The success story of Akwa Poly, by rector

 

Barr (Dr) Israel Affia is the Rector of Akwa Ibom state Polytechnic, Ikot Osura. In an xmas chat with newsmen in Uyo, the versatile administrator talked on how his management team is currently trasnsforming the state owned Polytechnic and why it has since become the most sought after polytechnic in the country. Excerpts

 

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, let me use this opportunity to thank  you very much and you are most welcome to this chat session. Not long ago I told my friend that before now I use to underestimate the value and purpose of the media. Having got to where I am now I have come to discover that without these two strategic organs, no administration can go anywhere and that informed me calling on my PRO to organize this chat. On behalf of myself, management, academic board, staff and students and in fact the governing council of Akwa Ibom state Polytechnic I want to welcome you most sincerely for responding to this call and of course I am a very conspicuous member of the clergy, I will want to say I welcome you all to this media chat in name of God the father, God the son and God the Holy spirit. Amen

I want to thank you all for the support you have given to me since I took over this saddle, I came into office on the 11th of January 2013, on the 11th of January this year, I would have stayed two years in office, that means I would have spent two years of my 3 years in my first tenure. Let me say that I have so much appreciated your own support and cooperation during these two years that is why I say God will bless you all for aligning with me and my administration. 

As I said earlier, when I came here I used to think that the press were just there as an ordinary organ but I have discovered that they are not just ordinary organ because without you nobody would have known what my strides have been in the past two years of my tenure. So I want to thank you all for letting the public to know the little of our contributions in the past two years.

You should have also noticed as you have been reporting that the profile of our school has risen to something higher and better. As you must have read in the dailies and electronic media houses that the profile of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic has changed. For example, it may interest you to know, in a meeting of which I attended about 3 months ago our institution was adjudged the most sort –for and most preferred Polytechnic in the country. JAMB arrived at this base on the number of students that would want to come into our institution and of course you would have known that people will not glamour for something that is not glamorous.

Where we have found ourselves as an institution is made possible by our education friendly governor, Chief Dr Godswill Akpabio. I want to believe that if we are as we were last two years that students will not want to come here and learn. The Governor has brought us from a glorified Secondary school to a Polytechnic by transforming and rejuvenating everything about AkwaPoly, anybody that comes into Akwapoly today will know that it is not the Akwapoly of three years ago. And it does not end there, all our programmes are accredited.

I want to use this medium to say a big thank you to his Excellency and the most Education friendly governor of this country Chief Dr. Godswill Obot Akpabio for making this possible because without the infrastructures both material and human, we will not be where we are today, students will not be looking for us. I want to once again tell the Governor thank you for changing the story of Akwa poly.

The synergy that has existed between the institution management, governing council and government has been wonderful, since the present governing council came led by Barr. Uwemedimo Nwoko everything in the institution has stabilized and without mincing words I will like to say that relationship has been most cordial. That has informed why we have made progress. So I want to use this medium to also to thank the Governing council of Akwa Ibom state Polytechnic for being vision based and for changing the story of Akwapoly because they are the ones that represent the Governor here. They are between us and government and any problems we have they present it to the government and I want to say we have been getting wonderful and positive results.

My administration has recorded many successes and I will like the public to know them. Under my administration, the programmes in our institution have all been accredited and you may wish to know that without the requisite human and material resources there can be no accreditation and this have been made possible by own Dear governor and his government. 

 

When I came on board, incidentally you may also wish to know that I was also part of the system before I was appointed the Rector of the institution. I knew that they were dearth of seats in the classrooms, we had situations where students will stand during lectures and I knew that because I was a lecturer and I knew what was happening. When I came on board the first thing we did was the provision of seats, I am very proud and happy to say today that as we are now you cannot find any child standing in any of the classrooms in Akwapoly, so what I am saying is that as far as seating arrangement is concerned we have addressed that adequately. 

 

We have also provided more classrooms. There is a body called Tertiary Education Trust Fund TETFUND that body has been wonderful and I look at it as one of the most important agencies of the federal government. This body funds or provides money or provides facilities for both federal and state tertiary institutions. When I came in, I inherited 2011 TEFUND intervention that was virtually abandoned, what I did was that I seek the permission of the council to raise money and complete that project, if you ask any student here to take you to Mechanical Engineering Department there will take you there. We were able to raise money and complete that project. So we sourced for money and we completed the project. In addition to that, I wish to inform you that very soon our hostels will be completed for students to return to schools. 

 

The Governor Chief Godswill Akpabio has done a lot for us and we are grateful to him. We will continue to do our best for the promotion of the ethics of Education in Akwa Ibom state and we will solicit the cooperation of every person and the media in order to make us achieve greater things in the institution.