Moshood Abiola Polytechnic crisis deepens as teachers boycott examinations

The Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta was mired in confusion as the staff of the institution shunned the second semester examination billed to start yesterday.

This followed a faceoff between the Ogun State government and members of the institution’s Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) over the conversion of the Polytechnic to Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (MAUSTECH), and the establishment of Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia.

MAPOLY was relocated to Ipokia in Ipokia council area of the state, while the students were billed to move to the new campus in November.

However, students who had prepared for the examination were stranded, as there was no teaching staff to neither conduct the examination nor address the students on the new development.

When The Guardian visited the institution’s Ojere Campus, members of the union were sighted in their large numbers attending their scheduled emergency congress at the Union House.

Attempts to speak with some of them, however, yielded no gains as they declined comments on the outcome of the meeting.

ASUP Chairman, Kola Abiola, who spoke on a television programme, revealed that their grievances included government’s refusal to include their members in its technical committee to work towards the new arrangement.

He noted that the committee neither consulted them on any issues nor sought their views on the new arrangement.

He explained that while the new university had been recognised by the National Universities Commission (NUC), the staff were yet to know the status of the new Polytechnic.

He said the new polytechnic had not been recognised by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) but courses were yet to be accredited.

“With all these controversies, Abiola said, the government is still bent on moving the lecturers to the new polytechnic,” he added.

Abiola explained that three different letters had been written to the state Commissioner for Education, Modupe Mujota, while another one was written to the Governor through her office but none of them has been acknowledged.

On the proposed examinations for which timetable had been released, Abiola said, “We are not on strike. Examinations are not starting but lectures still continue.”

Efforts to speak with the management of the institution were unsuccessful as calls to the mobile line of the Public Relation Officer (PRO), Sulaiman Adebiyi, was switched off.