Mr. Victor Koreyo, a lecturer at the Department of Ceramics and Glass Technology, Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Ebonyi State, has threatened to forsake Nigeria because of ‘social injustice.’
In a letter addressed to President Buhari which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria, Koreyo said his grouse was because of the reduction in his rank for eight years by the management of the institution.
According to NAN, in 2007 a directive was ordered by the Federal Government requesting all lecturers to produce additional qualification to their line of job.
However, NAN discovered that Koreyo was given two years by the 7th Governing Council to tender a foreign institution-issued master’s degree in Ceramic Science and Engineering or he would be sacked from service.
The lecturer, who hails from Nasarawa State, blamed the management of the school for not communicating the information to him in writing.
He also claimed his application for staff development was not approved because decision-makers in the school are Igbos and that the institution ignored the call of the Head of Service of the Federation, Attorney General of the Federation, Servicom and a host of others to reinstate him to his former rank.
Koreyo said, “I love to continue as a citizen of this great nation on earth. But since I do not have the financial power or connection to challenge the Rector to obey the Federal Government’s directives in my favor, I decided to take this peaceful action.
“I have decided that the renunciation of my citizenship by birth will be the best way to peacefully end my quest for social justice at the ministry of education and finally resign from Federal Public Service of Nigeria,”
A staff of the ministry of education who spoke to NAN on condition of anonymity said the ministry had begun discussions about the issue.
He said, “I just got to know that the new council was already handling the matter and it is a national issue.
“The Federal Government has constituted a body to look into this problem because it is a general problem and not peculiar to him.
“A directive was given to some staff to go and acquire more knowledge and those that brought their master’s degrees in relevant disciplines were upgraded.
“But in his own case, where he got his master’s is not relevant and is not in line as at that time.
“I want to say that the matter is before the new council, so he should exercise patient,”
In the meantime, the authorities of Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic said the decision to reduce the rank of the lecturer was in line with the order of the National Board for Technical Education.
Dr. Edmond Oyenteho, a former chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic chapter, who spoke with NAN in Afikpo said the institution acted on the orders of the government.
“At the expiration of the three years grace period, all Polytechnics in Nigeria including Uwana implemented the policy by demoting all lecturers in the system without Master’s in their core areas to lecturer 1.
“Those who went and remedied their situation came back and were reinstated to their former positions.
“Koreyo was therefore in line with the policy demoted from the senior lecturer position he previously occupied to lecturer 1 because of his failure to upgrade his situation.
“He is a lecturer in the Department of Ceramics and Glass Geology, but he went to the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), to do a Master degree programme in Management Project and was awarded Master Business Administration (MBA).
“The academic programme did not fulfill the NBTE requirement because MBA is a professional programme, while Master of Science (M.Sc) is an academic qualification required to teach in Polytechnics and universities, ” Oyeneho said.
“He is not alone in the situation and it will be a disobedience to existing NBTE policy to isolate him for preferential treatment.
“The MSc programme was sponsored by TETFUND with N5m study grant and affected lecturers received their full monthly salary throughout the duration of the academic programme,” Oyeneho added.