Education: Kogi Poly holds historic convocation ceremony, as Gov. Bello, 4 others receive fellowship awards »

…Gov. Bello commends Rector over successes, restates commitment to quality education

…Your support has spurred our successes – Rector Ogbo to Gov. Bello.

Kogi state Governor, Yahaya Bello alongside four distinguished individuals have been honoured with fellowship awards of the Kogi state polytechnic at the Saturday’s 4th combined convocation ceremony of the institution.

The governor was specially recognised and conferred the fellowship for his immense contributions to the growth and the repositioning of the citadel of learning.

The state governor in his remark commended the Rector of Kogi state polytechnic, Dr. Salisu Usman Ogbo over what he describes as his untiring and relentless revolution and repositioning of the Kogi State polytechnic.

He added that Ogbo’s trailblazing successes which he has achieved in the institution is a strong reflection of his own administration’s unbending desire to turn the education sector around which he attested have yielded positive results in several steads.

The governor said his administration have continued to invest in the education sector through several programmes and initiatives, thereby improving infrastructures and quality of education across all higher institutions. He added that his government also established two brand new higher institutions in four years in a bid to expand the opportunities for young ones to have access to higher education.

The governor however used the occasion to restate his administration’s commitment to the all important sector mentioning that even after he exits as the state governor, his successor and Governor-elect, Ahmed Usman Ododo would further consolidate on the gains his government has made in the education sector.

Governor Bello congratulated the graduating students for achieving such feet in their lives’ journey urging them to earnestly continue to be good ambassadors of the institution and ensure to deploy all they have learnt as they fly the flag of the polytechnic.

Earlier in his remarks, the Rector, Dr. Salisu Usman Ogbo informed the public that 12, 080 students graduated at the Institution’s historic 4th Combined Convocation which covers over ten years academic calendar ranging between 2013/2014 up until 2022/2023 academic sessions.

Breaking down the number, he noted that 7,653 (Seven Thousand, six hundred and Fifty Three students will be graduating with a National Diploma (ND) in various programmes while Four thousand, four hundred and twenty-seven (4,427) students graduated with Higher National Diploma (HND) in various programmes in an event that last held in 2014.

Dr. Ogbo said such number is the highest since the inception of the Polytechnic and such was a significant indication that Kogi State Polytechnic is firmly poised to contribute to quality manpower needs of the Country while he congratulated the graduands for being worthy of their calling stating that he was very confident that they will be good ambassadors of Kogi State Polytechnic.

Dr. Ogbo expressed his deep gratitude to God and Governor Yahaya Bello, for enabling the humble impact his leadership in the polytechnic have made within the period.

The Rector who gave highlights of some of the efforts made to reposition the institution noted that the condition of the polythecnic before he emerge as the Rector was well known hence their journey thus far under the 3-Rs mantra of Repair, Reform and Restore has truly yielded great leap, but still a journey in progress.

Some of the achievements he mentioned included efforts in tackling the monster of insecurity through modalities including Fortification of security architecture through effective intelligence gathering on the activities of cultists and other criminal groups, Construction of a befitting security building code-named Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello Security House at the entrance of the Polytechnic to replace the 3-room cubicle we inherited to promote efficiency amongst the security personnel, Installation of hidden CCTV camera on the campus to monitor unholy activities and act decisively, Provision of communication gadgets and a host of other efforts.

He said in areas of Academic matters and quality assurance the polytechnic Introduced new Statement of Results Format and Fortified Original Certificate, Introduction E-Examination/Results Computation/E-Payment, Strengthening Regulation against indiscriminate Production and Sales of Textbooks on the Campus, Introduction of the Academic Board Central Results Verification Committee, Production of Maiden Annual Report for the Polytechnic, 100% Accreditation of 30 Programmes and several other landmark achievements.

Other very key efforts Dr. Ogbo listed were massive infrastructural drive, Recruitment of New staff, implementation of the 2015 to 2020 promotion, Alumni Association Initiative, erection of SUG secretariat and a host of lots of other efforts geared to growing the institution.

Also in his brief remarks, the chairman of the Governing Council, Kogi state polytechnic, Prof. Yakubu Isah said the council remained poised to prioritise the academic and personal development of the institution’s student while he expressed gratitude to the state governor for his resolve to ensure that the polytechnic continued to thrive.