The announcement was made on Wednesday in a press statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga.

President Tinubu appointed Prof Modupe Adeola Adelabu as the chairman of the Governing Board of NECO, and retained the current registrar, Professor Ibrahim Dantani Wushishi.

The president also appointed Engr. Dr Bongfa Binfa as Rector, Federal Polytechnic, N’yak-Shendam, Plateau State; and renewed the tenure of Prof. Chinwe Veronica Anunobi as Director/Chief Executive of the National Library of Nigeria.

For the chairmanship of the National Board of Technical Education, NBTE, President Tinubu appointed the distinguished academic, Professor Babatunde Salako. On April 10, President Tinubu reappointed the incumbent executive secretary, Prof Idris M Bugaje, for a second and final term of five years.

Professor Adelabu, who chairs NECO, is a retired Professor of educational administration who rose through the ranks to full professorship at the Obafemi Awolowo University.

She was a Deputy Governor of Ekiti State (2013- 2014) and the chairman of the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, between 2018 and 2021.

Prof. Babatunde Salako, the new chair of NBTE, is a globally respected researcher with decades of experience in higher education, institutional governance and national policy leadership.

He previously served as the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, NIMR, from 2016 to 2024, a period during which the institute experienced significant revitalisation, enhanced research governance, expanded international collaborations, and improved infrastructure and research outputs.

Engr. Dr Bongfa Binfa, from Plateau State, succeeds Dr Mukaila Zakari Ya’u, the pioneer Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, N’yak-Shendam, whose tenure expired on March 16, 2026.

President Tinubu approved the appointment of Dr Binfa for a single term of five years, following the conclusion of the process for appointing a new Rector through a public advertisement in national dailies in September 2025.

Dr Binfa holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Mechanical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Before this appointment, Dr Binfa was Deputy Rector (Academic) at the Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas, Bonny.

He was also a lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Federal Polytechnic, Idah.

President Tinubu approved the renewal of the tenure of Prof. Chinwe Veronica Anunobi as CEO of the National Library of Nigeria for a final term of five years.

She was first appointed on September 2, 2021.

Since assuming office, Prof. Anunobi has led several institutional reforms aimed at repositioning the National Library as a modern technology-driven knowledge institution, including the development and operationalisation of the National Repository of Nigeria, the Newspaper and Magazine Locator, the Index and Abstract to Nigerian Newspapers, and the National Virtual Library of Nigeria.

She has also played a strategic role in advancing the long-awaited completion of the National Library Headquarters project and in initiating plans to migrate heritage collections from the 34 state branches to the new headquarters in Abuja.

The president expects that the renewal of her tenure would ensure continuity in the implementation of ongoing reforms, completion of the National Library Headquarters project, and execution of the 2025-2030 Strategic Plan of the institution.

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The management of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta has received top delegates from education regulatory body, finance and foreign agency for collaborative competence based training for both staff and students.

Mr. Christian Stehling, the team lead for German International Development Cooperation (Deutse Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit) (GIZ) disclosed that the agency came to inspect available facilities and recourses to carve a niche on areas of support needed in the polytechnic.

In his welcome remarks, the Rector, Dr. Adeoye Odedeji, stated that the approach of National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, to skills beyond degrees and diplomas campaign should be holistically inculcated through a uniform template, such that, those in formal and informal sectors would be incorporated for global development.

He added that the gesture extended by GIZ would strengthen competence and capacity among members of staff and students who are in the related fields and by extension beneficial to the system.

The inspecting team comprised representatives from the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE; Engr. Bashir Datti, Ogun State Ministry of Education Science & Technology; Mr. Akinleye Olubori, Alhaji Ibrahim Aliyu from GIZ and Mrs. Afolabi Mariam from the Chambers of Commerce.

According to Alhaji Ibrahim, the major agenda of the German agency was to train and provide facility support to qualified universities, polytechnics and Colleges of Education in conformity to global standard.

He said a preliminary forensic survey had been conducted on Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, and it was found worthy to be a beneficiary amongst other Institutions in Nigeria, which prompted their visit.

Going around the campus, the team was in company of the Director, Skill Development Center of the Polytechnic, Engr. Dr. Ahmad Apampa; Acting Director, School of Engineering, Engr. Dr. Jide Adenekan for the facility visit to Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Electronics and Civil engineering departments.

Other departments visited are Building Technology, Office Technology Management and Food Science Technology.

In their satisfactory remarks, members of the delegation commended the authorities of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, and pledged to give necessary advice to GIZ to ratify the process for full inclusion of the polytechnic in its programme beginning from January, 2025.

As a tone of readiness, the agency immediately offered to provide a solar power facility to the School of Engineering, which will serve all their laboratories and workshops during the training of the students.

Earlier in April, 2023, GIZ was at the polytechnic to train about 300 students under the Skills Development for Youth Employment, SKYE, scheme in a bid to promoting Needs-Based Technical Vocational Education, Training and Youth Empowerment in Nigeria.

