Still on the Removal of HND/B.SC Dichotomy

Still on the Removal of HND/B.SC Dichotomy

Hurray! Hurray!! Hurray!!!

At times it is difficult to believe some happenings or news. This is on the account that such news or happenings became rumors at last on several occasions. Examples are   the news of the death of former President of Nigeria and the first indigenous Governor General of Nigeria, Dr  Nnamdi Azikiwe and late King of High life Music, Chief Osita Osadebe.  The rumors  of the death of the two gentlemen  came several times before  they  finally died.

I am sorry to say that I doubt the authenticity of the news. Apart from the fact that I did not watch this on television, through any other audio-visual means of communication. If this is true the news is just not something that feelers will hear and take it to be ordinary news. The  HND graduates  or victims of HND discrimination should troupe into the street, if possible organize rally and thank the people that have removed this chain of slavery.

HND graduates have suffered a lot in the hands of B. Sc/BA graduates, corporate organizations even some government establishments.

Some of the reasons for this range from smaller admission requirements to smaller knowledge delivery, where the knowledge was delivered and acquired. Some argue that HND admission requirements are smaller with just four credits in Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) while that of B. Sc is five credits in SSCE and that HND is better run in Polytechnic, a less institution in grade than university while university run degree programmes. The question is: Do polytechnic graduates limit their reading while university students expand their reading and research efforts?

In terms of performance, does the performance of B. Sc graduates outclass the performance of HND graduates on the job?

I witnessed a situation an HND graduate contract staff  even did better than two so-called B. Sc graduates who relieved him when he went on leave yet  there were complaints from their HOD of inefficiency. What could be responsible for that? Could it be that the two degree holders did not research well?

Nigeria economy is beginning to expose the weakness of B. Sc graduates as most of them rather than use the wide researched knowledge they claim to have been given in the university to develop ideas, produce infrastructural facilities, goods and services engage in learning trades, like hair-making, catering services, interior/exterior decorations etc.

What is the need for this claim for superiority? Some organizations like banks engage in empty corporate prestige as a means of getting good patronage. Their belief is that by the time people look at the academic qualifications of their staff and discover that they are all university graduates that will create an impression that their bank is a high class bank. It does not matter whether this is just on paper. What matters is that people will have the impression that their staff are university graduates. They are not even interested in the efficiency and productivity of the staff but their schools and their paper qualifications.

On who contribute or who have contributed better in the Nigerian economy/organizations, while some believe that it is the OND/HND graduates for the fact that some wiser organizations who are aware that they have better practical background and early exposure in theory and can therefore perform better based on this, others are of the belief that with people knowing that their organization consists of staff who are mainly university/ B.Sc graduate they will patronize their services. On the performance of B. Sc/HND graduates, the choice is yours.

Though some organizations employ HND graduates so that they can use and dump them telling them that they do not have university degrees. This is what is more common and what HND holders/graduates have suffered for a long time. I, myself was one. I am sorry if I take this issue personal. After my HND, I went for a degree programme. That was when I was denied conversion/ promotion twice, reason being that it is only B. Sc holders that can be employed into mainstream banking. The opportunities of applying for internal vacancies as at that time as a core staff eluded me. Incidentally, the bank was acquired by another bank after completion of the programme.  So, my colleagues and I were not  converted or promoted even by the new bank, so we ended up not having salary increment and promotion for over twelve years. Years later, other colleagues of mine who had the same bitter experience and I were laid off on the ground that our performances over the years might have been poor. That was why we were not promoted by the former bank. And that we were above the age of the bank’s entry level. That  was also what the acquiring bank told us. So, some of us who had served the acquired bank and the acquiring bank worked for over twelve years as contract staff (so they labeled us) without salary increment and promotion for over twelve years. This my experience. Other people may have sadder experiences than I did. This is Nigeria for you. This is man’s inhumanity to man. Some of the leaders of Nigeria today were leaders of Nigeria Labour Congress then and self-acclaimed champions of change and the lords of democracy. They did not stop this dehumanization and cheating. This is selfish, sad, maddening, frustrating and barbaric.

Please, if this is actually true that this wicked act has been stopped, let it be implemented without further delay. The HND graduates have labored. They have been deprived and denied. They have been rejected. Their youthful/useful lives have been wasted. They have cried.  Please let them be given some hope and encouragement. Let their tiers be dried.

As a contract staff, if a pin gets lost; it is the contract staff that is held responsible. A customer forgets his handkerchief, the contract staff stole it because the handkerchief is so beautiful that the contract staff cannot afford it. If there is a big fraud in the bank, the HND graduate contract staff must have masterminded it.  Haba!  Haba!! Haba !!!, Nigerians.

HND graduates, may your time of relief come and stay. Amen.

HND graduates, you were dubbed children of the poor and who could not afford university education. You were therefore treated poorly. Here comes your God. May your cries be over.  May your injured heart be healed. You have suffered in the hands of Nigerian employers and colleagues alike.

Polytechnic graduate-workers have suffered for over 20 years even in a country that prides herself as a democratic country, where some so-called VIPs come with their democratic coinages like people’s libero, lovers of freedom, lords of democracy, princes and princesses of democracy, queens and kings of democracy, gods and goddesses of democracy and the alpha and omega of modern democracy.

Congratulations to HND graduates.

Chiemela N. Agu

08035733017

Email: chibagail@yahoo.com