In this interview, Chief Chukwuemeke Nkenchor Okwuokenye, the Founder/Proprietor of Calvary Polytechnic, Owa-Oyibu Delta State – Nigeria, explains why the Institution actively involves students in practical technical skill, entrepreneural and academic researches. He also shares his dream regarding the school becoming a premus inter pares.
The team of Editors of Time Africa led by Dr. Chidi-Peters Okorie were welcomed into his office, where he explained the history of Calvery Polytechnic and other group of Calvery schools and the treasures therein. With their vast collections of heavy and light machines, equipment for technical studies, it’s no wonder that Calvery Polytechnic is a gem, the departmental buildings feature beautiful unified styles with elegant landscape design.
The institution has worked hard to maintain academic and technical legacies; supporting the translation of research into knowledge and technology to benefit society.
The interview is edited for clarity. Excerpts
Can we meet you sir for the benefit of our readers?
I am Chief Chukwuemeke Nkenchor Okwuokenye; the Inne of Owa Kingdom and the Proprietor of Calvary primary School, Calvary Secondary School and Calvary Polytechnic Owa-Oyibu Delta State.
You invested more in Education particularly in this part of Nigeria. What inspired you investing such huge personal resources into education in Nigeria where the economy seem to nosedive day in day out?
Well, you know education is a very important factor in the growth and development of any nation and of a people. If you are able to educate your people you reduce the challenges by more than 70%. And I have been educated by the support of my parents and the Federal Government because I got scholarship. After my education I was able to secure employment in different Companies especially multi-national Oil industries like Shell; I worked with Shell and also with Mobil and did quite a number of other things. With the education and exposure I was able to move freely in different parts of the world; I was able to communicate confidently in different parts of the world. I was able to do a number of things which I couldn’t have been able to do if I didn’t have that education and experience. Having come out, I felt within me that one of the things that I can do is to invest in education; the education of my people; and then to also support the less privileged. Some of my schools have scholarship scheme for the less privileged especially the orphans and others. That is my little contributions to the development of my people.
Let me move to early formation of education which is the primary school, secondary school. It seems at that level including higher institution are under funded by the government. What is your take on that?
Well, what you are saying is yes and no. Yes in the sense that when you go to the secondary schools, you look at the infrastructure you feel disappointed compared to how it was when we were in school. I attended Edo College Benin City in the 70s and it was a pride to be a student of that school. We had a lot of facilities both buildings, roads network, accommodation among others. But these days it’s a woeful story. You go to schools you see most of the students are under the trees; some are sitting on the floor; some the roofs are leaking and different conditions. That is what we find happening these days. I’m not in the government and I cannot say why? Whether it is because of increase in population or because of the same issue of corruption we’re fighting and concerned about. I cannot say what the root cause is because it’s not as if we don’t have the money because the Federal Government is supposed to be generating, though it’s like the responsibility of the State Government and Local government. But the Federal Government kind of generates most of the money, distributes to the states and local government and the state and local governments have another internal means of generating their own funds. But let me also say no in the sense that starting from my state, my state government has done a lot of work in alleviating these challenges especially as regards rebuilding infrastructure of most of these schools, employing teachers and so on. But we’re still far away from the answer. Well, it has been promulgated and private sector has been encouraged to come into education. And that is why people like us are into education. We have established primary school system; secondary school system with the infrastructure and the high standard of the education that kept making sure that our people are educated. That primary or basic education is very important in our system. And if you get it right, then, the building block of this nation will start getting it right.
Tell me more about Calvary Polytechnic Nigeria.
