Does the Senate have the political will to abolish Degree/ HND dichotomy?

Vice chairman of the Senate Com­mittee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Senator Kabir Gar­ba Marafa, a chemical engineer, tells ADETUTU FOLASADE-KOYI why he supports abolition of the discrimi­nation between degree holders and HND holders in Nigeria.

As far I’m concerned, this is one of the hypocrisies that is prevalent, unfortunate­ly, in our body polity in this country. The fact of the matter is that the first degree holder happens to be in the civil service a lot earlier than the HND holder or poly­technic graduates. So, they have been the ones piloting the affairs of even, the Minis­try of Education and all other parastatals and they always feel threatened by the HND holders. This is the fact of the mat­ter. I am an HND holder. I graduated from the famous Kaduna Polytechnic.
I make bold to say that I competed, not even that I can compete, I competed favourably with first degree holders in a federal parastatal of note. Immediately after graduation, I started working with the Kaduna Refin­ery, and in that refinery, I met products of other universities in Nigeria with who we worked together. My appointment was confirmed before most of them. During that time, members were made to pass through on-the-job training among other processes, for six months. We discussed and debated over a lot of issues together especially concerning the practical and theoretical aspects of the job.
There is nothing they can show me to prove that they are better than me. The truth is that the leadership at almost all the strata was being occupied by degree holders, and for whatever reasons, they feel that al­lowing the HND holders to pass through the system like them, would be a threat to them. You could see that, even from the pattern of debate on the floor of the Sen­ate last Thursday. Most of my colleagues were saying a lot of things, but you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that most of those who made their contributions were hypocritical.
How do you mean they were hypocritical?
Somebody said there are polytechnics that are operating from a two-bedroom flat. The truth of the matter is that we even have ghost universities, that are not in ex­istence at all. Like one of my colleagues, Senator Hadi Sirika said, in this current age of the computer, communication and technological advancement, we have open universities whereby one can study from the comfort of your bedroom and earn a degree which would be recognized by everybody. So, simply because we have a polytechnics that operate from a two-bedroom flat, does not mean that all poly­technics are bad! Somebody also talked about requirements for admission into polytechnics; entry points. It has been var­iously argued that examination is not the true test of one’s ability and knowledge. Let me give you a veritable example. Now, tell me, how many people passed through the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA)?
The simple answer is that a lot of our re­tired and serving military officers passed through the NDA when it was just a three year program me, but because of this craze for degrees, and the fact that they were opportune to be the political lead­ers of Nigeria, they were able to change their system to a degree-awarding institu­tion. But can anyone tell me in all honesty that the graduates of NDA now, who are degree holders, are better than the prod­ucts of the same institution, who were not degree holders in those days? The bot­tom line is that we all got it wrong. It’s not about the entry point. The dichotomy has nothing to do with the admission require­ments. The ungodly thing we are doing in this country is to say that the HND holder cannot be promoted beyond a certain grade level, and nobody can defend that wicked injustice. I don’t care about the entry point and you can say whatever you want to say.
I said earlier that I started at the Kaduna Refinery and I was discrimi­nated against when I was at the refinery at the entry point, at that time, A lot of my colleagues are now being frustrated after they were promoted to certain lev­els. They were told point blank that they cannot proceed beyond certain stages un­til they acquire additional qualifications. That was happening after they had prob­ably spent four years of training and ex­cellent performance on the job for over 25 years. I started working with the Kaduna refinery in 1985, and my colleagues that are still there now, are still being told that they cannot be managers. This is ungodly, it is unconstitutional.
Did you leave Kaduna refin­ery because of discrimination?
No. I left before I could reach the man­agerial level. I left, if you want to know, because I felt that I could do better else­where and the job was kind of constrict­ing, because it limited my potentials, kind of. I believe I could make earn more out­side. That’s why I resigned. I was a little far away from the bridge, but as I talk to you, a lot of my colleagues who could not obtain further qualifications are being frustrated despite the fact that they are performing well in their various departments. That is why people are buying qualifications all over the places. That’s what is happening in the system now! After 25 years, after having performed very well on the job, you now bring someone who has B.SC to be their boss! Can you tell me that former President Olusegun Obasanjo doesn’t know every aspect of engineering? Did he have a degree then? Look at our own Senate President David Mark; you cannot say he wasn’t a Signals man in the Army. Simply because he didn’t obtain a degree at that time wasn’t his fault. It was the system then. If it had been stipulated as a requirement that he must obtain a degree, our Senate President, I know, would have done so. But through no fault of his, you are now saying such person cannot rise beyond certain level?
What is the implication of the HND/degree holders dichotomy bill being referred to the Sen­ate Committee on Education?
It is highly unfortunate and the highest case of hypocrisy, because the commit­tee, first of all, is being dominated by degree holders. They are obviously going to continue with the whole agenda of dis­crimination there.
