jones2014:
House gurus pls assist, pls if I hv d fwng scores in PTE SWRL 90, 90, 76, 86. Pls whats d effect of d R 76 on d result?

does it mean I hv to rewrite again to claim 20 points?

am confused

Cc: pinoralia, spyroxy1, afolaseg.


thanks

PLEASE CAN YOU HELP WITH THE TIPS YOU USED IN ACING THE SPEAKING PART?

Please, can anyone help me with Workforce management interview style or structure?

[b]
[b][/b]Nigeria President Yar'Adua dies after a  long illness. Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, long plagued by poor health, has died at age 58, almost three months after his vice president assumed control of Africa's most populous nation, Yar'Adua's spokesman said.

Yar'Adua died at 9 p.m. (2000 GMT) Wednesday at the Aso Rock presidential villa with his wife Turai at his side, presidential spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi told The Associated Press, his voice cracking with emotion. Adeniyi did not give a cause of death.

A Muslim, Yar'Adua will be buried on Thursday, Adeniyi said.

Yar'Adua took office in 2007 in a country notorious for corruption and gained accolades for being the first leader to publicly declare his personal assets when taking office — setting up a benchmark for comparison later to see if he misappropriated funds. But enthusiasm for his presidency waned as time passed and he made no headway in fighting entrenched corruption.

He had tried to peacefully end an insurgency in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta that had attacked the petroleum infrastructure, allowing Angola to overtake Nigeria as Africa's no. 1 oil exporter. Those efforts frayed after Yar'Adua became gravely ill.

Yar'Adua went to a Saudi Arabian hospital on Nov. 24 to receive treatment for what officials described as a severe case of pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart that can cause a fatal complication. He failed to formally transfer his powers to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, sparking a constitutional crisis in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 150 million people.

Jonathan assumed the presidency Feb. 9 after a vote by the National Assembly while Yar'Adua was still in Saudi Arabia. Lawmakers left open the possibility for Yar'Adua to regain power if he returned to the country in good health. He returned on Feb. 24 but never reappeared in public and did not assume power again.

Charles Dokubo, an analyst at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, said Yar'Adua would leave a mixed legacy. Dokubo said many would remember how Yar'Adua never fulfilled his promises of increasing power supplies and fixing the nation's shaky electoral system.

Yar'Adua, a soft-spoken former chemistry professor, was propelled into Nigeria's highest through flawed elections but it marked the first time a civilian won the presidency from another civilian in a nation once plagued by military coups.

As president, Yar'Adua was also unable to stem religious violence that has long plagued Nigeria.

The country is split between the Christian-dominated south and its Muslim north. The country's "middle belt," where dozens of ethnic groups vie for control of fertile lands, has become an epicenter of violence where more than 500 have died since the beginning of the year in tit-for-tat massacres of Muslims and Christians. Politics, jobs and land often motivate the killings.

Yar'Adua was committed to ending the violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta, where the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta had been attacking oil installations, kidnapping petroleum company employees and fighting government troops. MEND began its fight in January 2006 to protest the unrelenting poverty of people in the Niger Delta.

The unrest had cut Nigeria's oil production by about a million barrels a day. Yar'Adua started formal peace talks earlier this year with MEND and met with Henry Okah, the group's longtime leader. The entreaties drew more than 8,000 militants into surrendering their arms as part of a government amnesty program.

"The general amnesty I extended to all militants in the Niger Delta has led to the laying down of arms and a return of peace," Yar'Adua said in October. But militants later resumed attacks, saying the government had failed to own up to its commitments under the amnesty like sharing the nation's oil wealth with the delta.

Born into one of Nigeria's best-known political families in northern Nigeria in 1951, Yar'Adua earlier worked as a chemistry professor at a university in his home state of Katsina. He became Katsina's governor and later emerged as the consensus pick among the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party, run by then-President Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military dictator.

The 2007 presidential election was meant to end a cycle of military takeovers while cementing democratic rule with Nigeria's first-ever peaceful transfer of power between civilian rulers. International observers said the vote was rigged. Thugs stole ballot boxes and electoral officials thumb-printed stacks of voting cards with police looking on. However, Yar'Adua wasn't widely considered to have arranged the stolen vote.

"We acknowledge that our elections were not perfect and had lapses and shortcomings," Yar'Adua said in his May 29, 2007, inaugural address. "I also believe that out experiences represent an opportunity to learn from our mistakes."

That admission alone offered a break from the bluster that characterized Yar'Adua's predecessors, including some of Africa's most famous "Big Men." Many in Nigeria hailed his announcement that he would be a "servant-leader."

While a careful approach to governance distinguished Yar'Adua from his predecessor, it failed to move the machinery of government and the public soured on the president as electric power remained scarce and blocks-long gasoline queues remained common in Nigeria's major cities.

Yar'Adua also fell ill repeatedly. He flew away on long overseas trips to Germany and Saudi Arabia, where he availed himself of first-class medical treatment for his chronic kidney ailments. Meanwhile Nigerians saw little improvement in their own country's hospitals and health care system.

Even after Yar'Adua moved into the presidential palace, Aso Rock, many of his family members continued living in the modest family compound where Yar'Adua was born. He leaves behind his wife, Turai, and nine children
[/b]

bk_baybe99 is the world's most deluded fool. A parochial idiot and a celebrated time waster. Half-education really is as poisonous as non-education. You sounded so incoherent with little or no good sense made that is worth the time spent reading your contribution. If you don't have nothing doing better sign up for voluntary service in Haiti. You will be more useful that way.

[b]Now MTN, Zain, Glo, Guinness, WampcoCampina, have all sponsored one predict-and-win promo over the EPL, Nations cup or World cup. Now people have predicted correctly and won prizes for their apt predictions. So all the winners in these promo competitions are all men of God and prophets. Why didn't we make their story a phenomenal national story like this one in question?

Listen and real good, It's all about intuition, permutation and or combination(call it mathematics). If Nigeria and Nigerians have resorted to consulting oracles in football then we are doomed. Then what if people who are supposed to know better and otherwise become fetish in their thinking? Then we are finished!

It is now clear that Nigeria needs divine intervention as everything including her people have given up on themselves.

About J. Fash, well don't you think he is among the Nigerian ex-footballers who did not use their wealth well and who did not consolidate on their wealth and now that they are off active football, they have resorted to different manner of contracts, reality TV shows(company sponsored promos) etc just to make ends meet?

About T.Joshua, well as far as I know, the Bible does not say that it is the ability to perform miracles that identifies one as a man of God or prophet nor is it a mark of true xtianity. Read Galatians 5:22[/b]

please Ani which Courier company is issuing the invitation for LNG? Please do reply.

I am interested. My e-mail addy is        mervynbethels2001@yahoo.com

I am interested. My e-mail addy is        mervynbethels2001yahoo.com

Dear NLANDERS THIS IS THE MESSAGE I GOT FROM GUINESS.


RE: Retail Development Manager Role - Aptitude Test

The above subject refers

Please be informed that the aptitude test has been postponed and a new
date/venue shall be communicated to you.

Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted.


Regards,


Olalekan Busari

[b]Well it is not about masculine chauvinsm or being gender sensitive. I think it's rather out of biblical and divine precepts that women though they should take other active roles in the church but Teaching and Leading n the presence of men.

