Andrew Ajijah
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for Benue State, Dr. Nentawe Yilwada, has said there are 16 million school age children in Nigeria currently not engaged in any formal education.
Dr. Yilwada made the disclosure, on Wednesday, in Jos, the Plateau State capital, in a keynote at the ongoing 6th national conference of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), holding at the Jos campus of the institution.
Dr. Yilwada, in the lecture said lack of integration and selfishness among Nigerian leaders has caused under development in the country.
The paper presenter blamed the numerous insecurities, economic and political challenges bedeviling the country to illiteracy among many Nigerians.
According to Dr. Yilwada, the said population that is out of school is greater than the entire human population of north central Nigerian states.
He said human population is increasing more faster than economic development, he noted sadly that jobs that had sustained Nigerian economy are been wipe out due to climate change.
Dr. Yilwada further revealed that in the Year 2050, Nigerians might lack portable drinking water at northern Nigeria due desert encroachment.
Earlier, chairman Plateau State Polytechnic ASUP, Comrade Simji Lumpye, cried out to the Plateau State government to help developed infrastructural deficit in the Plateau state polytechnic.
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The ASUP chairman revealed that the state government has not employed any staff in 13 years and as a result the staff strength has been overstretched.
Comrade Lumpye said the institution was greatly lacking in infrastructural development, and according to the ASUP chairman, new structures springing up at the polytechnic are projects of the TEPfund intervention.
Similarly, the Rector, Plateau State Polytechnic, John Dawan, in an address of welcome to delegates, lamented that lack of technical advancements in Nigeria was due to lack of proper planning and poor policy formulations.
The Rector, however, said polytechnics across Nigeria had contributed immensely in technical vocational skills development in the country.
Responding to the quest of the Plateau Polytechnic, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, through the Secretary to the government of Plateau state (SGS), Prof. Danladi Atu, said the state government was aware of the challenges face by the institution.
The governor said efforts were being made toward ensuring that all programmes and courses studied at the polytechnic were accredited by National Universities Commission (NUC).