Governor Yahaya Bello has been conferred with fellowship of the Kogi State Polytechnic for his remarkable achievement in infrastructure and in human capital development across the state.
Governor Bello, alongside four other eminent personalities, were honoured during the 4th combined convocation of Kogi State Polytechnic Lokoja on Saturday.
Other recipient includes; Alhaji Isa Ozi Salami, OFR; Barrister Umoru Jimoh, Chairman of IHS (Nigeria) Limited; Professor Idris Bugaje, Executive Secretary of NBTE; and Barrister Moses Okezie-Okafor, the Director General Research and Development, Kogi State
Governor Bello lauded the Rector of the polytechnic, Dr Salisu Ogbo Usman, for transforming the institution to one of the best in the world.
He added that Ogbo’s trailblazing successes which he has achieved in the institution is a strong reflection of his own administration’s unbending desire to turn the education sector around which he attested have yielded positive results in several steads.
The governor said his administration have continued to invest in the education sector through several programmes and initiatives, thereby improving infrastructures and quality of education across all higher institutions.
He added that his government also established two brand new higher institutions in four years in a bid to expand the opportunities for young ones to have access to higher education.
“My achievements can be attested where the State Polytechnic was before my assumption of office, where it is now and what we have repositioned it for the future”.
“We have taken time to look into the education Sector of our people. We made education a top priority in our thematic agenda”.
“We not only improved on the infrastructure and learning in our tertiary institutions, but also expanded our educational institution so that our children will not travel far to seek for knowledge within four years of our second term administration,” Gov. Bello said.
Earlier in his remarks, the Rector, Dr. Salisu Usman Ogbo informed the public that 12, 080 students graduated at the Institution’s historic 4th Combined Convocation which covers over ten years academic calendar ranging between 2013/2014 up until 2022/2023 academic sessions.
Breaking down the number, he noted that 7,653 will be graduating with a National Diploma (ND) in various programmes while four thousand, four hundred and twenty-seven students graduated with Higher National Diploma (HND) in various programmes in an event that last held in 2014.
Dr. Salisu said such number is the highest since the inception of the Polytechnic and such was a significant indication that Kogi State Polytechnic is firmly poised to contribute to quality manpower needs of the Country while he congratulated the graduands for being worthy of their calling stating that he was very confident that they will be good ambassadors of Kogi State Polytechnic.
He expressed his deep gratitude to God and Governor Yahaya Bello, for enabling the humble impact his leadership in the polytechnic have made within the period.
The Rector who gave highlights of some of the efforts made to reposition the institution noted that the condition of the polythecnic before he emerge as the Rector was well known hence their journey thus far under the 3-Rs mantra of Repair, Reform and Restore has truly yielded great leap, but still a journey in progress.
Some of the achievements he mentioned included efforts in tackling the monster of insecurity through modalities including Fortification of security architecture through effective intelligence gathering on the activities of cultists and other criminal groups, construction of a befitting security building code-named Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello Security House at the entrance of the Polytechnic to replace the 3-room cubicle we inherited to promote efficiency amongst the security personnel, Installation of hidden CCTV camera on the campus to monitor unholy activities and act decisively, Provision of communication gadgets and a host of other efforts.
He said in areas of academic matters and quality assurance the polytechnic Introduced new Statement of Results Format and Fortified Original Certificate, Introduction E-Examination/Results Computation/E-Payment, Strengthening Regulation against indiscriminate Production and Sales of Textbooks on the Campus, Introduction of the Academic Board Central Results Verification Committee, Production of Maiden Annual Report for the Polytechnic, 100% accreditation of 30 Programmes and several other landmark achievements.
Also speaking, the Chairman Governing Council of the institution Prof. Yakubu Isa said the Polytechnic will continue to prioritize academic and personal development of students.
He promised that the Polytechnic will strive to provide the needed tools and resources for students to continue to succeed in Nigeria.
