The move by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to align the salary scale of officers holding Higher National Diploma (HND) with their Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) counterparts to Grade Level 8 is a welcome development.
Apart from the fact that the bold step by the leadership of Customs has gone a long way in foreclosing the age-long disparity in the Service and give the polytechnic graduates a new lease of life, the decision will definitely serve as a leap and morale booster for the officers.
Obviously, in other climes, the disparity that has remained a cog in the wheel of higher education delivery in the country, had for long been addressed through re-articulation and upgrading of polytechnic institutions for the award of Bachelor of Technology (B.TECH) degree, while every aspect of the dichotomy in terms of career progression had also been sealed.
Going by the directive of the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), all HND holders currently on salary Grade Level 07 are to be automatically moved to salary Grade Level 08 like their university counterparts, the first of such plausible decision by any government establishment in the country in recent times.
Indeed, to effect the directive, the CGC announced that supplementary budget would be prepared to capture the payment of arrears of salary of the affected officers. If truly the Federal Government had, since April 1992, approved that the Service should align with the Nigeria Police force rank structure, it is, of course, antithetical that successive leadership of the Customs had been recalcitrant and waited this long before effecting the directive.
In essence, this attitude portrays the Service and its handlers as grossly insensitive to the plight of the officers and in apparent disregard to efficiency of the Service. More disturbing is the disquiet this disparity had caused in the Customs Service over the years in terms of the condition of service of the aggrieved graduates of polytechnics, which had hitherto slowed down proficiency and service delivery in the system.
The level of disparity is so rife that HND holders’ entry point into the Custom Service is on Grade Level GL 7, and that of their university counterparts is on GL 8, while on career progression, polytechnic graduates could only rise to GL 14, but their degree holder colleagues could aspire to GL 17 and eventually become the Comptroller General of Customs, unlike their HND holders who are not privileged to attain the zenith.
Invariably, the skewed salary structure also puts the HND holders, who receive lower salary than the bachelor’s degree holders at the mercy of the policy. In the schedule of duties, university degree holders are at the advantage as they are posted to executive/superintendent cadre assignments while HND holders are being treated as minions who are posted on lesser assignments as guard duties.
The structural imbalance is somehow retrogressive to an extent that even when the HND holders struggled to improve their careers by obtaining degrees after their polytechnic qualification, the management of the Customs Service made it impossible for them to convert to officer cadre.
Of course, the disparity does not end with Customs as it traversed all strata of the nation’s socioeconomic life; from government establishments to the corporate world, where polytechnic products are being discriminated against and treated with disdain in terms of job placement, career progression and job stratification and description.
Thus, the preference against polytechnic products is unambiguous, and in actual fact, the situation is so precarious that the career path of the polytechnic holder in the public service has an unofficial bar.
Consequently, it is in light of this that the government should, as a matter of exigency, muster enough courage and political will to redress the disparity and monumental confusion, which its non-removal has brought to the entire education sector.
Now that the Customs Service has taken the lead in addressing the age-long dichotomy in the system, other government institutions, as well as corporate entities, should, as a policy direction, realign and re-articulate polytechnic holders in their scheme of work with their university counterparts in the areas of job placement, salary structure and career progression, which had been stunted due to the floppy policy.
The situation in which as a university graduate one already has an edge should change, if the country is to move forward. Unlike what is obtained in the developed world, where prospective students could either opt to pursue a career in the university or polytechnic without fear of not being employed because of the qualification one possessed, it is not the case in Nigeria.
The system is so debased that the probability is so high for a university graduate with degree in French to secure job in banks than holders of HND, who studied business-related courses because they are considered as substitutes or second class.
This aberration and preference for qualification, other than for competence and applied technical skills should stop so as to put the country on the edge in its quest for development.
