The House of Representatives Committee on Polytechnics and other Higher Technical Education has discovered that the newly established Federal Polytechnic, Ugep, in Cross River State has only 142 students with about 154 academic and non-academic staff.
The polytechnic has also spent about N600 million on personnel and overhead costs with another N38 million spent on local travels by the institution.
The revelation came to limelight when the Rector of the Polytechnic, Professor Edward N.Okey led management of the institution to the House as part of oversight function.
As part of its ongoing oversight of institutions under its purview, the Committee had invited Federal Polytechnics and some other technical institutions from the South-South, including Federal Polytechnic, Orogun; Federal Polytechnic, Ugep; Federal Polytechnic Oil &Gas, Bonny; Federal Polytechnic, Auchi; Federal Polytechnic, Ekowe; Federal Polytechnic Ukana and the National Institute of Construction Technology Management, Uromi to appear before it.
Chairman of the Committee, Fouad Laguda (APC, Lagos) and members were also angered that the Polytechnic established in 2021 we’re spending such huge amount of money as expenditure for just 142 students.
Making his submission before the Committee, the Rector said that he spent N2 Billion take-off grant received by the institution to renovate the abandoned and dilapidated Ugep Community Secondary School to serve as a temporary campus, while putting up structures at the Institute of Technology Management (ITM) which he said they have eventually taken over as their permanent site.
He said: “Our school was established in 2021 and were to start the school at a temporary site in the state Polytechnic called Institute of Technology and Management (ITM). But, when we got there, we could not get the state Polytechnic to start the school.
“The first challenge we had was to identify a temporary site to start the school. That took us more than a year, because Ugep is not a big town and get a school for us to start was not an easy task.
“After going around the village, we ended up with dilapidated buildings of a secondary school called Ugep Community Secondary School. The Principal of that school told us that, those buildings were abandoned for 25 years. So, we have to renovate those buildings. It took us more than one year to renovate those buildings for us to start.
“We started about different 10 projects on the permanent site. Some are at different levels of completion. But getting students and staff in Ugep has not been an easy task, because of some kind of stigma that Ugep carries.
“Even my Council members, the first set, refused to come to Ugep to hold meetings because they are scared of Ugep because Ugep used to have a tradition of eating people. But, that was hundreds of years ago.
“That doesn’t happen again. But, once there is a stigma, its difficult to erase. We have been working to erase that stigma, the people need the school. They need that exposure, but to attract students is not easy.
“Since we started, it was just last month that we were able to take over the school. The state polytechnic in Ugep started in 2012 by former governor, Liyel Imoke. Since 2012, they have a total number of 63 students, and that tells you the difficult nature of the place.
“We started with 16 students, but this year, we have admitted 63, bringing the number to 79. So, invariably, we have performed more than the school that started 12 years ago. Now, we have a total of 142 because took over the students and staff of ITM”.
He also told the committee that “we had a take-off grant of N2 Billion. We use part of it to renovate the school we started with. We used part of it to construct School of Engineering, we also used part of it to construct the Perimeter fence, a Guest House and to buy a Hilux which is the only vehicle I am using now.
However, a member of the Committee, described the spending by the institution as a waste and unsustainable, saying, “It is high time we tell ourselves the truth. If you have 142 students, that’s like an Elementary school. In my village, we have a primary school. The students there are more than 500.
“A Polytechnic, a federal Polytechnic for that matter having 142 students and your personnel is N496 million, almost N500 million, for a school that has 142 students. Your overhead is N159 million, for a school that 142 students. Your Capital is N25 million. What is the justification for all this spending?”.
Chairman of the Committee, Laguda expressed the disappointment of the Committee over the poor presentation by the institutions.
He said: “We called schools from South-South for an oversight and not one of the schools met the required requirements or did what was expected, considering the fact that you had over a week notification.
“But you’ve been aware over two months ago that your turn was going to come. Because we’ve been doing this oversight function for a while. Out of seven schools, one of the schools is not even here today. Out of the six schools, only three came with half-baked reports. Three others were not prepared for us.
“And we took our own time, left every other thing that we had to do. To ensure this day, this exercise sees the light of the day. We are going to request that you’re going to come back.
“See the clerk after now to give you requirements of what is expected of your budget review. We would, in less than a week, recall you here to come and make this presentation.