of them have done that. 

Although a few of them won at the Industrial Court, the school is appealing against the ruling. But what we are telling them is that these are cases that were determined by the council and the ministry of education, so, administratively I may not have the power to overturn such decisions. We have, however, appealed that we would re-present some of these cases to the council at the appropriate time and they may take a new position on them- that is the persuasion we are giving them.

Dwindling interest in qualitative research in higher institutions

Interest is the first thing that counts. The Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, is helping to an extent and I know it is aiding a number of our staff who are into research.   

There is an intervention referred to as Institutional-Based Research, IBR, that is normally released by TETFUND to all institutions. In Auchi Poly, we make it open and anybody that throws in their proposals will be processed, and once approved you can have your money. We have been making progress in terms of research. On a larger note, I keep saying that Nigeria will not get out of its economic mess until we go into massive production of goods and services. All we do now is buying and selling. It is only when you are into production that you will determine what you want by fixing prices and other factors.  

Some of us were spurred to read engineering going by what we experienced in the late 70s and early 80s when you look at our manufacturing sector, but today, everything is dead. So, except we revive that and we see ourselves going into production and manufacturing by encouraging science and technology, I am sorry if it is this buying and selling, we are getting nowhere.

Cultism and drug abuse among students

What these students need is attention. Many of them go into these practices because, maybe, the desired attention of the management or individuals is not there and before you know it they may feel that if you do not get it the normal way, why not the abnormal way. 

One of my fears, when I took over, was how to manage these students, but even before I became the acting Rector I meddled in many of the crises, so, already, we have been interacting.    In the area of cultism, it is all about who you are. I have always counselled them as my children and let them know the evils inherent in cultism. I challenge them most times by telling them that after 17 years of training, they end up carrying guns as a cultist and become lunatics and criminals.  

We also have a series of programmes and workshops where these issues are addressed. However, we have also tried to make the facilities in their hostels conducive for them to live in so that we do not have a crisis.  

Initial tension in the school

I have been part of Auchi Polytechnic for a while now because this is my 23rd year here, so, I know a little of the institution. When you are in a system, you see yourself as part of that system and even if you are not in a position to change certain things, there must be agitation- what if things are done this way? Again, you take a look at some of the things that are causing the crisis. 

These are what informed the proactive measures I took when I came on board.

Having established the causes of the conflict we needed to find the solution to it because once a problem is identified, you know that the solution is on its way. Yes, some staff members were aggrieved and that led to some decisions being taken at council and management levels. What we did was to let them know that we did not have enemies among them and we agreed that all problems should be resolved administratively.

Relationship with the host community

Well, I do not want to give myself self-appraisal but I am overwhelmed at what they say about me in the community. We have a very good working relationship. 

If not for anything I will always give thanks to them, not just in the Auchi community, but also in Jattu, South-Ibie, and other neighbouring communities. I think what I enjoy is the favour of God. We even went as far as intervening for the off-campus students who were asked by their landlord to renew their rent when they came back from the COVID-19 lockdown, we made the landlords understand that it cannot be so because they have not been around and had only resumed continuing the 2019/2020 session, which they agreed. We made them understand that rent should be based on the academic year, not the normal calendar year and they allowed the students to remain.