Paul under Divine inspiration directed that women be silent in the church and even went as far as recommending that they rather ask for clarification from their husbands at home in matters not very clear. And as a mark of subordination Paul advised that When it is necessary for a woman to take up the role of Teaching which according to the scriptures is reserved for men ( When there is no qualified man), the woman must properly cover her "Hair" ( Headgear)
The reason Apostle Paul said is that it was the Woman that was Deceived by the Serpent and not the man. It seems in matters of Congregational Arrangement, it is not divine for women to take up positions of Authority when qualified men are present. It amounts to proper disregard for divine order and arrangement. In this our  modern day of Women Liberation philosophy it is rather absurd and unpopular to say that women are not elligble to direct the church in the face of qualified men. But remember that it is how God wants it. He knows why so He wants it. We can never begin to know better otherwise. Still it  doesn't debase  women. We only need to know that it is a matter of divine organisational arrangement. Afterall the Bible makes it clear that Women are still part of those that will gain Heavenly inheritance. So it is not women -bashing or gender-debasement for women to silently listen in the Church.[/b][size=8pt][/size]

[b]The article makes an interesting observation that “most” First-class persons usually carry a boulder chip on their shoulder. This is the statement of the problem which the writer sees as a statement of fact owing to the results of his study on the subject matter. It goes on to use the real life story of chief Odumegwu to illustrate the assertion.
The writer’s investigation seeks to ask the question “Why is this so?” In the bid to examine the issue, the writer goes on to find a correlation between first-class persons having some sort of over-confidence and over-bearing self-trust in their own abilities. This writer thinks must have been the reason for the subtle contempt they show to those who in the self-concepts of the first-class persons do not measure up to their own standards and definition of intelligence.
As a result, the writer identified the over-reaching effect of this seemingly prideful exuberance as a loss of hard-earned (God-given) privileges. Thus illustrated also by that didactic story of Chief Odumegwu.

Rather than encourage laziness and sloppiness, lack of aspiration, or being unambitious, the writer makes it clear that aspiration mixed with needless pride will sooner or later zero one out. The article in no way encourages people to dream less. Rather it warns people about the danger of not being careful and mindful of how they pursue their dreams. After all, there is no use achieving a success which will eventually become ones undoing. This article lumped into the saying “instead of you to come home with a first-class that will kill you, please son bring home a third-class that will make you.” Is this not true, people?

Lessons? Do you consider yourself wiser than King Solomon? Are you having success on your hand? Are you in a position of authority, leadership and headship? They are all privileges—God-given privileges—are careful how you handle them. Purge your self of senseless pride.
That beneath and beyond every aspiration, every ambition lies a critical foundation which consists in the recognition of the role of other forces (God and men) in our lives which are parametric to achieving real success. That the secret of achieving real success lies in being a well-rounded person.

Well, Clocky and Sirify, let me give you the privilege of the joy to know that I don’t have the slightest misgivings about first-class or its holders. Unlike my Clinical Psychologist friend who posits that most first-class persons do not make good leaders and team players as corroborated by the fact that “most” world leaders and captains of industries are not necessarily first-class persons. Well, let’s leave that now for another day as it amounts to opening a whole new keg of gun powder. But of course I am concerned about the observed linkage between “most” first-class persons and some uncalled-for arrogance which usually leads to some fall.

Well for me and just as I believe like Chief Gani who would have loved to make a better grade if need be and Bill Gate who did not even need such hassles of formal academics. I know if you ask them, none of them would want to be a Chief Odumegwu even in their wildest imaginations come what may, because they are not just only happy but also joyful for who they are and what they represent. They have understood the secret of life and real success that they depend on being well-rounded and not on holding a first-class.

Little wonder then that most standard tests incorporate reading and comprehension ability tests. Well for your information Clocky and Sirify, you may not need make haste in replying posts. You may need to read some posts twice and in between line to appreciate the hard fact presented therein the article.
Summary:
That "most" (not all) first-class persons usually carry a boulder chip on their shoulder. That most moderately brilliant persons tend to be more well-rounded than most first-class persons for a given sample space. That most first-class persons exhibit over-confidence and an over-bearing self-trust in their own abilities. That well-rounded individuals stay on their success for a very long time. That in the pursuit of your ambition and aspiration, do not see it as a do-or-die thing. After all, the race usually is not to the swift.
And finally, always do your "best" and be the best you can be. Best here means being well rounded. [/b]

[b]
                                     COULD THIS BE WHY SHE LEFT? OKONJO IWEALA'S SECRET FACT FILE

She is a little beyond daper,usually bespectackled with her characteristic headgear (which became her branded trade-mark) to accentuate her Ankara outfit. Beleiving that in as much as one can be corporate in appearance by looking western, one can also be corporate in appearance by looking African. And she lived it! Thus she redefined the standards of corporate dress code.

For all that she could be, she is a seasoned professional of world class fame. For all that she couldn't be, she is just not a politician.She is a mother. She is Dr. (mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who resigned her office as External Affairs Minister on the 3rd of August was a victim of high stakes political games orchestrated by her. Investigations have uncovered some disturbing details that may have forced the highly celebrated Finance and later External Affairs Minister to resign.   

The MIT trained economist who was a world bank executive and later a consultant to Nigeria before becoming Minister of Finance is credited with designing and implementing policies that enabled Nigeria’s economy to pick up, leading to the country winning billions of dollars in debt relief from the Paris Club of lenders. The controversial debt relief was celebrated by her supporters while her detractors considered it ill-advised and a betrayal of the poor masses of Nigeria. 
It may be necessary to state that Pres. Olusegun during a speech early in his administration announced that the government would pursue debt relief and carry out reforms in the economic sector.
However, while Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was celebrated for this achievement of debt relief and other economic reforms, it was not as a result of the efforts of a single individual. The Obasanjo economic team which included people like Nenadi Usman, FCT Minister, Nasir El-Ruffai, Nuhu Ribadu, Mansui Muktar, Oby Ezekwesili, may have been shoved aside in the accolades as the former Finance Minister is known to have claimed total credit for this achievement.  During the last “jamboree” in Abuja organized by Hope Sullivan Masters and tagged: The Leon Sullivan Summit, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala took total credit for the economic reforms of the Obasanjo Administration. She made this statement to as many international dignitaries at the summit as were interested in listening to her. This statement was overheard by some reporters, including one aligned with this magazine. The President is said to have been told about this boast by his Minister. 

This and other incidences of “running her mouth” became an embarrassment to some of her colleagues. They privately admonished her to watch her “mouth” but like one of the people who spoke to her said, “The woman was past redemption as you could see she was set on a course of destruction.”  Okonjo-Iweala’s former Minister of State for Finance and her successor at the Finance Ministry, Nenadi Usman gave a speech on 4th July, soon after Okonjo-Iweala was reassigned to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Okonjo-Iweala is alleged to have started a murmur campaign claiming that the speech given by Nenadi Usman was written by her. This was part of a campaign to “talk down” the new Minister of Finance. The former Minister is suspected to have co-opted some local and foreign journalists in this campaign.   
The former minister invited Financial Times to do a story on Nigeria that was to be published to coincide with the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The meeting will hold in Singapore in September. Okonjo-Iweala, according to a letter written by James Eedes, Africa Editor for The Banker, a Financial Times publication, recommended that the current Minister of Finance, Nenadi Usman be interviewed for the publication.  The reporter faxed from Transcorp Hilton, ten questions to Nenadi Usman in advance of the interview. Two of the questions seem to have been tied or motivated by some of the reporting we did following the reassignment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. For instance, the fifth question was: “Are you tough enough to resist demands of increased allocation from excess crude account, especially in the lead up to elections

A presidency source said that the President was infuriated by the questions from the Financial Times reporter. The President suspected that his Foreign Affairs Minister “put the reporter up to it.” He immediately wrote a letter to Okonjo-Iweala, who was on official assignment in London. The letter informed the former minister that she was no longer the head of the country’s economic team. A staffer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs faxed the letter to the Minister the next day. On getting the letter, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in a fit of anger, according to sources, exclaimed: “Obasanjo is the most ungrateful man in the world!”

