Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic, Aba (formerly Abia State Polytechnic), has regained accreditation for 33 programmes lost about three years ago, just as it has introduced 17 new courses.
The rector of the institution, Christopher Okoro, stated this when the new leaders of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abia State council, paid him a courtesy visit in his office.
He explained that under him, the management of the polytechnic had made it easy for students to obtain their results without passing through the lecturers in order to avoid exploitation.
“Once examinations are over, all results must be uploaded within six weeks after. Four weeks for those of them in finals, and six for the rest,” he said.
Informing that with this, the students no longer have to see their lecturers. “We’re not just student-centered, we’re also staff-centered. All their arrears of salaries have been cleared.
”We came on board having 36-month salary arrears but the governor, Alex Otti, has supported us to clear them as we no longer owe anybody on the campus.”
According to Okoro, the management had also ensured that staff members who were not promoted since 2008-2012 have been promoted up to 2022.
”We’ve started the second phase of promotion that will take us to 2025. It, therefore, means that His Excellency has paid the debt he did not owe.”
Earlier, the chapel chairman, Steve Oko, said they came to brief the rector on the activities of the chapel, and explore ways of symbiotic relationship between them and the institution.
Describing the rector as a phenomenal agent of change, he lauded him “for transforming the polytechnic from obscurity to stardom” in less than two years.
Oko tasked the polytechnic on quality research work and assured of the readiness of the chapel to project the state-owned institution in the media space.
The chairman, who was elected last month, urged the rector to always patronise professional journalists and to beware of quacks masquerading as newsmen.
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