Some of your colleagues ar­gued that the HND holders have no business in adminis­tration as they are expected to be on the field. Do you agree with their position?
All these arguments are nothing but pure sentiments. I want to say, with due respect; it is all hypocrisy in the land. Hon­estly speaking, at this time and age where all forms of discriminations are being eliminated in all facets of life both locally and internationally, why do we want to continue to perpetuate this discrimination against HND graduates? On the number of years being spent in the university and polytechnic, it takes a minimum of four years to earn an HND, while the number of years being spent in the university to earn degrees before this period differ. If they say that the HND holders have no business in administration, fine and good, but everybody should be able to aspire to the topmost position in his or her cho­sen career.
For instance, somebody who passed through the NDA in the 1960’s and1970’s, spent three years, but he can go on to become a Field Marshall in the Nigerian Army if he remains in service. That’s all! They have never said that be­cause you spent only three years, and now there are people spending between four to five years, and coming out with degrees, those who spent three years in those days, would not end their career at the rank of a major. That is the crux of the matter. That is the bottom-line. To me, it is not about entry point. There is no way you can argue that the HND holder, after spending 25 years on the job cannot be a manager. Please allow him to reach the pinnacle of his career!
But some HND holders are now going to the university to earn a degree in other fields.
Yes. Necessity is the mother of invention. That is the way I see it. It also depends on the individual. To me, I have vowed that I will never go to any university to do any­thing because I am satisfied with the qual­ity of instructions I received at the Kaduna Polytechnic; so, what is happening is just sheer discrimination. Those who are go­ing for degrees after obtaining an HND were being frustrated to do so due to dis­crimination. If I want to go for my PhD, I will look at the polytechnic elsewhere in the world that offers PHD and go for it, be­cause I don’t see any reason why anybody should say that somebody who spent four years and additional one year practical training would be discriminated against as if they are non-Nigerians. The whole sys­tem is frustrating! The implication now is that everybody is running away from the polytechnics and rushing to universities to obtain a degree because we place so much emphasis on paper qualifications.
There are also arguments that some polytechnic graduates cannot express themselves in good English language?
The same thing applies to university graduates. Before I resigned from the Kaduna Refinery in 1993, there are some graduates who were employed then that could not fill the log book correctly, which should be the reports after their shift work for the day. A lot of them could not even do that simple task! We are even seeing them here in our offices in Abuja. We have seen graduates of universities now that cannot construct good sentences in English language. So, it is not a problem that is peculiar to the polytechnic gradu­ates. It affects everybody and it was so because government seems to be eroding everybody into the same direction. People now believe that before they can succeed, they must earn a degree. So, people are now obtaining the certificate through all dubious means. I also disagree with the argument that graduates of universities don’t go to polytechnics. There are lots of university graduates that went to the poly­technics after obtaining their degrees.
Af­ter my HND, I went for a Post-Graduate Diploma in Diplomacy and International Relations at the same Kaduna Polytechnic and I had as classmates, many university graduates and we still have others who are still obtaining PGD’s in various cours­es at polytechnics up till now. It is wrong to believe that a B.A or B.SC can become anything in Nigeria while you place a ceil­ing on HND holders; that he cannot pro­gress unless he obtains a degree! So, what do you want him to do? He has to go and look for that degree! You have a compe­tent engineer or a technologist as the case may be, who’s very good on the job and you say he cannot become a manager. He now goes to the university and study law only to come back to head a technical or­ganization, or agency. Is that not stupid? It doesn’t make sense.
I want to appeal to the Nigerian elite, to, for God’s sake, put sentiments and hypoc­risy aside while looking at issues that af­fects the future of our younger generation. It’s a calamity that has befallen the Nige­rian educational system; to say that the NUC is performing better than the NBTE, etc. It is also wrong to run down the regu­latory agency in charge of polytechnics and colleges of education. If the Nigerian constitution could say a school certificate holder can become the president of Nige­ria or governor of a state in Nigeria; for God’s sake, it will be ungodly for anybody to say that an HND holder cannot become the Managing Director of Kaduna Refin­ery, he cannot become the head of produc­tion, he cannot even become a manager or head the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation or a manager after spending 30 years of his productive life on the job. It’s absolutely unfair to by-pass such per­son and give it to the degree holder.
What is the way forward now?
I want to commend my colleagues for allowing the bill to pass second reading. But I want the Senate Committee on Edu­cation to know that God will definitely ask them if they allow this discrimination to continue. They know, in their innermost minds, that this barrier at the topmost level against the HND is wrong and they cannot defend it. We’ve seen it in Nige­ria today, where a lawyer was appointed head of the NPDC here in Abuja! We do all manners of injustice and we expect to progress? The barrier is simply ungodly! I saw the limitations when I joined the ser­vice and because I was still young, I took the decision to opt out. This is a battle that must be fought. I will support all the polytechnic graduates to ensure that the discrimination and injustice against them comes to an end.