  A brief chat with the Financial Times reporter, James Eedes. The reporter said, “The issue of asking the Minister the question of how she would like to be compared to the former minister is nothing really. I don’t want to be embroiled in this. I am a journalist. I don’t want to be part of the story. The Finance Minister would be naïve to think that these questions are not out there. She should have taken the opportunity to address these issues. The much talked about qualifications of Okonjo-Iweala, I consider it just a chip on the shoulder.”  James Eedes described the timing of the advance questions he sent to Nenadi Usman as “coincidental.” He said he had not spoken to the former Minister in a long time. “I can say with 100% conviction that the last time I spoke to her (Okonjo-Iweala) was in Burkina Faso. Since then the only contact with her has been through Ndubuisi.” 

While many of her former colleagues have refused to speak on the record concerning her resignation, the general feeling amongst them is relief. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was regarded by most of her colleagues as a very arrogant and difficult person. She is accused of nearly sabotaging the debt relief program. According to highly placed sources at the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance, the Finance Minister refused to inform the Central Bank Governor, Charles Soludo that payment to countries in the Paris Club were usually made in local currencies of the creditor nations until about twenty-four hours to the expiration of the allotted time for payment. The Central Bank of Nigeria hurriedly opened accounts all over the world within a few hours to the deadline and in the process lost millions of dollars.

Okonjo-Iweala is also accused of insisting that her former aides at the Ministry of Finance report to her after being reassigned to the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Memos were sent to the Minister by these aides without the knowledge and permission of the Finance Minister. Mansur Muktar, Director of the Debt Management Office is alleged to have been the major culprit.  Another occasion of Okonjo-Iweala’s meddlesomeness was Nigeria’s preparations for the upcoming meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Singapore.

After a Federal Executive Council meeting recently, Okonjo-Iweala and members of the economic team commenced their meeting. During the meeting, Iweala, though not the Finance Minister, issued instructions to the Ministers and other members of the economic team. She directed El-Ruffai, Nuhu Ribadu, and Oby Ezekwesili to prepare papers that would be presented at the Singapore meeting. They all declined. At that point Oby Ezekwesili, according to sources said: “Why are you asking us to prepare papers…what about the Minister of Finance?” Okonjo-Iweala is said to have retorted, “she can prepare papers if she wants.”

Knowledgeable sources in Abuja posit that there was no doubt that Okonjo-Iweala would have been sacked by Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo had she not resigned. She is reported to have been disliked by her colleagues, including the Secretary to the Federal Government, who according to sources, had “scolded her a few times because of her utterances and attitude.” 

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has not followed the normal path of fading away quietly. Instead she has chosen to fight back. We are reliably informed that her team of media consultants have gone full steam in their desire to ensure that her resignation is seen by the Nigerian people as being motivated by principle. Her press team is said to have access to slush funds and have been very generous with it in the past few days. For instance, on Saturday August 5th, four Nigerian newspapers ran, curiously, identical stories that painted the former Minister in very bright colors. A celebrated Nigerian international journalist said a recent story in the prestigious Guardian newspaper treated Iweala “like a saint who came to Nigeria and died of cancer.” 

There is no doubt that Madam Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is one of a kind. She loved her job and her dedication and patriotism was beyond question. She is a very accomplished woman. 
 
[/b]

[b]THE PROBLEM WITH OVER-BRILLIANCE----LESSONS FROM NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC

Who doesn’t know the company called NB PLC and the man who used to sit on top of it all named Chief Festus Odumegwu? The man and the company have a lot in common namely: being firsts in every respect.

The company is first in her industry. First in leading innovations, first in products, first in promotions and advertisements and lately, first to build a fully automated Brewery in Sub-sahara Africa--the newest in the world.

Chief Odumagwu is a first-class product of one of the highly respected and reputable universities in Nigeria. Those who know him cannot help but attest to the uncommon brilliance of this man which does not occur very often in a life time. His foray in the world of business with unusual success made him a rare gem in Africa and with much adoration by the white man.

But the other side of this man leaves a lot of question marks on the role of too much intelligence or over-brilliance in  a person’s life. This is a man who is alleged to neither repect no man nor fear God. This is a man who takes all the credit for every effort and success he records with none left for his creator. This is a man who is alleged to indulge in self-pleasure like he has the license. This is a man who is alleged to use foul language and pat girls on the bum at social gatherings. This is a man who drinks freely and carelessly even to stupor at social functions. A man who takes pride in selecting the finest of girls at luncheons and parties to be at his beck and call. This is a man who demystified the cult and office of CEO’s.

The worst of it all is that like a mechanical train, he does not seem to have control over his tongue----practically suffering from diarrhea of the mouth. The first CEO who attempted combining politics with business, who publicly became OBJ’s campaign helmsman while still seating on top of HEINEKEN’s politically neutral business empire in Nigeria without seeing anything wrong with his ways. No small thanks to HEINEKEN BV who had to do something drastic to prevent the politicization of her business by unseating this man who seemed to have gone out of his rational senses and went astray!

From my good old days in school up until now, I’ve come to observe one thing. That most First –Class materials usually do not have problems achieving great success, but sure do have a great deal of problems sustaining their greatness. On the other hand, most moderately brilliant others may take time to achieve success, but they usually stay with their successes for quite a long time.

The thing about it is that most First-Class people tend to be overly confident in themselves, wholly trusting in their own abilities while subtly and surreptitiously looking down on others who they feel do not measure up to their own self-concepts of intelligence and wisdom. They sometimes fail to recognize the role of other people and other forces in their lives---the interplay of interdependence of humans and forces in life. As a result, they usually fall into snares and blunders that see them come crashing like a pile of cards in sometimes, the most disgraceful dive.

Therefore, these are what I’ve decided to tell my son when he arrives. Son,
I want you to know that success in life does not depend on being first in everything or coming first in every class.
Know ye this day son, that successful people need to be well-rounded in order to do well in life.
Please son, instead of you to come home with a First-Class that will kill you, please bring home a Third-Class that will make you.
If in doubt son, pleas have a chat with Gani Fawehinmi and Bill Gate.[/b]

[b]Honestly it pains me this time I am going to spend to write again on this issue from the same perspective, for me it is time wasted. I had expected reasonable intellectual and convincing argument on this issue. But the kind of reactions here are not anything to go by, here being a platform for good minds (graduates). Most reactions just went 180 degrees off-point.

We are talking of a matter of serious national and constitutional importance and somebody is talking about going to go open a home-based, self-owned business if one doesn’t like what the employers are doing. Is that the solution to the discrimination problem? If I create my own business has it solved the problem? What about the rest who may never be opportune to tow the same line? He also said that it’s one’s duty to make oneself useful so that employers can pay one. That reveals that he doesn’t even understand the issue. Now what use does a BSc holder have more than an HND holder? What is the usefulness of a BSc holder over an HND holder? What can a BSc holder do that an HND holder cannot do? Is this the best employers of labor can do? You see the depth of dumbness of this line of reasoning?

