Thursday, July 31, 2025 - The
Rector of the Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, Dr Moses Umobong has
dismissed the allegation of succession crisis in the institution, describing as
baseless and unfounded the rumour that he was pushing for the appointment of
his kinsman to succeed him,
Umobong whose tenure will by November this year said he does
not have the powers to influence such appointment stressing that only the
Executive governor and visitor to the institution has the sole powers to
appoint Rectors of Polytechnic.
In a statement endorsed by a ‘Concerned Annang
Citizen’ and circulated online had claimed that the Rector in collaboration
with leaders of the three unions in the Polytechnic: Academic Staff Union of
Polytechnics, , the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated
Institutions the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics and
the Ibibio Union, is sponsoring a preferred successor from his ethnic group,
Ibibio, thereby marginalizing the Annangs and other ethnic nationalities in the
state
The group said such move if allowed would not only cause
disharmony among the ethnic groups in the institution but would lead to
institutional crisis by ultimately burying the only state-owned institution of
higher learning located in Annang land.
But addressing journalists who visited to know his side of
the story at the Polytechnic premises on Wednesday, the Rector wondered how
someone whom he described as “faceless” could come up with such allegations
knowing fully well that in the case of State Polytechnic, all appointments of
Principal Officers are made by the Governor.
Umobong regretted that someone could be playing politics of
ethnic sentiment in institution of higher learning instead of championing
excellence and academic growth.
He said, “My job is just to write officially to the
governor, telling him when I’ll be exiting(which I have already done) and
obtain permission to advertise. When that approval is granted; advertisement
would be placed and council will conduct interviews. The NBTE is the regulator,
they have set up some guidelines for the appointment of a Rector, which must be
strictly followed. So how do I come in here?
“During my time, we were eight that applied or contested. We
sat for the interview, fortunately for me, I was appointed the Rector. So, are
you saying that somebody, should be a sole candidate?
‘’Well, if no other person is interested, fine, but if there
are other interest groups, they have the right to apply. All these allies are
supposed to go to the governor and say, Governor, I warn you, you must appoint
this person from this particular ethnic group. To show your supremacy, to show
your powers.’
He said he would not be distracted by such speculations
recalling how he was able to secure 100 percent accreditation of all the
courses and programmes of the polytechnic since assumption of office;
thereby placing AkwaPoly from the 99th ranking position to 2nd position as the
best polytechnic in Nigeria.
His words, ‘At the time I took over, the Polytechnic was in
the national ranking on the 99th position, 99th position out of a total number
of 110 Polytechnics, signifying that there was something professionally wrong.
So with the corporation of all the staff and all of us, we were able to put all
our efforts together, work hard together.
After two years, ranking came again. The third year of my
tenure, we achieved the 18th position. And in 2023, we were ranked second best
Polytechnic in Nigeria. Polytechnic Illaro came first, we came second. By the
grace of God, the State government has been very supportive, funding us and so
on.
“The ranking has to do with the number of valuable factors,
part of which would be the number of programs you run and the accreditations
you have. I don’t want to take you too far, but I want to tell you that as we
speak today, all the programs in the Polytechnic have accreditation. We are not
running any illegal program.
‘I came to meet some of them that have no accreditation, but
I secure accreditation for all of them. And then secondly, what is very
important to note is, the Department of Mechanical Engineering that only
existed on paper work. We have the Department of Mechanical Engineering
Technology, Mechatronics Engineering, Welding and Fabrication, no
accreditation, we have secured accreditation for all.”
Umobong said when he took over he tried to sanitize the
system by ensuring that staff members go for higher academic qualifications and
those in professional courses register with their professional bodies
“By the time I took over, we had some who were there for
over 25 years or plus with first degree. They were not bothered to go for any
other higher qualification. They were so satisfied with first degree. There was
this indiscriminate, unmerited promotion, so we wrote to His Excellency, the
Governor and Proprietor asking him to give us permission to invite the National
Board for Technical Education, the Regulator to do academic staff audit and
non-academic staff audit. Let’s see where we got it wrong, why we’re not
growing? The Governor granted the approval and we invited the NBTE and we
discovered so many anomalies. Doing that, you necessarily must step on toes.
“The good thing is today, we have over 60 holders of PhD.
Master’s degree holders are numerous, everybody is going back to school, that
is it! It looks like an institution now. You can’t have a first degree and
become a professor or you become a Chief Lecturer with a first degree? Some
persons never published anything, how do you want to grow, in academics, you
either publish or you do what?You perish. As long as I’m here, you show your
publications,I have mine. I will show you mine, my CV is here. You see my
publications over the years, till this year.”
The Rector thanked the governor, Pastor UmoEno and his predecessor for their supports and attempts to reposition the polytechnic and put it in an enviable height and prayed that his legacies in the institution would be sustained.
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