"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"
he continued discrimination against polytechnics graduates with Higher National Diploma (HND) is ungodly, says Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa, Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream).
In an interview with Osun Defender, Senator Marafa, said imposing a promotion bar for HND holders is an ungodly act.
"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," he said.
Marafa argues that, in terms of performance on the job, polytechnic graduates complete favorably with university graduates.
He used his experience at Kaduna refinery as an example.
"I am an HND holder. I graduated from the famous Kaduna Polytechnic. I made bold to say that I completely 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 who we worked together.
"My appointment was confirmed before most of them.
"There is nothing they can show me to prove that they are better than me."
The Senator said the problem is that university degree holders in positions of power who feel threatened by polytechnic graduates enforce the discrimination.
"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," he said.
"This is the fact of the matter. "
Mafara painted a clear image of the challenges faced by
"I was discriminated against when I was at the Kaduna 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."
The HND/BSc debate has been on on for quite a long time with several arguments for and against.
In an interview with an Abuja based newspaper, Dr. Kabiru Matazu, Rector of Hussaini Adamu Federal Polytechnic Kazaure, called for the removal of the dichotomy.
Also, the National President of National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) Com. Ogbonnaya Sunday, the problems of polytechnic students and graduate can be traced to the dichotomy.
Even more recently, Professor Femi Mimiko, Vice Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State,described the dichotomy as unnecessary.
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