Make polytechnics catalysts of Nigeria’s economic growth

When Nigeria got independence in 1960, there was the growing need for rapid economic and technological development. This increased the desire for high level technical and scientific knowledge with skilled-based education programmes, resulting in the appetite for polytechnic education in the country.

The emergence of polytechnics called for the training of technical personnel to implement technological development of Nigeria.

Polytechnics were established to among other things, provide technical knowledge and skills for the overall development of Nigeria, in line with the National Policy on Education (NPE). It is therefore expected that Nigerian governments take polytechnic or technical education seriously, but this is not the case as they have not given it the pride of place as deserved.

In a lecture delivered at the Federal Polytechnic, Bida on March 27, 2018, Prof. A.B. Ahmed of the Bayero University, Kano noted that in spite of the role polytechnics are supposed to play in Nigeria’s economic diversification and sustainable development, their impact has become very insignificant as a result of institutional and infrastructural inadequacy, funding, negative perception, discrimination and disenchantment in the sector among polytechnic graduates.

That notwithstanding, polytechnic education is designed to promote industrial technology and technological development and transformation and serve as change agent not only for technical systems but also for many other societal changes.

Prof. Ahmed nonetheless noted that polytechnics by their nature, can serve as change agents for economic transformation. This transformation has become necessary to address challenges of rising unemployment and social crises by expanding the horizon of employment generating activities, especially in the non-oil sector, where the potentials remain great and largely unexploited. This is especially as informed by Nigeria’s monolithic economy since the 1980’s which has been persistently threatened by the instability in crude oil prices in the international market. Faced by the obvious consequence of heavy dependence on oil revenue and price volatility, Nigeria’s economy is sliding into a spiral of damage from the plunge in world oil prices. Government has therefore come to terms with the growing need for economic diversification.

According to Prof. Ahmed, it must be noted that without a proper policy on polytechnic or technical education and training there cannot be sustainable economic development in Nigeria, and government must ensure increased productivity and output, value addition, economic diversification and selfsustenance. That underlies the crucial need for polytechnics. He argued that the practical nature of polytechnic education makes it unique in content and approach, thereby requiring special care and attention. The inputs of polytechnic/ technical education he said, are so visible to the extent that an illiterate could see when “failures” occur. Polytechnic products are supposed to solve social problems in sustainable ways, and to be able to do so, they need to be sufficiently informed in technical education concepts and the application of its theoretical principles to solve practical problems.

The potentials of Nigeria’s youth ought to be properly harnessed through polytechnic/technical education for various technical skills that will empower them commercially and technologically. From the foregoing, it can thus be established that polytechnics have a very important role to play in Nigeria’s quest for economic diversification through being a mechanism for the generation of a surplus in the primary sector of the economy as more often than not the surplus generated in the primary sector is associated with export expansion.

Ahmed called for special legislation to encourage and develop polytechnic/ technical education, eg: having a National Polytechnics Commission, serous government commitment to proper funding of polytechnics, promotion of respect for technical education, a serious political will and commitment to train students in technical areas where they can graduate and be self-employed while also creating employment for others. In this way, polytechnic education can become a source of emancipation from unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment as skills and necessary knowledge are acquired for economic progress and development, thus reducing over dependence on oil revenue with its attendant volatility.