By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
For giving scholarship to one hundred and eleven (115) students in Kaduna State, the National Association Of Polytechnic Students, (NAPS) has endorsed the senatorial candidate of Labour Party, Southern Kaduna, zone 3, Engr. Mike Auta as their sole candidate in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
“For your compassion over the plight of students in Kaduna State, the students will massively vote for you, believing that your presence at the National Assembly will usher in good things for students in the entire country,” the National President, NAPS, Comrade Sunday Asuku said.
At a one-day symposium of technical and vocational education in Nigeria held in Kaduna, the Senatorial candidate gave scholarship to 115 students of tertiary institutions cut across the 23 Local government areas of Kaduna State.
Dr. Mike Auta said humanitarian service is part of his life and agenda to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty within a short period of time.
He explained, “By the special grace of God, l have been sponsoring students in different institutions of learning without knowing who they are but l believed in helping the less privileged so that together we move forward as a family irrespective of differences.”
Represented by his Director, Communication and Strategies, Mr Jotham Ayuba, Engr. Mike lamented the infrastructural decay of the educational sector especially polytechnic institutions, believing that adequate attentions are not given to education and as such, it will be very difficult to achieve substantial result.
He added, “This is not the first phase of my scholarship. I have students on scholarship in different institutions like the Baze University, Nile University and outside the country and I am still going to do more so as to be able to assist as many less privileges as I can.”
The Senatorial candidate noted that education is the strongest weapon that can be used to shape the societal strength of human characters, behaviour and building societal values, saying that without such human capital investment in the area of education, it is only things of the past that will keep unfolding.
According to him, the Nigerian higher education system including polytechnics has seen chains of multi-faceted problems in recent times, pointing out that the Polytechnic objectives as given in the Act establishing it, the invaluable roles and contributions of polytechnic education to the socio-political and economic development of Nigeria, nobody will dispute the fact that it should be a national issue by making it “Polytechnic Education for all’’.
The world over, he opined that Polytechnics educate future leaders and develop the middle-level technical capacities that underpin economic growth and development, lamenting that unfortunately today, the polytechnics are filled with crises of various dimensions and magnitude as a number of multi-faceted problems have inhibited goal attainment and are raising questions, doubts and fears, all of which combine to suggest that the system is at a crossroad.
He stressed that there was the urgent need to really look into the effective management of the nation’s education and dissect the challenges with a view to achieving effectiveness, quality and relevance in the entire system, so as to provide trained manpower in applied sciences, technology and commerce particularly at sub-professional grade.
Engr. Auta, therefore, called on government and other well meaning Nigerians to prioritize education so as to be able to equip future leaders with all they have got so as to be able to move the nation forward.
Comrade Sunday Asuku, the National President, NAPS, had earlier expressed students gratitude, saying that they are overwhelmed with the kind gesture as the contemporary society is in dire need of individuals who are willing to give back to the society without expecting anything in return.
He said NAPS did not plan to endorse Engr. Auta because it is not a political program but as a relevant stakeholders present at the event deemed it fit to make their stance and give directive to polytechnic students across the country to support individuals with good track records regardless of their tribe, religion or ethnicity.
Comrade Abdulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, a stakeholder of NAPS, who moved motion for the endorsement of Auta said he sees no reason why Engr. Auta cannot be endorsed, saying that this is the kind of persons Nigerians need in the society.
