Apart from the fact that since its establishment in 2021, the Federal Polytechnic Ohodo has witnessed a slow pace of development, progress, and expansion in all ramifications, the sudden demise of its pioneer Rector, Prof. Edwin Onyeneje, nearly five months ago, has compounded the hopeless situation with the desperate and clandestine moves by the Senator Emmanuel Dangana led Governing Council to install the most unfit candidate, Dr. Emmanuel Ebiri, as the Rector.
Dr Ebiri, a man, whose appointment with the Polytechnic has not been confirmed, was installed as Acting Rector following Prof Onyeneje’s death has presided over the near total collapse of the institution in the past four months due largely to inexperience, trackrecord, and questionable academic qualifications. The situation at the Federal Polytechnic Ohodo is that the institution has only one department and 8 students after 3 years of existence.
The Polytechnic environment is so unkept and hardly secure enough to encourage parents to send their wards to the institution. Simply put, everything appears to be wrong with the way the institution is constituted and ran. Otherwise, why is it that a state institution like the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS) which was established in 2022, one year after the Polytechnic was established, has over 4,000 students spread over 21 Departments.
It is therefore worrying that the Emmanuel Dangana led Governing Council would collapse all rules and expectations just to recycle the well acknowledged failures by the handlers of the institution in the past years by mindlessly and partisanly appointing Dr Ebiri as the Rector.
Recall that among other requirements, a candidate for the Rector should have included being a Chief Lecturer for five years, a doctoral qualification for 5 years, considerable publications in indexed journals, etc. Investigations revealed that the Council poster boy does not meet up with these requirements.
Indeed, to show that the appointment of a Rector by the Governing Council may after all not go well, over 50 well qualified applicants were rejected, and only 5 candidates scheduled for the selection interview. Even at that, all the other four candidates possess more profound qualifications and experience than what the Council is deciding to settle down for.
Sadly, this was a Federal Polytechnic that was attracted by the effort of influential sons of Enugu State and the Enugu State Government that provided and reconstructed an existing school for its proper take off. It beats people’s imagination that the same Enugu State government has not shown interest in what is going on in the institution, including ensuring that enduring development and stability become the trajectory for the future.
It also worrisome that the Governing Council of the Polytechnic that advertised vacancy for the position of the Rector, is obviously not sticking to the criteria they set by subterranean move to appoint Ebiri, the least qualified among the so called five shortlisted persons as Rector of the stunted and struggling Polytechnic.
