… propose 5 years imprisonment for deviants
A legislative framework that seeks to remove the dichotomy between graduates of university and polytechnic is underway in the House of Representatives.
The bill, co-sponsored by Ali Isa and Edward Pwajok, chairman, House Committee on Human Rights, has been gazetted for second reading.
According to the lawmakers, the bill provides for stiffer punishment including imprisonment for contravening the provisions of the bill, which seeks to abolish and prohibit dichotomy and discrimination between first degree and higher national diploma in the same profession/field and for related matters.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State via a circular with Reference No: CIR/HOS/16/Vol.1/037 dated March 1, 2016, had approved the conversion in the Lagos State Public Service.
According to the circular, the ‘policy on conversion’ affects that “officers on Grade Level 12 and above are usually stepped down by one Grade Level upon conversion from either Assistant/Sub-Cadre to Officer/Professional Cadre or from one Professional Cadre/Officer Cadre to another Professional/Officer Cadre to another Professional/Officer Cadre.”
The new policy, which eliminates the dichotomy, provides that “an officer who has acquired the requisite qualification of at least first degree/suitable professional qualification provided that the duties of the officer are not different from that of the new Office/Professional Cadre can be converted laterally.
“An officer, in a cadre unrelated to the cadre in which he/she is seeking to be converted where he/she has acquired the requisite qualification of at least first degree or suitable professional qualification for he proposed cadre can be converted laterally,” the circular signed by A.M Odeyemi, permanent secretary of Lagos State Civil Service, said.
Currently, holders of HND Certificates in the Federal Civil Service: Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), are limited to attain Grade Level 14 at most while their counterparts with First Degree can rise to Grade Level 17.
Similar discrimination also affects the salary disparity between First Degree and HND graduates at both federal and state levels.
While speaking on behalf of the stakeholders in the polytechnic subsector on the intendment of the bill, Usman Dutse, President, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) who applauded the House, decried the antics of the public service bureaucracy hindering the implementation of the previous policy.
“We are in full support, it is one of our agitation with the Federal Government of Nigeria. We supported similar bill in the seventh Assembly and the last meeting of the National Council on Establishment,” Dutse noted.
While stressing that the White Paper on the removal of dichotomy under the President Olusegun Obasanjo had been approved by the National Council on Education (NCE), he alleged that the “release of the communiqué was manipulated and frustrated by the office of the Head of service of the Federation.”
Section 1(a-b) provides that “first degrees and Higher National Diplomas in the same profession and or field shall be deemed and treated as exact equivalent graduate certificates. All forms of discrimination and or dichotomy between first degree and the hands in the same profession or field in any form whatsoever is hereby abolished.
“Accordingly, no person, entity (body or corporate) in whatsoever name called shall discriminate and or undertake any action in any form whatsoever which is construed as and or intended to give any preferential treatment in favour and or against holders of First Degree or HND in the same profession,” section 1(d) stipulated.
To ensure adherence, any corporate organisation which contravenes this provision, according to section 2 of the bill, is punishable on conviction to a fine not exceeding N5 million to the staff found guilty in the case of a corporate entity and a fine not exceeding N1 million or imprisonment not exceeding 5 years or both, in the case of an individual.
According to the bill seen by BusinessDay, the legislative framework shall be “applicable to both Public Service and the private sector where graduates are employed in the same profession.”
Hence, section 4 of the bill stated that “holders of First Degree and HND in the same profession shall be given equal treatment and opportunity in career placements, career progressions, admission to further studies and in any other form whatsoever in consideration of status as graduates of Nigerian Tertiary Institutions of higher learning.”
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
