A top player in Nigeria's oil and gas sector, Chief Sina Luwoye, the Chief Executive Officer of EcoGas LPG Refilling Plant has faulted the conversion of Polytechnics to universities by both the Federal Government and State Government, saying government should instead focus on strengthening polytechnics to provide technology driven education required to drive the nation's economy at this critical moment
The President of 83/88 set of Accountancy Department of then Ogun State Polytechnic Abeokuta, now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic in a recent chat with Edu-Biznews expressed the concern during his visit to the Polytechnic to celebrate 35th anniversary of the set with other old classmates including, the Accountant General of the Federation, Dr.(Mrs) Oluwatoyin Shakirat Madein
Luwoye described the recent conversion of the foremost institutions which included Yaba College of Technology, Lagos and Federal polytechnic Ilaro as well as Lagos State Polytechnic and others by government as misplaced priority
According to him, Nigeria as country needs to focus on equipping polytechnics with the needed facilities to produce the needed technologists to drive industries and strengthen them
President of the Egba Economic Summit stressed the need to produce graduates with the needed skills to man local industries which is the essence of the Polytechnic education
"What we have in Nigeria is a misplaced priority, everybody does not need to go to the university.What we need in Nigeria's economy is not much of university graduates . 80 percent of those going to the university today don't have to be in the university. What we need are artisans, professionals . Today in Nigeria you can't get professionals, technicians", he decried
"Our people have the mentality for university education. We are churning out technocrats , administrators , people are going to work for civil servants. It is the industries that make Nigeria great. It is by investing in technology, investing in technology driven education, he stressed
A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (I CAN) stressed the need for policy makers in the education sector to stop the craze for university education by encouraging polytechnics to focus on its core mandate of producing highly skilled graduates to drive industries for the much needed technology growth
"University Education is preparation for life . You need to go and acquire a skill that is sellable out there and that is what polytechnic education is supposed to be
providing to drive economy technologically, that is what we need", he insisted
"Our policy makers everytime are converting polytechnics to universities, every community in Nigeria wants a university but where are we today. For almost sixty years of university education we can't maintain a car in Nigeria,we can't launch sitalite into the space , we can't even govern ourselves", he lamented
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