HND DISCRIMINATION BILL GETS SENATE READING
Do Jobless Nigerians Care About HND/Bachelor's Split?
--Attorney Patryk Utulu

A Bill for an Act to Abolish and Prohibit Dichotomy and Discrimination between First Degrees and Higher National Diploma in the same Field/Profession went through Second Reading in the Nigerian Senate.

The Bill was hotly debated on its relevance and potential ability to resolve the controversy over wage disparity and gross discrimination against HND holders in public and private sectors of the economy.

AGAINST THE BILL:
Senate President, David Mark, said it would be difficult to legislate on the bill because polytechnics were not originally established to be degree awarding institutions. He said rather than seeking abolition of dichotomy, polytechnics should be changed to degree awarding institutions. Mark said "attempt to equate HND to a degree is not likely to work. Nobody who has done a degree has gone back to the polytechnic to do HND and you can’t blame that logic."

FOR THE BILL:
Senator Patrick Akinyelure (PDP-Ondo), highlighted the need to abolish HND and First Degree discrimination, He said the discrimination against HND holders was threatening to ruin Nigeria’s core policy thrust of evolving a technological and scientifically based society. He said findings proved that some polytechnic graduates were in some cases better on their field than their university counterparts. He said "To all intents and purposes, a government employment policy that places degree holders ahead of HND holders without recourse to skill and ability of the HND holder thereof does more harm than good to the nation’s development plans."

MY SUMMARY:
FELLOW NIGERIANS: That is how your Senators spend their time and your money. They are having fun debating differences between Higher National Diploma (HND) and Bachelor's degree instead of debating how to create jobs for those with degree. Is this not like a man who finds his family house on fire but instead of making an effort to put out the fire decides to stand on the street corner moaning and complaining to passersby that the worst thing about the fire is that his neighbours would no longer appreciate the colour of the house?

Attorney Patryk A. Utulu
U.S.-based Attorney & Strategic Communications Specialist
Global Defense Analyst and Global Events Commentator
Executive Vice President, Nigerian Diaspora-North America
Executive Director, The Center for Community Empowerment & Lifeskills, Inc
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