My boss who stumbled on this site told me that Nairaland platform casts a pall of doubts on the way and manner our institutions have sunken deep in the morass and miasma of hopelessness. The type of things they say are the stuffs one can't even hear at the motor parks from the touts no matter how hard one tries to read their lips.

If one talks now it will be seen as attacking personality, but nay it is not! Most of these negative ideas and tendencies should be nipped at the bud and not be allowed to spread and infest society. That is why we now have a lot of clean up and clean out to do in our society today because negative people have been allowed to spread their propaganda for their self-serving motives.

A person who lacks appropriate self-concept and self-respect will always look at reason, knowledge, and ideas with contempt and disdain. And in its stead spread ignoble behaviors and selfishness in the midst of his attitudinal flux. But to set matters straight, I need to tell some guys like Seun, Davidylan, pepe, Molasco and co these:


There is this piece of wise saying that KITAUN has as part of his handle. It reads “What if I stay in the Ghetto, does it make you better than me?” Think about it before you proceed to read futher.


First and foremost, the article did not take people like you into consideration because it was unnecessary, as a gold nose-ring in the snout of a pig. I only posted that to set things straight. I did not write it for everybody. Only those who are psychologically and emotionally balanced can consume it. For the rest, the article is definitely not for them.

Any way, if you are a good graduate, you should have been able to find the Subject, Topic Sentence and then the Main Idea of comprehension passages. Nevertheless, all hope is not gone. UBE is there or you can just hop into any of those educational services centers (JAMB and SSCE Tutorial Classes) down your street. If you settle them well, and since you already have a paper you claim is a degree, they can offer you just 30mins refresher and arrange a certificate of Proficiency in English for you (That’s if u can pay them well oh!).

To help you out, the article succinctly says these:

1. That sound and functional education is the one that works for society and not the other way round.

2. That the language society understands is that which bespeaks solutions to its problems.

3. That the needs of organizations are Aptitudes, Skills, Expertise, and Competencies and not paper nomenclatures.

3. That Successful organizations are in dire need of those who have those time-tested attributes, aptitudes, skills, expertise and competencies which make for organizational success and business excellence such as hard work, honesty, integrity, flexibility, goal-oriented, business sense, organizational skills, interpersonal skills, strong communications skills, teachableness, value-driven etc. Organizations can kill for these competencies.

4. That even Harvard Degrees or Ivy League Degrees cannot guarantee you these competencies. So it’s all about you!

5. The world has slipped into the era of emphasizing aptitude, skill, expertise and competency. Nigeria can never afford to lag behind. If it dares, two things are probable namely; It will plunge itself into obsolescence and the world will afford to leave her behind. Like it or not, Nigeria must comply someday!

6. Now the ball is in your court. Start the process of change from your own little corner. That’s the only constant phenomenon and the best you can do for humanity.

You can as well send your reaction to wendell on mervtheworldismyoystershell@yahoo.com[/b]

[b]Honestly it pains me this time I am going to spend to write again on this issue from the same perspective, for me it is time wasted. I had expected reasonable intellectual and convincing argument on this issue. But the kind of reactions here are not anything to go by, here being a platform for good minds (graduates). Most reactions just went 180 degrees off-point.

We are talking of a matter of serious national and constitutional importance and somebody is talking about going to go open a home-based, self-owned business if one doesn’t like what the employers are doing. Is that the solution to the discrimination problem? If I create my own business has it solved the problem? What about the rest who may never be opportune to tow the same line? He also said that it’s one’s duty to make oneself useful so that employers can pay one. That reveals that he doesn’t even understand the issue. Now what use does a BSc holder have more than an HND holder? What is the usefulness of a BSc holder over an HND holder? What can a BSc holder do that an HND holder cannot do? Is this the best employers of labor can do? You see the depth of dumbness of this line of reasoning?

My boss who stumbled on this site told me that Nairaland platform casts a pall of doubts on the way and manner our institutions have sunken deep in the morass and miasma of hopelessness. The type of things they say are the stuffs one can't even hear at the motor parks from the touts no matter how hard one tries to read their lips.

If one talks now it will be seen as attacking personality, but nay it is not! Most of these negative ideas and tendencies should be nipped at the bud and not be allowed to spread and infest society. That is why we now have a lot of clean up and clean out to do in our society today because negative people have been allowed to spread their propaganda for their self-serving motives.

A person who lacks appropriate self-concept and self-respect will always look at reason, knowledge, and ideas with contempt and disdain. And in its stead spread ignoble behaviors and selfishness in the midst of his attitudinal flux. But to set matters straight, I need to tell some guys like Seun, Davidylan, pepe, Molasco and co these:


There is this piece of wise saying that KITAUN has as part of his handle. It reads “What if I stay in the Ghetto, does it make you better than me?” Think about it before you proceed to read futher.


First and foremost, the article did not take people like you into consideration because it was unnecessary, as a gold nose-ring in the snout of a pig. I only posted that to set things straight. I did not write it for everybody. Only those who are psychologically and emotionally balanced can consume it. For the rest, the article is definitely not for them.

Any way, if you are a good graduate, you should have been able to find the Subject, Topic Sentence and then the Main Idea of comprehension passages. Nevertheless, all hope is not gone. UBE is there or you can just hop into any of those educational services centers (JAMB and SSCE Tutorial Classes) down your street. If you settle them well, and since you already have a paper you claim is a degree, they can offer you just 30mins refresher and arrange a certificate of Proficiency in English for you (That’s if u can pay them well oh!).

To help you out, the article succinctly says these:

1. That sound and functional education is the one that works for society and not the other way round.

2. That the language society understands is that which bespeaks solutions to its problems.

3. That the needs of organizations are Aptitudes, Skills, Expertise, and Competencies and not paper nomenclatures.

3. That Successful organizations are in dire need of those who have those time-tested attributes, aptitudes, skills, expertise and competencies which make for organizational success and business excellence such as hard work, honesty, integrity, flexibility, goal-oriented, business sense, organizational skills, interpersonal skills, strong communications skills, teachableness, value-driven etc. Organizations can kill for these competencies.

4. That even Harvard Degrees or Ivy League Degrees cannot guarantee you these competencies. So it’s all about you!

5. The world has slipped into the era of emphasizing aptitude, skill, expertise and competency. Nigeria can never afford to lag behind. If it dares, two things are probable namely; It will plunge itself into obsolescence and the world will afford to leave her behind. Like it or not, Nigeria must comply someday!

6. Now the ball is in your court. Start the process of change from your own little corner. That’s the only constant phenomenon and the best you can do for humanity.

You can as well send your reaction to wendell on mervtheworldismyoystershell@yahoo.com[/b]

[b]Honestly it pains me this time I am going to spend to write again on this issue from the same perspective, for me it is time wasted. I had expected reasonable intellectual and convincing argument on this issue. But the kind of reactions here are not anything to go by, here being a platform for good minds (graduates). Most reactions just went 180 degrees off-point.

