Dichotomy between degree and HND is ungodly — Sen. Marafa on november 08, 2014 at 8:21 pm in features Facebook Share Twitter Share By Johnbosco Agbakwuru Senator Kabir Marafa is the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resouces (Upstream). He represents Zamfara Central on the platform of the All Progressives Congress. He is one of the most vocal opposition senators. In this interview, Senator Marafa said it is ungodly and hypocritical to discriminate between degree and Higher National Diploma, HND, in the workforce. He also speaks on other issues. Excerpts: The bill to end dichotomy between degree and HND scaled through second reading in the senate, has the Senate the political will to abolish degree / HND dichotomy? As far I’m concerned, this is one of the hypocrisy that is prevalent, unfortunately, in our body polity in the country. The fact of the matter is that the first degree holder happens to be in the civil service earlier than the HND (Higher National Diploma) 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 made bold to say that 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 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 process, 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 having the HND holders to pass through the system like them, would be a threat to them. You could see even from the pattern of debate on the floor of the senate on Thursday. You don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that most of those who made their contributions were hypocritical. Hypocritical, how? For instance, 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 said, that in this current age of computer, communication and technological advancement, we have open universities whereby one can study from his bedroom and earn a degree which would be recognized by everybody. So, simply because we have a polytechnic that operates from a two-bedroom flat, does not mean that all polytechnics are bad. Somebody also talked about requirements for admission into polytechnics. It has been variously argued that examination is not the true test of one’s ability. Now, a lot of our retired and serving military officers passed through the Nigerian Defence Academy when it was just a three year programme but because of this craze for degrees, those who went through the system then, because they have the opportunity to become the political leaders of Nigeria, they were able to change the 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 are not degree holders in those days? The bottom line is that, we all got it wrong. 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 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. 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. 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. They insisted that they have no business being in the civil service because they should be on the field especially when they spend less number of years to acquire their certificate. 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 discrimination are being eliminated in all facets of life both locally and internationally, why do we want to continue to perpetrated this discrimination against HND graduates? On the number of years being spent in 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 differs. 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 chosen career. For instance, somebody who passed through the Nigerian Defence Academy in the 1960s and 1970s, spent three years but he can go on to become a Field Marshall in the Nigerian Army. They have never said that because you spend three years, and now since we have people who are spending between four to five years, and coming out with degree, 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. 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. 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. Those who are going for degree 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
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 21:35:13 +0000
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