The school was established about five years ago or thereabout. After the approval of the school by the Federal Government through the National Board of Technical Education, since then we have been admitting students and ensuring that they meet the minimum standard. Technical Education is different from general education. The cost of establishing technical education is very high; it’s in fact double or triple if not more. Because the equipment that are required are very expensive and they’re very many. Their minimum number of laboratories and workshops that is required for a Polytechnic to be approved. Inspections are carried out regularly and we have met those requirements and it cost us a lot of money and our students who have passed out are already working and they are proud that they passed through this institution. Some of them have gone abroad and they are doing very well. And we are proud of that. That’s what gladdens my heart even though I may not be making profits as a businessman but for the fact that I’ve grown as a Nigerian to this level and able to train people that are happy and proud that they passed through this institution, I mean, that gladdens me; that gives me joy and satisfaction. Well, for the Technical Education you can see a lot of machines outside there which we’re using for industrial training and practice by those who are Mechanical and Electrical Engineers; they have place where they can practice and hands on the work. For us we’re happy with what we’re doing; we’re also happy with the community where we come from because of their assistance especially His Royal Majesty Obi Dr Efiezomor; he’s like the life wire of this institution and he’s also the visitor to this institution. He has been doing very well. We have intention on the long term or short term also to continue to do better than we’re doing and to expand in getting more courses and students and continue to encourage more people and great Nigerians. Eventually, you know we cannot live forever here on earth, so the way we’re doing it, if we go, the institution continues and others will carry on the good work which we started.
Are you saying that Polytechnics particularly Calvary Polytechnic is in position or is positioned to give Nigerian youths more of skills than anything they require?
Well, yes because you know in different countries and different places the Federal Government brings out education policies and those policies depends on the need of the nation as they perceive it. There are some times Federal Government understands that they need some special skills and demands like technology based for the purpose of production and development. If they realize that they would make their policy in that direction. Some countries may have gotten production to a very high level; 80% production or 90% production, they may not lay emphasis on technical education. They may lay emphasis on other areas either like some type of medicine, some type of airspace technology, some digital technology now that we’re in digital world computerization among others. It depends on countries. For Nigeria we’re under developed. Production wise we’re very low and I think it is very wise to have that as part of our policy by the Federal Government because if you are not able to produce and continue to be consumer, then, where will your resource come from? Production is very important and so technology based courses are very important. Skills acquisition in that direction is very important that the government should invest in and encouraged as far as I’m concerned.
I want to ask you two straight questions. One is about certificate dichotomy especially B.Sc and HND. What is your mind about it. The second question is access to funds or financial support or grants from Federal Government. The Proprietors of private Universities in Nigeria are making proposals to the Federal Government to grants TETFUND so as to supplement their burden to meet up with the modern educational system. As a Proprietor of Polytechnic in Nigeria what is your body doing to ensure they have government financial support to meet their needs?
For the first question you talked about dichotomy, to the best of my knowledge I think the Federal Government is already doing something to bridge that gap and I encourage them to do that. If your policy is on technical education, that dichotomy should be abridged or removed without much consideration. Because you need to encourage those who are in the Polytechnic. People in the Polytechnic are doing four good years in fact, five years, doing hands on and they need to be encouraged. Encouragement in the sense that, one, you need to have a system that will bring out more technology based technologists or more technologists. A situation where you have less than 1% or so of the people who are technologists or technology based, how would the production be? It’s just like when you say you have less than 10% farmers, how will you feed the remaining 90% population? So, the Federal Government should encourage technology based institutions, one, to increase the people being churned out from these institutions to flood the market. Some of them come out and don’t depend on Federal Government white collar jobs. Some of them come out and start production because of the way they’re being trained. Many of them are producing on their own and making income, paying tax to the Federal Government, providing employment for the unemployed and supporting the government in this unemployment challenge. It is very important for the Federal government to see that as their number one education priority or policy. Nigeria is a developing nation and poverty ridden and part of the cake or the pie the Federal Government has, they need to consider the institutions that are churning out people who will work in the production industries. As much as we need farmers we also need the production industry to also grow so that the nation can grow. It’s just like when I was listening to one of the Presidential candidates, Mr. Peter Obi; he was emphasizing on production. Production is very important and you need money for production. When we come back to TETFUND, it’s not as if the private institutions cannot survive on their own. They have been surviving but then not as in such a way as to make the required change that Federal Government needs. Now the Federal Government need that change by increasing both the quality and quantity of technologists being produced. TETFUND is giving to only Federal and State Governments institutions. The private institutions are even providing more money from their own sweat. You know there is no much profit in this private institutions; it’s also regulated what you do here. The tertiary institutions and Polytechnics are being regulated by the Federal Government, otherwise you can just go and do any kind of abracadabra/miracle and make your money. But no! This people are serious people. If you see the need to support the Federal Institutions and the need to support the state institutions why not the private institutions whom you have supported and promulgated laws that this thing should be established. They were legally established. There is a law to that effect and approval was also given for the institutions by the Federal Government legally approved. Technical education requires a lot of money. We don’t want to lower the standard. We want to produce people who are fit to support this nation. TETFUND should be also extended to private institutions. The forum of proprietors have been meeting and even gone to the state government and National Assembly and we’re praying that the Federal Government will hearken to our cry and see reason why that should be done without much delay. Because any person who is a President or a leader in this nation and have the interest of this nation at heart will know the importance of what we’re saying.
