HOW WE TRANSFORMED FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC, OKO WITH ICT– GODWIN ONU

Professor Godwin Onu mni was the former Rector of Federal Polytechnic Oko. In this interview, he talks about what it took to develop the institution, the role of ICT, and more. Excerpts:

 

YOU STUDIED POLITICAL SCIENCE. WHAT WAS THE EXPERIENCE LIKE?

 

In the Political Science Department of University of Ibadan, Students were not admitted through the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for preliminary studies. They only admitted those with Advanced Level results and Higher School Certificates (HSC). The papers that got me admitted into the University were those I studied on my own at ‘O’level and GCE Advanced Levels.

In university it was a big challenge meeting up with other Students who were schooled by qualified teachers in High Schools especially those from Queens College, Kings College and other renowned Secondary and High Schools across the Country. After one week of Lectures, I doubted if I could cope and make a good result especially when I considered my background and recall that the results, I had been those I got while reading at home. On the other hand, it was a source of strength. When I recalled that I was able to pass those examinations on my own without being taught by any formal teacher, I felt that now that having teachers now would make me do better. I worked very hard and my performance improved every year until I finished my first degree. My initial flare was journalism and I promised myself that I was going to be the best Journalist that ever lived. In secondary school, I spent most of the money that came across me on newspapers. I was following the footsteps of Austin Akagu, Agwu Okpanku. I cannot remember the rest of veteran Journalist that influence my thinking mostly from Daily and Renaissance.

My first newspaper article was published when I was in class five in secondary school and it was a very big achievement for me. I used to listen to international radio stations and that made me current. I knew the names of most Presidents of World then. I wasn’t interested in Political Science until when it was time to sit for the Mass Communication Entrance Examination of the Institution of Management and Technology Enugu. I passed the Examination but we had to repeat  the Examination because there was an allegation that the examination paper licked. My main challenge was mathematics. I had poor training in Mathematics. I am not sure that our teachers on that subject were the right type. Due to that, I stayed in my friend’s house for about three days preparing for the exam with special focus on Mathematics because I was bent of passing it believed that nothing should stop me. After the exam, the admission from JAMB came first and I was admitted to read Political Science because I looked for a course close to mass communication. I had also wanted to study law but my father discouraged me. His impression was that it was a process of learning how to turn the truth upside-down.    

 

WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO TEACHING?

I prefer teaching to administration proper because I felt that teaching would make my brain more active. I didn’t want to sit somewhere writing memoirs. I also wanted to use my knowledge to impact others.

 

AS A SOCIAL SCIENTIST YOU APPEAR TO HAVE A BIG PASSION FOR ICT. AT WHAT POINT DID YOU DEVELOP THIS PASSION?

It started from secondary school. I had a camera and liked to take pictures. I had passion for inventions and technology, and as far back as 1989 I mastered the use of the computer. I used a computer for my PhD project in 1990.

In my university days, mathematics was difficult for me because I had very poor teachers. I still managed to scale through in the University. I wanted to read Physics and Chemistry but for Mathematics. They delt a blow to me for not teaching that course and making me to love it. While I was doing my Youth Service, I bought many books on statistics and spent a whole year educating myself. I swore never again, would calculations stop me from realizing my ambition. It was then that I had what I considered a break-through in Statistics. I served the Nation in 1983. We were the 10^th Batch.

I started my Master’s Degree Programme immediately after the Youth Service. As an MSc Student, I taught others statistics. That was when I developed real interest in it. I scored the highest during or final examination. When I got into UNIZIK, there was nobody to teach that Course the Department, so I took a chance to teach the Course and eventually out of my teaching notes I developed a Text Book on it.

I did the typing myself. I learnt how to type without looking at the keyboard and formatted my own books. I was the first person to have internet Commercial Center at Awka, and then we were using analogue phones. In the Year 2000, the University adopted my email address as the University email address(gomach@infoweb.abs.net.). It became the means of communication between the University and the whole world. In that capacity, I never betrayed the University.

