How Ikpeazu’s non-payment of salaries cost Abia Varsity, Poly accreditation

The non-payment of workers’ salaries and several months of indebtedness to workers employed by the state may have begun to yield very negative result for Abia State tertiary education institutions.

Barely two months after the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), lost the National Universities Commission (NUC) accreditation for admission of medical students, another tertiary institution in the state has suffered similar fate.

The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) on Tuesday announced it has withdrawn accreditation for the Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, following the failure of the institution to pay its staff for 30 months, despite warnings by the Board.

NBTE spokeswoman, Ms Fatima Abubakar, in a statement explained that the accreditation was withdrawn because the polytechnic had not shown any commitment to defray the backlog of arrears and ensure regular payment of salaries.

The Okezie Ikpeazu government of Abia State is notorious for non-payment of workers’ salaries and retirees’ pensions, and has severally been pilloried for failing in that regard.

NBTE, is a Board of education which supervises, regulates and oversees educational programmes offered by technical institutions at secondary, polytechnic and monotechnic levels through an accreditation process.

ABSUTH lost the NUC accreditation for admission of medical students due to protracted strike action by doctors in the hospital.

READ: Otti begs Ikpeazu to stop decay of Abia assets, pay workers, pensioners

Doctors in the hospital have been on strike for months following 25 months of salary arrears, a development that led the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) to direct all doctors in the state to observe solidarity strike every Tuesday until the backlog is cleared.

According to the statement, “The Board went the extra mile of writing to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state, informing him of the dire situation of the polytechnic, but all to no avail.

“It is, therefore, with the utmost sense of responsibility that the board has decided to withdraw the accreditation status of the polytechnic to safeguard the quality assurance mechanism of the board.”

The statement added that, “No product of the Abia State Polytechnic should be mobilised for national service until the management of the polytechnic resolves the issue of non-payment of salary to its staffers.”

The Board promised to “notify the NYSC once the accreditation status of the polytechnic is restored.”

Abubakar said that NBTE had equally notified the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, as well as the Industrial Training Fund to stop any official transaction with Abia Poly.

She said the Governing Council and Management of the Polytechnic had severally promised to clear the backlog of salary arrears but failed to keep them.

Frowning at the attitude of the Management, the statement explained that regular payment of salary was a key component of the Board’s normative instruments for quality assurance in the polytechnics, technical, vocational education, and training (TVET) institutions.

The Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mrs Stella Nwakanma, told the media that efforts were being intensified to resolve the issue.