We are talking of a matter of serious national and constitutional importance and somebody is talking about going to go open a home-based, self-owned business if one doesn’t like what the employers are doing. Is that the solution to the discrimination problem? If I create my own business has it solved the problem? What about the rest who may never be opportune to tow the same line? He also said that it’s one’s duty to make oneself useful so that employers can pay one. That reveals that he doesn’t even understand the issue. Now what use does a BSc holder have more than an HND holder? What is the usefulness of a BSc holder over an HND holder? What can a BSc holder do that an HND holder cannot do? Is this the best employers of labor can do? You see the depth of dumbness of this line of reasoning?

My boss who stumbled on this site told me that Nairaland platform casts a pall of doubts on the way and manner our institutions have sunken deep in the morass and miasma of hopelessness. The type of things they say are the stuffs one can't even hear at the motor parks from the touts no matter how hard one tries to read their lips.

If one talks now it will be seen as attacking personality, but nay it is not! Most of these negative ideas and tendencies should be nipped at the bud and not be allowed to spread and infest society. That is why we now have a lot of clean up and clean out to do in our society today because negative people have been allowed to spread their propaganda for their self-serving motives.

A person who lacks appropriate self-concept and self-respect will always look at reason, knowledge, and ideas with contempt and disdain. And in its stead spread ignoble behaviors and selfishness in the midst of his attitudinal flux.  But to set matters straight, I need to tell some guys like Seun, Davidylan, pepe, Molasco and co these:


There is this piece of wise saying that KITAUN has as part of his handle. It reads “What if I stay in the Ghetto, does it make you better than me?” Think about it before you proceed to read futher.


First and foremost, the article did not take people like you into consideration because it was unnecessary, as a gold nose-ring in the snout of a pig. I only posted that to set things straight. I did not write it for everybody. Only those who are psychologically and emotionally balanced can consume it. For the rest, the article is definitely not for them.

Any way, if you are a good graduate, you should have been able to find the Subject, Topic Sentence and then the Main Idea of comprehension passages. Nevertheless, all hope is not gone. UBE is there or you can just hop into any of those educational services centers (JAMB and SSCE Tutorial Classes) down your street. If you settle them well, and since you already have a paper you claim is a degree, they can offer you just 30mins refresher and arrange a certificate of Proficiency in English for you (That’s if u can pay them well oh!).

To help you out, the article succinctly says these:

1. That sound and functional education is the one that works for society and not the other way round.

2. That the language society understands is that which bespeaks solutions to its problems.

3.  That the needs of organizations are Aptitudes, Skills, Expertise, and Competencies and not paper nomenclatures.

3.  That Successful organizations are in dire need of those who have those time-tested attributes, aptitudes, skills, expertise and competencies which make for organizational success and business excellence such as hard work, honesty, integrity, flexibility, goal-oriented, business sense, organizational skills, interpersonal skills, strong communications skills, teachableness, value-driven etc. Organizations can kill for these competencies.

4. That even Harvard Degrees or Ivy League Degrees cannot guarantee you these competencies. So it’s all about you!

5. The world has slipped into the era of emphasizing aptitude, skill, expertise and competency. Nigeria can never afford to lag behind. If it dares, two things are probable namely; It will plunge itself into obsolescence and the world will afford to leave her behind. Like it or not, Nigeria must comply someday!

6. Now the ball is in your court. Start the process of change from your own little corner. That’s the only constant phenomenon and the best you can do for humanity.

You can as well send your reaction to wendell on   mervtheworldismyoystershell@yahoo.com[/b]

[b] ALL MANNER OF DISCRIMINATION IS ILLEGAL, CRIMINAL AND CONDEMNABLE.

It has always been in my mien to just pout and maintain a stiff upper lip whenever I’ve to deal with a self-conceited chap with some stunted psyche. Even stiffer my lip is set when the person happens to be an educated ignoramus. Is this not the matter with Davidylan? To a rational thinking person, his manner of thinking is perceived to be somewhere near something that sucks and definitely well below and pegs lower, his thinking ability.

This is typically one of those signs that our educational system has everything wrong with it, having failed in content and function to produce capable young men and women who are worthy in character and in learning to handle responsibilities and who can think aright. What then are we left with? Young men like Davidylan who may be worthy in learning (at least having managed to be issued with a certificate), but seriously lacking in character, good sense, sound judgment and emotional maturity. No little thanks to the organizational learning that Corporate organizations have to subject young graduates to (in the form of training) to see if they could try to get anywhere close to wiping the stripes off the zebra’s skin---by way of re-adjusting, re-tuning and fine-tuning their thinking patterns and hone their skills.

How can anyone in the 21st century overtly or covertly support any form of discrimination on whatever basis? Is this not a sign of the Dark Ages? This is the problem with Africa. Africa has blatantly refused to grow by its retention of obnoxious growth-retarding policies. This is why it has defied even the solutions which have been known to work in other places. A weight which has continually been bearing it down into the doldrums of inefficiency.

The youth they say are the future of our Nation. What hope then is there for our Nation? What future is there for our dear fatherland when the many amongst us still have the mentality of yester-years?

Go to many foreign Blog sites and discussion platforms and behold the spate and level of intellectual excitation that young people in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions carry on.You read about issues on scientific creativity, unbridled and seamless innovative imaginations of these promising young minds.You can't help but testify to the kind of future these young chaps are taking their destinies and those of their countries to. But for us here all we get busy doing and talking about is how to pose impediments, prevent others and mount roadblocks to people who challenge us.I weep for dear Nation Nigeria.
Look at the spate of politically instigated killings and violence in our country today. Where did it all begin? When will it end? No doubts from deep-seated intolerance of one against the other. If our young graduates at this stage of world civilization are this intolerant of challenges, then how prepared are we to right the wrongs the older folks have instituted in the land?

I hold an HND and a B.sc.-- a case of the taste of two puds. I believe that one who has not had any polytechnic experience like Daydlan, most corporate managers and our policy makers are ignorantly mistaken and incapable of sound judgment on the matter. This is because it is only natural that for you to make a faultless analysis, you must have a panoramic and firsthand experience of an issue. Afterall, why do lawyers hold hearing session? Why do legislators form committees who go down the grassroots to feel the temperature there?

As an authority in this issue. I put it to whoever that supports the discrimination of graduates based on the type of qualification as unnecessary, inhumane, dehumanizing, destructive to our educational system, anti-economy and a sheer exercise in barbarism.
Let’s see some arguments for and against the HND/BSc discrimination saga.

1. Proponents of HND/BSc discrimination over-ambitiously cites the constitution which stipulates that the polytechnic is there to manufacture mid-level, manpower while the university system is to produce high-level manpower in order to seem as if it’s the law that’s the culprit. Fine and good! Now is it not the same law that draws an equalizing between HND and BSc both in weight and face value? Hence we read BSc or equivalent. Now, I guess the study of languages is one key area of strength for the puritanical system of academia (university). Please let all English Language professionals dust up their dictionary and investigate the etymology and meaning of the word “equivalent”. “Equi” means ‘equal’. As when two masses placed on the scale pan of a balance weigh exactly same. ‘Valent’ is from the root “valency” as in forming chemical bond, used when the number of atoms or molecules of other elements are equal to the number of hydrogen atoms that the atoms or molecules can combine with or displace in a chemical reaction. Hence, the interchangeability, interdependability, and inter-complementarity between HND and BSc. You know know why people who stick to the LETTER of the law usually "fall" and break up while those who concentrates on the SPIRIT of the law will always "jump and pass as it were".