The Polytechnic is situated within the rural environment. The number of students that come here will also be at the low level. What is the management of the school doing to see that more students being admitted?
Thank you for that question and I think it’s part of what we have been discussing. You know tertiary institutions do not really have issue of location in the sense that wherever it is located people will go there. However, you cannot just go and build tertiary institution on a tree and expect everybody to grow wings and fly up there. The admission into private institutions is the sole responsibility of Federal Government through JAMB. Though Proprietors and management of the institution make extra efforts to ensure that that is done. For those remotely located like as we are, we seriously depend on our good works and the media. Media has a lot of roles to play in advertising. So, we go to radio stations, TV stations and other means to advertise our school. We do advert and pay for adverts and use other social media handles and people hear about us and come. But we need to do more and you know that media is not cheap or free. That is why we still talk about cost of running institutions. If you look at all these telecom companies you see how much they spend on adverts in the media.
You have a Polytechnic and in Nigeria you have millions of people writing entrance examinations into various higher institutions in Nigeria. At the end of the day we have less than 45-50% gaining admission thereby throwing the other 40 or 50% back to the streets to seek for admission next year. Tell me more about your school, Calvary Polytechnic Nigeria, and what you are doing to ensure that you get the best of quota in terms of admission for Nigerian youths.
Admission into tertiary institutions is done by JAMB that is an organ of the Federal Government. And if you look at how they were created they also tell you that they are the only people that can give admission. So, every tertiary institution had to go through JAMB. What you noticed is a fact. JAMB need to do more work in that direction to be able to improve on the percentage of those who are admitted into tertiary institutions. When there are little bottlenecks it becomes more and more difficult. However, we continue to discuss and hold meetings regularly with JAMB officials to see how we can work things out. But the fact remains that the percentage admitted is still low. They are so many that finished secondary but not admitted. There’s always a way out. Other countries admit more people than Nigeria, even smaller countries. Why do we have that high percentage? It’s something that can be done. It’s just a matter of time.
Do you meet up to your quota?
No, for a number of reasons. One JAMB and it’s the regulator that gives quota. Like for us it’s the National Board of Technical Education then for Universities it’s the NUC. The letter that we’re given indicating the quota JAMB is copied. JAMB recently introduced an application for admission which is good. But for a long time there were lots of bottlenecks; people were still studying it and even the JAMB were also understudying it for years because of fault that were developed or found in it and other challenges. And they said that that is the only means that you can get admission; and you log in. when there are faults sometimes the students that applied to your school you cannot get them. It’s not because you didn’t do advert or because your school is not good or too far away but that is one of the bottlenecks/challenges. There are other challenges but we’re all working round it. I’ve been working with JAMB and they have been improving on that and hopefully we will get there. Thank you.
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