GIZ has branches in 54 countries.

Six states in Nigeria are beneficiaries.

They are Lagos, Ogun, Edo, Plateau, Adamawa and Abuja.

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This is contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Saturday by the Acting Executive Secretary of the commission, Chris Maiyaki.

Recall that for years, there have been calls from stakeholders to end the disparity between Higher National Diplomas, HND, offered by polytechnics and bachelor degrees offered by universities.

This brought about a bill passed at the ninth National Assembly in 2021 to end the dichotomy but it was not signed into law by the last administration.

The NBTE which regulates technical and vocational education has unveiled what it describes as a one-year top-up programme which offers a platform for HND holders to level up towards obtaining a bachelor’s degree.

Maiyaki, however, called on the general public and all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, to note that the NUC was not a party to the top-up scheme.

“Even though agitation continues to grow for the abolition of the dichotomy in Nigeria, there is, at the moment, no law that has removed the dichotomy between a university degree and the HND.

“The place of technical education, the world over is unique.

“The university degree awarded by the Nigerian university system or any cognate institution is not the same as the HND awarded by polytechnics in Nigeria.

“In the Nigerian higher education space, the processes, contents and methods required for the acquisition of a university degree are substantially different from those needed for HND programmes,” he said.

He noted that at the post-graduate level, the requirements for admission into any Masters degree programme for HND holders are, among others, the acquisition of a relevant postgraduate diploma (PGD) from a recognised university.

“The unsuspecting general public and all relevant ministries, departments, and agencies should note that the NUC is not a party to and, indeed, disavows the so-called top-up scheme, being concocted by the NBTE.

“In light of the above, the advice of the NUC is that the NBTE should focus on its core mandate and desist from introducing programmes outside its jurisdiction, and not supported by any law in Nigeria.

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“The NUC wishes to inform the Management of the  NBTE and the general public that the “Bill for an Act to abolish and prohibit dichotomy and discrimination between First Degree and Higher National Diploma in the same Profession/Field for the Purpose of Employment, and for Related Matters.

“The bill passed by the 9th National Assembly in 2021, is yet to be assented to by Mr President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“So, even though agitation continues to grow for the abolition of the dichotomy in Nigeria, there is, at the moment, no law that has removed the dichotomy between a university degree and the HND.

“Both the NUC Establishment Law (CAP N81, LFN, 2004) and its Operational Law: Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act, CAP E3 LFN, 2004) vest in the Commission the powers to superintend and regulate university education in Nigeria.

“Lay down minimum academic standards in the nation’s universities and other degree-awarding institutions, and accredit their programmes. Thus, the commission is the only constitutionally empowered regulatory agency for university education in Nigeria,” he said.

Maiyaki argued that in most higher education systems, polytechnics coexist side by side with universities for the purposes of producing critical human resources, based on their peculiarities and in tandem with the goals for which they were established.

Source: NAN

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Bugaje said this when fielding questions from the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on issues around its newly launched top-up programme for HND holders to acquire a Bachelor of Science, BSc, in their choice course.

He said that the board had no power to award degrees to students but able to help HND holders by facilitating the programmes with foreign universities while introducing credit mapping to aid learning.

“We have a software that does credit mapping, we have already fed our HND graduates with that software so it will now pick the curriculum of the foreign university compare them together to bring out what is the difference between the two.

“We are now in discussion with a number of these foreign universities from Malaysia, Russia, India but with time we hope we can populate about 15-20 universities. Though it’s a gradual process, this will offer more opportunities for students.

“So far, we have gotten applicants for over 30,000. About two weeks ago, it was 15,000 and within this two weeks, it has doubled and I am very confident that in the next two weeks we may hit about 50,000 applicants.

“These are Nigerian HND holders yearning to have this dichotomy brought to an end by acquiring BSc and unfortunately there are PhD holders who have HND who are also coming back to do BSc.

“This is like a contradiction after a doctorate coming back to BSc and this is what we are trying to avoid by asking the fresh HND holders to go straight to do the top-up programme and get the BSc and be at par with anybody else in the progression,” he said.

He, therefore, said that HND holders would only be made to pay 10 per cent of the entire tuition fees to run the one-year top-up programme.

The executive secretary also allayed the fears of the university system as against losing their students saying the programme would only bring competition.

When asked about the preference of foreign universities over local universities, Bugaje said the local universities were full of prejudice against HND.

He, however, blamed this on the National Universities Commission, NUC, who had refused to key into the programme in spite of written letters to inform them about the programme.

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“The best dialogue is with the NUC and the ministry of education. We have written letters and sent reminders and even crafted a curriculum and we sent it to the ministry but it is like it has not seen the light of the day.

“We realised they are looking down on the academic board of polytechnics, they said the academic board of polytechnics are not equivalent to universities senate.

“We have been in this since two years I came in as executive secretary of NBTE. I have given the new minister brief on this and I am very confident he is going to endorse what we are doing,” he said.