From the foregoing, we reach the logical conclusion that BSc and HND are exactly equal in weight and in face value, in importance and use. They are just variants of the same stock. So no one has the legal and or moral right to discriminate the other. This is illegal and criminal.

2. Proponents of HND/BSc discrimination support it as an escape route by corporate bodies to curtail the sea of applications in order to streamline the recruitment process. Now I ask who is being lousy? The Human resources function no doubt! Is it not their job to follow the recruitment process from start to a logical conclusion? What is the motive for hiring? Is it to amass all the bogus and hackneyed paper names, aliases and the “-isms” or is it not to source and hire qualified persons both in education, skill and purpose? Are we forgetful of the fact that the vibrancy, virility and robustness of any workforce consists in its variegated complexion in terms of quality and performance which is only achievable via the amalgamation of qualified people of different backgrounds be it by virtue of qualification, skill, training, talent or even race? Why do economies undertake deregulation? Is it not to liberalize and open the market for competition which results in better service? I hope some one is not afraid of competition here. And for the corporate organizations, please remind the human resources function to know that in a delicate, serious and sensitive matter such as recruitment, following shortcuts or the easy way is as dangerous as hiring the wrong persons. Easy way is always the costliest alternative in the end. Little wonder our economy, run by mostly BSc holders, is in good shape I suppose. Count the number of liquidated companies littering all around in Nigeria and going by that in a logical sequence, all other things being equal, is it not right to conclude that in Nigeria, BSc holders are not good managers?

3. Some proponents of HND/BSC discrimination assert to it that the polytechnic system is not handled by professionals namely professors. Well they are right if they add to it the phrase “in Nigeria”. For in advanced economies, PhD holders teach even in the primary or secondary schools. In kindergatens and early learners'. The problem with us is our system, the BSc managers who are managing our economic and political systems. Why would I complain if I earn what I am supposed to earn as a professor and you ask me to teach in a primary school? In the US, professors in child education and many other fields who teach in primary schools earn higher than most lecturers in the universities.

Moreover, the rot in our university system should be reason enough to tell any one who cares that having a qualitative educational system does not depend on the making and heaping up of professors. Rather it is in having qualified teachers and personnel who have the skill to deliver the teaching and learning tasks. This of course is not an exclusive prerogative of professors. Some non-professors have been known to be better teachers than many professors.

Times without number I’ve had to talk about this matter. But it’s been long I threw it to the back seat because as educated and enlightened minds, this is not the kind of stuff we should still be talking in the 21st century. Nigeria after some 40 years of independence should have gone beyond this savage barbaric stage of her struggle to freedom. The irony of it all is that this is a self-inflicted injury! That is why the advanced countries look at us and wonder whether it is the same God (nature, source) that made the Black African man. The only plausible idea that makes sense to them is to conclude that we as Black Africans came from monkey. So they call us ‘Black monkeys; the Black continent; the black planet”. What else do you expect? People who reason like us logically must have some traces of DNA from Orangutan and so must have come from a descent of monkeys.

Recently, our revered education minister, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, a woman of many books, an icon of impeccable repute, a source of learning, a woman I respect, was caught lamenting over the dwindling enrolment in our polytechnic system and a burgeoning clamor for university education. Dr. Ahmed Salihu, the executive secretary of Jamb followed suit in this outcry saying that only 20% of the total number who enroll for University admission also try Polytechnic admission. My question is don’t they know why? How can they expect polytechnic education to grow when the people who cry wolf are the same people who turn round to kill it by destroying the future, inflicting harrowing emotional trauma and psychological hurts on those who choose to follow it.

Our University education system has crumbled because our policy makers have destroyed the polytechnic system. This is because one cannot stand without the other since they are equivalents. The university system cannot stand without the polytechnic system standing. Any thing that affects the polytechnic system will eventually affect the university system. You know why? Because they are equivalents. One is the equivalent of the other. Remember the law of balancing equations? Add to one side and you must add to the other. Take away from one side and you must do same to the other side. We have already started seeing the signs. Nothing serious has happened and they are shedding crocodile tears about the collapse of the university system as signaled by the over-bearing mass-match towards university education. Now it is common knowledge that every rat and mice can hop into a university a have a degree torn out and handed to him. That is if you can pay for it though.

Why don’t we make a change and follow the trend of the 21st century where skill rather than paper qualification is the determinant to being qualified for responsibilities as practiced in advanced economies? Should be the “I can do” and not the ‘I have the paper’ attitude.

Most of the advanced economies in the world that we so much admire are where they are today not so much because of what goes on in their puritanical system of academia (universities) but much more to what goes on in what we call the polytechnic institutions. A case of curriculum differentia but all aimed at exactly the same objectives. So the principle of understanding the spirit of the law and not just the letter must be applied here.

Now look at the type of research and knowledge the puritanical system of academia(universities) engage in. They are usually white-elephant in nature. So bogus and grandiose that they are not usually practically relevant in the short-run. Some of them take fifty years, centuries and even generations before they become socio-economically useful, practical and relevant to society.But what do people need? What do organizations need? Is it extraneous analysis, long range researches and theorizations rather than practical time-lined innovations?

What value is the making of many books to the ordinary man if it cannot meaningfuly and practically revolutionize his lifestyle in his lifetime? Just look at most theories, they take very long time to convert to reality and practical equivalents. Think about the Human Genome Project, the HIV/AIDS studies etc. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that most researches going on in the puritanical system of academia(universities) may not be of any benefit to some of us in our lifetime because they are unneessarily long-term and futuristic in nature.

Now compare it with the things that come out of the polytechnic institutions. They are usually what the society needs at any given time. They are always relevant to the society. The needs of society is usually the determinant of studies, researches and innovations in the polytechnic system.The objective is always to solve human and societal problems. The researches are not so complex, confounding or dumbfounding like rocket science, neither is it simplistic like flying a kite. Rather it is what I call Technology with human face. Technology for you and with you in mind.Technology of solutions. Technology that makes sense and meaning to the people.Technology for everyday life.

This is where the complementarity of the polytechnic and university systems lies. You cannot plan for long-term purposes when you have not taken care of the short-term and mid-term issues. This is thus the difference between Africa and the advanced economies.

Therefore, the earlier we understand the dynamics of these scholastic forces, the better for us. We find out then that there's no single need for one to pitch itself against the other. We all are patners in making education work for humanity and not the other way round.If the university system insists on the downfall of the polytechnic system by supporting the marginalisation, discrimination and relegation of polytechnic graduates, then there is even no need for anyone to worry because it itself must surely crumble. Only a matter of time.

Now the truth of the matter is you can only hold a people down for so long. For when push comes to shove, the people must find a way out. Look at what is happening in the Niger Delta today. It is as a result of intolerance, discrimination and marginalization. That is enough lesson for us to know that all manner of discrimination, be it in whatever shade or colour is criminal and illegal. Now think of when educated minds will join the chorus and apply technology to terrorism which is now the order of the day in the world. When they'll not only stop at making peroxide have explosive potency but everything including detergent solutions (OMO, ELEPHANT, ARIEL, BIMBO etc) will become raw-materials for warfare technology. Get it right! I am not a prophet of Doom and gloom. But to be forewarned is as good as being forearmed. For it sure is a possibility. A word they say is enough for the discerning!