 

YOU HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT FIVE BOOKS, PRESENTED ABOUT 50 CONFERENCE PAPERS, AND CONTRIBUTED ABOUT 70 ARTICLES BOTH LOCALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY. WHICH OF YOUR BOOKS TOUCHES ON NIGERIA’S POLITICAL CHALLENGES?

It depends on your area of interest. Political science is made up of different branches, like comparative politics, government and politics, international relations, public administration and political theory.

My area of interest is governance and public administration. These are the areas I have worked a lot in and I have a lot of publications. I have also been interested in the areas of International Relations, Government And Politics and Urbanization or Environmental Politics

 

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT IN THE ACADEMIA?

It is the wonderful opportunity given to me by God to apply what I have learnt in the process of administration to plan, organize, direct, coordinate, and implement. Also, the opportunity to help a lot of people who are unable to help themselves.

 

YOU ONCE WON TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR A SCIENCE RESEARCH. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

It was a contest for Higher Institution research grants for social sciences across Africa. We wrote our own proposal, submitted it and won. The money was meant to carry out research on a given topic. I see awards as recognition of one’s efforts as long as it is not a commercial venture.

 

FROM UNIZIK YOU WERE APPOINTED AS RECTOR OF FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC, OKO. WHAT WAS THE POLYTECHNIC LIKE AT THE TIME?

I met an institution at various levels of dilapidation. I’m sorry to say that but it was real. The infrastructure was hardly there, the institution was suffering from close to 30 years of neglect and moral degeneration. It was really difficult to uproot. Today, I think the story is different and we have been able to engender a new culture of excellence, cleanliness and peace.

By nature, I am an environmentalist who loves a beautiful environment. We try within the limit of our resources to make our Students and Staff breathe the fresh air of freedom. This happens to be one of the Institutions where students don’t run about because of cultism. We have a lot of tracking mechanisms, and the moment you get initiated, you are picked up and expelled the following day. So, because of that there is a culture that students key into.

 

ONE OF YOUR MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS IS TRANSFORMING THE POLYTECHNIC FROM AN ANALOGUE INSTITUTION TO A DIGITAL ONE. HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO ACHIEVE THAT?

There were those who resisted the introduction of ICT at a time we felt that many difficult problems that besieged institutions could easily be solved through ICT. That is why we pursued it. In the year 2000 when I was Head of Department of Political Science, my Department was the first to have a Computer in the office and the first to have a results program. I wrote the result program and put it in my computer so after entering students’ data, the results came out immediately. We are the only polytechnic where the use of ICT has been massively adopted and recommended to others. Many Polytechnics and Universities come here to learn what we are doing and we have become a reference point.

Recently the National Association of Polytechnic Students and National Board for Technical Education called on other students to emulate what we are doing.

 

The beauty of an institution is not about just structures or students. It is your ability to input credible students and push out credible graduates by conducting good examinations and releasing results that are not marred by malpractices. When you have these processes in order, then the Institution will stand and the Students will be useful to the society. That is our philosophy and we are achieving our goal.

 

DID YOU MODEL FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC OKO AFTER A PARTICULAR SCHOOL?

 

Not exactly. I worked out an imaginary standard that took cognizance of world best institutions while looking forward to achieving delivery of functional technical and vocational education and training. I thus was guided by my mission statement which I submitted to the Governing Council at the time of applying for the position in 2009. Virtually all our records of achievement are contained in the mission statement which was guided by the desire to provide a demand driven and employment generating technical education and training at the middle level of the Nigerian educational system designed to stimulate economic growth and development.

 

WHAT SPECIFIC PROBLEMS DO YOU THINK DIGITALIZATION HAS SOLVED IN THE EDUCATION SYSTEM?