He called on the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, to take a very strong position against the dichotomy while also hoping that the polytechnic Act would be revisited in no time to put an end to the dichotomy challenge.

He said the Act if reviewed would allow polytechnics to run bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees in technology for their products.

“The polytechnic system is a system parallel to the university, we are not feeders. The Colleges of Education (COE) feed the university system.

“This is because anytime the national policy on education changes and they make BSc education the minimum qualification for teaching in basic schools, the role of the NCE will be over; even the commission overseeing the programme will cease to exist.

“The COE all feed into the NUC programmes to produce graduates. In the polytechnics, we are a complimentary system, we produce technology and technicians for industries basically.

“But there are components of our systems also that pursue academic career and those ambition should not be stopped. So, I hope the roadmap committee the minister has set up will come up with a final solution for this dichotomy against HND,” he added.

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This is just as the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, gave Dangote Cement Plc a thumbs-up over the establishment of the school.

The Dangote Articulated Truck Driving School, Obajana, Kogi State, is considered unique, being the first of its kind in the history of Nigeria’s transport sector as the foremost Cement company inculcates the culture of safe driving among its drivers and other third party drivers.

To this extent, the academy has enrolled 50 fresh trainee drivers, of which 10 are female trainees who are partaking in the 2023 Batch A session, Divisional Director Transport, Mr. Ajay Singh, has said.

Singh said the intensive training was being conducted in collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, and Fantique Driving Training Centre of South Africa.

According to him, experience had shown that female drivers were more careful, and had carted away most of the awards while emerging best in the past assessment conducted by the company.

Speaking also, the school manager, Mr. Daniel Marcus Akuso, added that some of the courses taught in the school included Civic Education, English, Mathematics, Defensive Driving, Truck Handling, Maintenance Technology, DCT Administration Procedures, Root Cause Analysis, Health and Science, Road Signs and Codes.

In his remark, Deputy Road Commandant, (OC Instructor) of the FRSC attached to Dangote Driving School, Engr Mukhtar Umar, said his agency played a significant role in the training and certifying old drivers and newly recruited trainees.

“We teach them defensive driving, road signs, responsibilities of the driver, driving culture, and then certify them,” Engr Umar said.

Speaking, Oshile Victoria, 30, a female trainee and a graduate of Economics said she considered herself very lucky to have been selected to participate in the programme.

Another 35-year-old trainee from Katsina State said it was a dream come true.

In the same vein, Fatima Haruna Adamu, 27, who had wanted to join the army, said the driving school had helped fulfill her dream: “I believe what a man can do, a woman can do too.”

The Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, Professor Idris Bugaje, commended Dangote Cement for the initiative to set up the Articulated Trucks Driving School, saying it would help in ensuring safe driving on the road.

He also disclosed that the NBTE was partnering the Dangote Cement Plc in the execution of the school’s programme in an attempt to foster collaboration for the good for the society.

It would be recalled that Dangote Cement had been partnering the FRSC in some areas relating to practical training and lectures on safe driving in all of its cement plants with special programmes involving road shows to sensitize drivers, Okada riders and other road users in their immediate communities on how to use the road safely to avoid accident.

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She added that vocational and technical education were answers to sustainable development of the country.

Adelabu made the assertion during a stakeholders meeting at Moshood Abiola Polytechnic Abeokuta which had Ogun State Government Officials led by the Special Adviser to the governor on tertiary education, Prof. (Mrs) Sidi Osho,  members of management team of the Polytechnic,  Academic and Non-academic Staff Unions’ executives as well as representatives of Students’ Union in attendance.

According to the NBTE boss who was on oversight visit to MAPOLY,  Nigeria was destined for greatness in line with the ideals of her founding fathers.

She said the country must tap into the manpower and technical resources offered by polytechnic institutions across the country.

While commending the management and staff of MAPOLY for the smooth and steady running of academic activities despite the turbulent times it had gone through, the NBTE boss urged the institution to continue to deliver in line with its mandates.

Adelabu who was visibly impressed by the number of doctorate degree holders in the polytechnic, put at over seventy, further enjoined the staffers to make a priority their professional and personal development.

She added that it was important for them to attend peer review and international conferences and write qualitative academic papers, to improve their productivity.

She disclosed that Federal Government of Nigeria was ready to finance vocational and technical education as it had secured support of World Bank to boost same.

Also speaking during the parley, Special Adviser on Tertiary Education to Governor of Ogun State, Prof. Sidi Osho, restated the commitment of the state government to support MAPOLY and ensure it takes back its original position as a leading light in technical education in the country.

The Rector of MAPOLY, Dr. Samson Odedina, in his welcome address said though the institution was faced with some challenges in the past two years, noted that the polytechnic’s accreditation was never withdrawn and the location was not changed from Abeokuta.

While appreciating the government for the support it has offered the institution, Odedina called for cooperation of NBTE in considering the proposal of MAPOLY for accreditation of new courses and the old which are due for re-accreditation.

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