By Dons Eze
Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo, in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State formerly known as Enugu State College of Agriculture and Agro-Entrepreneurship, is an institution of higher learning owned by the Enugu State Government. The polytechnic was established via the Enugu State Government Edict No. 6 of May 2009.
The edict empowered the polytechnic to provide courses of instruction, training, and research in various colleges, including Engineering Technology, Agricultural Technology, Applied Science Technology, Business Management Technology, and other fields of study, and to confer diplomas and certificates in these areas.
Specifically, Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo, offers courses on Animal Health and Production Technology, Horticultural Technology, Banking and Finance, Accountancy, Production Technology, Agricultural Technology, Computer Science, Labour Economics, Environmental Biology, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, among others.
After about ten years of existence, the Enugu State House of Assembly in August 2020, came up with an Amendment Law No. 6 of 2020, which empowered the Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo, to have “three campuses in the three senatorial districts of the state”.
Earlier, while presenting the bill for amendment of the law establishing the polytechnic, the Leader of the Assembly, Mr Ikechukwu Ezeugwu, said the multi-campus system of the institution would bring about development to the rural areas.
He explained that apart from developing the rural communities where the campuses would be cited, it would create employment as well as encourage youths in the rural areas to have access to quality higher education.
“The campuses will bring development in the new places the schools will be cited. It will give the people the opportunity to advance academically. It will create employment for the people,” he said.
With the passage of the Amendment Bill by the State House of Assembly and its assent into law by the Governor, the State Government approved the establishment of a Campus of the Polytechnic for Enugu North Senatorial District in Udenu Local Government Area, with Community Secondary School, Ezimo Uno, as its temporary site.
As a follow-up to the creation of the new campus, some core courses offered by the polytechnic at Iwollo, were yanked off and transferred to the Ezimo-Uno Campus. In the same vein, all the concerned lecturers and students of the institution who offer those courses, were transferred to the new campus.
As things currently stand, since the creation of the Ezimo Uno Campus of the institution, there has been stunted growth of the polytechnic at Iwollo. The whole place now looks like a ghost town. Nothing tangible seems to be happening, with everything on a downward trend. For instance, there is no single block placed on top of the other in terms of constructing a new building, since the creation of the new campus.
In effect, multi-campus system of an institution of higher learning is for political convinience, simply to satisfy some interest groups. It is very expensive and very difficult to run, particularly in a fragile economy like ours. Both the former Anambra State Government, and present Enugu State Government, had experimented it with the Anambra State University of Technology (ASUTECH), and the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) respectively, and it did not work. So, they jestioned it.
In the present circumstance, the Ezimo-Uno Campus of Enugu State Polytechnic is still being housed in a secondary school, while in its main campus at Iwollo, nothing new has been added. So, where is the so-called “rural development,” which the House Leader, Ikechukwu Ezeugwu, had gleefully told us that polytechnic will bring due to its multi-campus structure?
Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo, in Ezeagu Local Government Area is the only tertiary institution in the whole of Enugu West Senatorial Zone. Some people believe that the introduction of the multi-campus system, means robbing Peter to pay Paul, which translates to killing the institution.
Some time ago, we were told about the Enugu State University of Education, Ihe, in Awgu Local Government Area. Nowadays, we no longer hear anything about the institution. Perhaps, it might have died in the womb of those who conceived the idea. Some people say that the whole site is now overgrown with weeds.
Thus, with the Enugu State Polytechnic, Iwollo, virtually off the track, and the University of Education, Ihe, a day-dream, Enugu West Senatorial Zone will continue to remain without any institution of higher learning, while the two other Senatorial zones have three or more higher institutions.
In Enugu North Zone, there are the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Federal Polytechnic, Ohodo; the State Medical University and Applied Sciences (SUMAS), Igbo-Eno, and the Enugu State Polytechnic, Ezimo-Uno Campus.
In Enugu East Zone, they have College of Education, Eha Amufu, Isi-Uzo LGA, Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu; Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria; Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Agbani; as well as Nigeria Law School, Agbani.
These are government-owned tertiary institutions, not to mention some privately owned tertiary institutions like Bigard Memorial Seminary, Godfrey Okoye University, Caritas University, Coal City University, OSISATECH, etc.
In Enugu West Senatorial Zone, there is no single tertiary health institution. All the roads in the area are bad, while there is no single state government owned industtial establishment.
Oghe Cashew Industry, the largest of such establishment in sub-Saharan Africa, has been allowed to waste. The government will not resuscitate it, and it will not give it out to private concern to manage, as it did recently with the Ada Rice Farm at Adani, in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area.
A few days from now, campaign activities will start. What will the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led Enugu State Government be telling Ezeagu people, as they come to the area to campaign? No doubt, they will boast that they gave the people Deputy Governor, former Chief of Staff, Member, State House of Assembly, as if a non-Ezeagu man or woman would have been imported to represent the people at the State House of Assembly.
What a lot of people may not know is that reeling out names of these high-ranking government functionaries to the public, is to make them vulnerable, or to set them against the people. They may not know that these people were not given the necessary enablement or empowerment to perform. Will they be using their personal salaries and allowances to build roads and other public infrastructure? This is not possible.
Clearly the buck stops at the table of the man who has both the yam and the knife.
*Dr. Eze is veteran journalist and public affairs commentator