THE WAY FORWARD
The new education minister, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, a champion reformist no doubt has no small job to do in out rightly uprooting this gross embarrassment on the canvass of our corporate, economic, education, social, and political systems. Though I do not expect miracle from her, one fact being that she did not have a taste of the polytechnic system. So while she is capable, she may not really be able to be precisely exact in locating where the shoes pinch the wearers. Nevertheless, there is much she can do.

1. She should enforce the eradication of this unruly treatment of HND graduates by taking it to the various organizations exactly the same way the Local Content Initiative (LCI) is being enforced on the oil and gas sector as well as the way the ETF tax policy is being enforced on all corporate organizations. This presupposes that for any company to be licensed to operate in the country and for existing licenses not to be revoked, organizations must produce and present their white paper and blue print showing their open door policy on recruitment such that in all levels of job functions, nobody is discriminated due to the type of certificate he holds.

2. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) should stand up for the HND graduates who have been ill-treated especially in the banking sector. There is no reason why they should be at the sour end of the Recapitalization Policy.There is much the NLC can do to stop this arrant nonsense.

3. The senate should as a matter of urgency legislate so as to remove any legal impediments towards freedom for all-both HND’s and BSc’s. They should wield the sledge hammer in the direction of any organizations in Nigeria that support this barbarism.

4. Personally, my fight as an individual which I have started in my own small way is to make sure that the United Nations freedom charter is rewritten, reworded, modified and fine-tuned to take care of this form of discrimination so that no human being is discriminated by virtue of his sex, colour, beliefs, sex-orientation, education and qualification.

All you lovers freedom stand up for freedom for there is much everyone can do to accomplish what is right.

You can react personally to this write up to mervtheworldismyoystershell@yahoo.com

[/b]

[b]ALL MANNER OF DISCRIMINATION IS ILLEGAL, CRIMINAL AND CONDEMNABLE.

It has always been in my mien to just pout and maintain a stiff upper lip whenever I’ve to deal with a self-conceited chap with some stunted psyche. Even stiffer my lip is set when the person happens to be an educated ignoramus.  Is this not the matter with Davidylan? To a rational thinking person, his manner of thinking is perceived to be somewhere near something that sucks and definitely well below and pegs lower, his thinking ability.

This is typically one of those signs that our educational system has everything wrong with it, having failed in content and function to produce capable young men and women who are worthy in character and in learning to handle responsibilities and who can think aright. What then are we left with? Young men like Davidylan who may be worthy in learning (at least having managed to be issued with a certificate), but seriously lacking in character, good sense, sound judgment and emotional maturity. No little thanks to the organizational learning that Corporate organizations have to subject young graduates to (in the form of training) to see if they could try to get anywhere close to wiping the stripes off the zebra’s skin---by way of re-adjusting, re-tuning and fine-tuning their thinking patterns and hone their skills.

How can anyone in the 21st century overtly or covertly support any form of discrimination on whatever basis? Is this not a sign of the Dark Ages?  This is the problem with Africa.  Africa has blatantly refused to grow by its retention of obnoxious growth-retarding policies.  This is why it has defied even the solutions which have been known to work in other places. A weight which has continually been bearing it down into the doldrums of inefficiency.

The youth they say are the future of our Nation. What hope then is there for our Nation? What future is there for our dear fatherland when the many amongst us still have the mentality of yester-years?

Go to many foreign Blog sites and discussion platforms and behold the spate and level of intellectual excitation that young people in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions carry on.You read about issues on scientific creativity, unbridled and seamless innovative imaginations of these promising young minds.You can't help but testify to the kind of future these young chaps are taking their destinies and those of their countries to. But for us here all we get busy doing and talking about is how to pose impediments, prevent others  and mount roadblocks to people who challenge us.I weep for dear Nation Nigeria.
Look at the spate of politically instigated killings and violence in our country today. Where did it all begin? When will it end? No doubts from deep-seated intolerance of one against the other. If our young graduates at this stage of world civilization are this intolerant of challenges, then how prepared are we to right the wrongs the older folks have instituted in the land?

I hold an HND and a B.sc.-- a case of the taste of two puds.  I believe that one who has not had any polytechnic experience like Daydlan, most corporate managers and our policy makers are ignorantly mistaken and incapable of sound judgment on the matter.  This is because it is only natural that for you to make a faultless analysis, you must have a panoramic and firsthand experience of an issue.  Afterall, why do lawyers hold hearing session?  Why do legislators form committees who go down the grassroots to feel the temperature there?

As an authority in this issue.  I put it to whoever that supports the discrimination of graduates based on the type of qualification as unnecessary, inhumane, dehumanizing, destructive to our educational system, anti-economy and a sheer exercise in barbarism.
Let’s see some arguments for and against the HND/BSc discrimination saga.

1. Proponents of HND/BSc discrimination over-ambitiously cites the constitution which stipulates that the polytechnic is there to manufacture mid-level, manpower while the university system is to produce high-level manpower in order to seem as if it’s the law that’s the culprit. Fine and good! Now is it not the same law that draws an equalizing between HND and BSc both in weight and face value? Hence we read BSc or equivalent. Now, I guess the study of languages is one key area of strength for the puritanical system of academia (university).  Please let all English Language professionals dust up their dictionary and investigate the etymology and meaning of the word “equivalent”.  “Equi” means ‘equal’.  As when two masses placed on the scale pan of a balance weigh exactly same.  ‘Valent’ is from the root “valency” as in forming chemical bond, used when the number of atoms or molecules of other elements are equal to the number of hydrogen atoms that the atoms or molecules can combine with or displace in a chemical reaction.  Hence, the interchangeability, interdependability, and inter-complementarity between HND and BSc. You know know why people who stick to the LETTER of the law usually "fall" and break up while those who concentrates on the SPIRIT of the law will always "jump and pass as it were".

From the foregoing, we reach the logical conclusion that BSc and HND are exactly equal in weight and in face value, in importance and use.  They are just variants of the same stock.  So no one has the legal and or moral right to discriminate the other.  This is illegal and criminal.

2. Proponents of HND/BSc discrimination support it as an escape route by corporate bodies to curtail the sea of applications in order to streamline the recruitment process.  Now I ask who is being lousy?  The Human resources function no doubt! Is it not their job to follow the recruitment process from start to a logical conclusion?  What is the motive for hiring?  Is it to amass all the bogus and hackneyed paper names, aliases and the “-isms” or is it not to source and hire qualified persons both in education, skill and purpose?  Are we forgetful of the fact that the vibrancy, virility and robustness of any workforce consists in its variegated complexion in terms of quality and performance which is only achievable via the amalgamation of qualified people of different backgrounds be it by virtue of qualification, skill, training, talent or even race?  Why do economies undertake deregulation? Is it not to liberalize and open the market for competition which results in better service?  I hope some one is not afraid of competition here.  And for the corporate organizations, please remind the human resources function to know that in a delicate, serious and sensitive matter such as recruitment, following shortcuts or the easy way is as dangerous as hiring the wrong persons. Easy way is always the costliest alternative in the end. Little wonder our economy, run by mostly BSc holders, is in good shape I suppose. Count the number of liquidated companies littering all around in Nigeria and going by that in a logical sequence, all other things being equal, is it not right to conclude that in Nigeria, BSc holders are not good managers?

