ASUP Rejects Tinubu's New Polytechnic Governing Councils, Demands Review

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has pushed back against the newly reconstituted governing councils for Nigeria's federal polytechnics, describing the appointees as lacking any real understanding of how the polytechnic system works. In a statement signed by ASUP President Shammah Kpanja, the union said it was dismayed after reviewing the list, arguing that it fell well short of what the sector needed. Kpanja said the union had long pushed for council appointments to include people with direct experience in the sector — such as former rectors, other former principal officers, ex-chief executives and staff of the regulatory body, and current or retired chief lecturers — noting that Nigeria has no shortage of such qualified individuals. "The current composition falls significantly short of the above as no such person(s) in the categories listed was appointed. This is a great disservice to the Polytechnics," he said. ASUP pointed out what it called a troubling contrast with how councils were constituted for universities and colleges of education, noting that former executive secretaries of regulatory bodies were reportedly appointed to those sub-sectors, along with former principal officers and retired or serving staff — categories the union says were conspicuously absent from the polytechnic list. Kpanja framed the situation as part of a longstanding pattern of neglect toward polytechnics, warning that the current list risked deepening the sector's problems rather than solving them. "Our Union views this unwholesome trend as an extension of the age-long discrimination against Polytechnics in the country and an attempt to push the sector into crisis," he said, adding that, left unchanged, the list could turn polytechnic governance over to businessmen rather than sector-competent leadership. The union is now demanding that the list be reviewed before the new councils are inaugurated, to bring in people with genuine knowledge of polytechnic operations. ASUP argued that such a review would help the sector avoid a governance crisis it believes is likely if the current list stands. The council appointments come nearly a year after the Tinubu administration dissolved the governing councils of federally owned universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. The new list was released on Saturday and signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Didi Walson-Jack.