 

Digitalization has actually provided quality assurance frameworks in the Nigerian tertiary education system. Through the process, we have provided a dependable mechanism for restoring academic integrity and strengthening academic re-invention and evaluation. In other words, digitalization is fast bringing our students back to the study table and placing premium on reading in order to pass examinations. Recall that most of the students are products of special (if you like, miracle examination) centers, groomed to adopting lazy and unethical approaches in learning and passing examinations. The introduction of smart classrooms and computer-based testing modes have seriously de-personalized lecturers and reduced the contacts between lecturers and students, thereby greatly affecting the regime of award of unearned marks through such ignoble acts like sorting, sexual harassment, victimization and missing results and manipulated grades. Lecturers are systematically compelled to deliver course contents in order to generate examination questions. The system has built-in checks and balances that guide and regulate the behavior and conduct of both staff and students. Examination results are released immediately after each course is taken and made available to major stakeholders in the system. Students access results online some minutes after writing the examination. This has enhanced the process of computing students’ results for graduation and made mobilization for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program seamless. Students no longer have to queue up at the Students’ Records and Statistics Office in order to have their results processed. We are rather at the stage of generating transcripts at the click of buttons on computers. No doubt, digitalization has also provided rapid and consolidated interface, media for communication and treating students’ complaints. All students have reliable access to school management and route their complaints and experiences as appropriate. Management surveys and feels the pulse of the students regularly through established social media fora. So, the adoption of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in educational management and administration has over-reaching implications with inestimable values.

 

WHAT WILL YOU ATTRIBUTE TO THESE SUCCESSES?

 

I sincerely thank God for his benevolence and enablement. His grace has obviously been sufficient for us. Hard work, dedication and the fear of God are the keys to success. In the face of principalities and powers, I remained resolute and focused. In administration, it is team work, resilience and judicious management of resources. I had always leveraged on the support and contributions of all my principal officers and support staff. I believe that everybody is important and that no viewpoint is without direction. We collect and collate opinions while dealing with issues and that explains the implications of consultations and team work to my style of management and administration. In all situations, I believe, God wins.

 

IF YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP FASHION OUT EDUCATION POLICIES IN NIGERIA, WHAT WILL YOU DO?

I think we have a dependable crass of education managers today. The ministry and regulatory agencies are working out appropriate modalities. I however think the system needs some more hands at the middle level (secondary education). The tertiary educational system is akin to a computer which is garbage in and out. The bulk of the training is done at the secondary schools and that is where students imbibe reading and training culture. Secondary education is attained at formative ages when changes are still possible and characters are formed. I see radical changes in secondary schools to re-position the educational sector in Nigeria with some levels of policy and strategy re-invention coupled with proactive approaches in decision and implementation. 

         

WHAT WILL YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BE REMEMBERED FOR?

 

I will like to be remembered for my work and precepts. Whenever one says, once upon a time, in the history of the polytechnic, he should look at our policies and program that widened access to technical education by creating new and innovative academic program and adopted policies that re-invented teaching and learning alongside infrastructure provision and development. I want to be remembered for discipline and attending to the academic needs and desires of staff and students of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko. The sands of time however will determine the best words for our tenure, but I wish to be adjudged right.

 

WHENEVER YOU FACE A GREAT CHALLENGE IN YOUR CAREER, WHERE DO YOU DRAW INSPIRATION?

 

Posterity is my guide and inspiration. Many of us send our children abroad for higher education and tend not to take the system here very seriously, but I am a product of our system and wish to change the perception and orientation. Our background should not be Europe and Asia when we are Nigerians. Local content is prime to functional education and that explains why vernacular is the best language for instruction in developed schools. The life and career of the children we have today is the future of our country and we cannot afford continuing to toy with them. We face lots and lots of challenges and distractions managing and administering tertiary institutions in Nigeria, but I am guided by my desire to see a better Nigerian student who acquires the requisite skills and training for self-realization. Above all, I am committed to my faith in God which has always guided me in the face of daunting challenges.