3. Some proponents of HND/BSC discrimination assert to it that the polytechnic system is not handled by professionals namely professors.  Well they are right if they add to it the phrase “in Nigeria”.  For in advanced economies, PhD holders teach even in the primary or secondary schools. In kindergatens and early learners'. The problem with us is our system, the BSc managers who are managing our economic and political systems. Why would I complain if I earn what I am supposed to earn as a professor and you ask me to teach in a primary school? In the US, professors in child education and many other fields who teach in primary schools earn higher than most lecturers in the universities. 

Moreover, the rot in our university system should be reason enough to tell any one who cares that having a qualitative educational system does not depend on the making and heaping up of professors.  Rather it is in having qualified teachers and personnel who have the skill to deliver the teaching and learning tasks.  This of course is not an exclusive prerogative of professors.  Some non-professors have been known to be better teachers than many professors.

Times without number I’ve had to talk about this matter.  But it’s been long I threw it to the back seat because as educated and enlightened minds, this is not the kind of stuff we should still be talking in the 21st century.  Nigeria after some 40 years of independence should have gone beyond this savage barbaric stage of her struggle to freedom.  The irony of it all is that this is a self-inflicted injury! That is why the advanced countries look at us and wonder whether it is the same God (nature, source) that made the Black African man.  The only plausible idea that makes sense to them is to conclude that we as Black Africans came from monkey.  So they call us ‘Black monkeys; the Black continent; the black planet”.  What else do you expect?  People who reason like us logically must have some traces of  DNA from Orangutan and so must have come from a descent of monkeys.

Recently, our revered education minister, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, a woman of many books, an icon of impeccable repute, a source of learning,  a woman I respect, was caught lamenting over the dwindling enrolment in our polytechnic system and a burgeoning clamor for university education.  Dr. Ahmed Salihu, the executive secretary of Jamb followed suit in this outcry saying that only 20% of the total number who enroll for University admission also try Polytechnic admission.  My question is don’t they know why?  How can they expect polytechnic education to grow when the people who cry wolf are the same people who turn round to kill it by destroying the future, inflicting harrowing emotional trauma and psychological hurts on those who choose to follow it.

Our University education system has crumbled because our policy makers have destroyed the polytechnic system.  This is because one cannot stand without the other since they are equivalents. The university system cannot stand without the polytechnic system standing. Any thing that affects the polytechnic system will eventually affect the university system.  You know why? Because they are equivalents. One is the equivalent of the other. Remember the law of balancing equations?  Add to one side and you must add to the other.  Take away from one side and you must do same to the other side.  We have already started seeing the signs.  Nothing serious has happened and they are shedding crocodile tears about the collapse of the university system as signaled by the over-bearing mass-match towards university education. Now it is common knowledge that every rat and mice can hop into a university a have a degree torn out and handed to him. That is if you can pay for it though.

Why don’t we make a change and follow the trend of the 21st century where skill rather than paper qualification is the determinant to being qualified for responsibilities as practiced in advanced economies?  Should be the “I can do” and not the ‘I have the paper’ attitude.

Most of the advanced economies in the world that we so much admire are where they are today not so much because of what goes on in their puritanical system of academia (universities) but much more to what goes on in what we call the polytechnic institutions. A case of curriculum differentia but all aimed at exactly the same objectives. So the principle of understanding the spirit of the law and not just the letter must be applied here.

Now look at the type of research and knowledge the puritanical system of academia(universities) engage in. They are usually white-elephant in nature. So bogus and grandiose that they are not usually practically relevant in the short-run. Some of them take fifty years, centuries and even generations before they become socio-economically useful, practical and relevant to society.But what do people need? What do organizations need? Is it extraneous analysis, long range researches and theorizations rather than practical time-lined innovations?

What value is the making of many books to the ordinary man if it cannot meaningfuly and practically revolutionize his lifestyle in his lifetime? Just look at most theories, they take  very long time to convert to reality and practical equivalents. Think about the Human Genome Project, the HIV/AIDS studies etc. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that most researches going on in the puritanical system of academia(universities) may not be of any benefit to some of us in our lifetime because they are unneessarily long-term and futuristic in nature.

Now compare it with the things that come out of the polytechnic institutions. They are usually what the society needs at any given time. They are always relevant to the society. The needs of society is usually the determinant of studies, researches and innovations in the polytechnic system.The objective is always to solve human and societal problems. The researches are not so complex, confounding or dumbfounding like rocket science, neither is it simplistic like flying a kite. Rather it is what I call Technology with human face. Technology for you and with you in mind.Technology of solutions. Technology that makes sense and meaning to the people.Technology for everyday life.

This is where the complementarity of the polytechnic and university systems lies. You cannot plan for long-term purposes when you have not taken care of the short-term and mid-term issues. This is thus the difference between Africa and the advanced economies.

Therefore, the earlier we understand the dynamics of these scholastic forces, the better for us. We find out then that there's no single need for one to pitch itself against the other. We all are patners in making education work for humanity and not the other way round.If the university system insists on the downfall of the polytechnic system by supporting the marginalisation, discrimination and relegation of polytechnic graduates, then there is even no need for anyone to worry because it itself must surely crumble. Only a matter of time.

Now the truth of the matter is you can only hold a people down for so long. For when push comes to shove, the people must find a way out. Look at what is happening in the Niger Delta today. It is as a result of intolerance, discrimination and marginalization. That is enough lesson for us to know that all manner of discrimination,  be it in whatever shade or colour is criminal and illegal. Now think of when educated minds will join the chorus and apply technology to terrorism which is now the order of the day in the world. When they'll not only stop at making peroxide have explosive potency but everything including detergent solutions (OMO, ELEPHANT, ARIEL, BIMBO etc) will become raw-materials for warfare technology. Get it right! I am not a prophet of Doom and gloom. But to be forewarned is as good as being forearmed. For it sure is a possibility. A word they say is enough for the discerning!

THE WAY FORWARD
The new education minister, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, a champion reformist no doubt has no small job to do in out rightly uprooting this gross embarrassment on the canvass of our corporate, economic, education, social, and political systems.  Though I do not expect miracle from her, one fact being that she did not have a taste of the polytechnic system.  So while she is capable, she may not really be able to be precisely exact in locating where the shoes pinch the wearers.  Nevertheless, there is much she can do.

1. She should enforce the eradication of this unruly treatment of HND graduates by taking it to the various organizations exactly the same way the Local Content Initiative (LCI) is being enforced on the oil and gas sector as well as the way the ETF tax policy is being enforced on all corporate organizations.  This presupposes that for any company to be licensed to operate in the country and for existing licenses not to be revoked, organizations must produce and present their white paper and blue print showing their open door policy on recruitment such that in all levels of job functions, nobody is discriminated due to the type of certificate he holds.

2. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) should stand up for the HND graduates who have been ill-treated especially in the banking sector.  There is no reason why they should be at the sour end of the Recapitalization Policy.There is much the NLC can do to stop this arrant nonsense.

3. The senate should as a matter of urgency legislate so as to remove any legal impediments towards freedom for all-both HND’s and BSc’s.  They should wield the sledge hammer in the direction of any organizations in Nigeria that support this barbarism.

4. Personally, my fight as an individual which I have started in my own small way is to make sure that the United Nations freedom charter is rewritten, reworded, modified and fine-tuned to take care of this form of discrimination so that no human being is discriminated by virtue of his sex, colour, beliefs, sex-orientation, education and qualification.

All you lovers freedom stand up for freedom for there is much everyone can do to accomplish what is right.

You can react personally to this write up to mervtheworldismyoystershell@yahoo.com[/b]