Anthony Advantage Okafor
Outrage, as English graduate heads Metallurgical Institute’s Engineering Department
By
Okey Maduforo
Okey Maduforo
I can’t comment, says Institute’s Director
Located in Obosi Community in Idemili North Local Government Area and situated along the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway is a nationally recognised institution.
It known as the National Metallurgical Training Institute (NMTI), Onitsha, Anambra State.
This Institution was initiated in 1978 by the then Military Head of State Lt General Olusegun Obasanjo with the concept of training Nigerian maintenance personnel in metallurgical and allied industries.
The idea was indeed born out of a discuss and bilateral relationship between the then Nigerian government and its counterpart in Germany which with the German government provided expert training officers while Nigeria instructional staff were recruited and most of them sent to the European nation for training for the implementation of the institute’s programme.
Consequent upon the above the institution in 1983 took off in earnest and has since trained and produced thousands of graduates who were fully equipped with relevant skills to service the nation’s industrial sector.
It is also not in doubt that the institute has created a pool of indigenous technical workforce that can erect, commission, operate and maintain the metallurgical/oil and gas industries and has also been able to develop highly skilled, practically and productions oriented low and middle level and effectively maintain steel and allied metallurgical industries in the country.
Sadly, however, today the institute now cuts the picture of a shadow of itself with the alleged level of academic decay and total rejection by the relevant authorities.
When this reporter visited the school it was discovered that most courses being offered by the institution have lost their accreditation while the students have resigned to fate.
Courses such as electrical electronics, structural fabrication, welding among others have lost their accreditation hence reducing the diploma certificate to mere tissue paper.
Products of the Training Institute are now calling for the removal of the Institution’s Director, Pastor Bade Fakuade following what they called the poor academic standard and rejection of the school’s Diploma Certificate by other higher institutions.
To this end, the body has called for the institution of a panel of enquiry into the tenure of the Directors whom they accused of high handedness, nepotism in the appointment of heads of department and the loss of accreditation of courses in the Institute.
According to a resolution signed by members of the Alumni,Association led by Mr. Anthony Nwanna and Mrs. Njideka Nsobundu, and made available to reporters in Awka, the Anambra State capital, said:
“The attention of graduates of the Metallurgical Training Institute, Onitsha has been drawn to complaints by staff and students of the institution over the management of the school under Pastor Bade Fakuade which has left much to be desired.
“Even graduates of the great institute are denied admission into
Higher National Diploma (HND) and Degree programmes due to the problem of accreditation and poor standard of teaching and learning in the school.
“Courses that were accredited have lost their accreditation and there is nothing visible the Director is doing about it and this is to the detriment of our youths and students.
“We are also aware the level of nepotism being displayed by the management of the Institute in the appointments of Deans and Heads of Departments.
“A case in point is the appointment of Mrs. Biakolo Alisigwe the Head of Training/Dean School of Engineering of the Metallurgical Training Institute and it is on record that she is a graduate of English Language.
“Also a graduate of Primary Educations was appointed the Heads Engineering Curriculum Planning and we do not know if the relevant parent ministries or Board of Technical Education are aware of this development.”
But when contacted over the weighty allegations, the Director of the Institute Pastor Bode Fakuade told Sunday Telegraph: “This is a public Federal Institution and we do not grant press interviews unless we receive approval from our superiors so I cannot speak on these allegations.
“In the case of accreditation, it is on going and at the appointed time we shall make it known to the public and that is all that I can tell you for now.
Reactions of Fakoade to the allegations levelled against his administration no doubt appears sketchy going by the issues raised by the graduates of the school.
Stakeholders in the education sector have continued to frown at the level of rejection and abandonment of the Institute by successive administrations in country.
Dr. Wilson Anyanwu, who spoke to Sunday Telegraph, lamented that the Institute has been a victim of ethnic politics aimed at ensuring that nothing good comes out of it.
“I know about the school and it is even older than many universities and polytechnic in this country. The idea was to use the school to train man power enough to service the country while the Ajokuta Steel Complex was being constructed.
“How can a school of such status be allowed to waste and nobody is talking about it? Some of us feel that the school has closed down until you drew my attention to it and that is what journalism is all about.
“It is my suggestion that the Federal Government should reconsider up grading it to the status of a full polytechnic that awards HND certificates and that is the only remedy to the problems it is facing now.
How can an Institute of this nature loose its accreditation and what would be the future of the students?” he wondered.
A staffer of the Institute, who pleaded anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media, told Sunday Telegraph that even contracts being awarded in the school have never been transparent alleging sharp practices in the process.
“I know that when you want to award contract you advertise it through calls for tenders and contractors will then bid for the contract and whoever wins is mobilised to site.
But I have not seen any of such happen here. Everything is shrouded in secrecy and only those that are meant to know are allowed to know about it,” she said.
But I have not seen any of such happen here. Everything is shrouded in secrecy and only those that are meant to know are allowed to know about it,” she said.
Campaign for Equity Forum (CEF) contended that the Igbo’s of the South East extraction are not allowed to head the Institute, but rather outsiders are imposed on the school by desperate politicians.
Comrade Uzor Chukwueke, the spokesman of the body, also contended that: “How can you appoint an English graduate to be Dean of Faculty of Engineering?
What has that person got to offer to the school?
The person can only teach GS 101 Use of English and not to meddle in the affairs of Scientists.
“If it is in the West would they make such an appointment? They will not but if it is here anything goes.”
However observers wonder the efforts of South East governors, Senators and those in the Federal Executive Council at improving on the quality of the institution.
Deepening this issue is the fact that the current Minister for Science and Technology and former governor of Abia State Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu has the ears of the president and should thus have questioned why the Institute has been left to slide.
It would be recalled that the last effort at improving facilities in the school was when former Anambra State Governor Sen. Chris Ngige was the Deputy Chairman Senate Committee on Power and Steel Development, which also attracted the accreditation of the courses that lost its accreditation recently.
“Our oversight functions include the Metallurgical Training Institute (MTI) and we had to provide more funds for the school so that it would offer more courses and also accredit them and it is our expectation that in no distant time it would be awarding Higher National Diploma,” he said then.
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