Borno State Governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, yesterday, undertook a supervisory and interactive visit to Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri, during which he approved the permanent recruitment of 20 children of staff, with priority to those whose parents died working at the school.
The governor also addressed multiple challenges after he sought to know from the academic and non-academic staff of the Polytechnic, the challenges they were facing, all of which they listed.
Zulum, a University Professor, was a student of the Polytechnic from 1986 to 1988 for National Diploma in Irrigation Engineering before he became rector of the same school from 2011 to 2015.
As Governor, Zulum, who is now a visitor to the state-owned polytechnic, has paid countless visits to the Polytechnic either to oversee activities, commission projects or lay foundation stones.
At yesterday’s visit, Zulum directed a committee he had constituted from amongst staff of the school to fairly select 20 children of staff particularly, those of deceased parents, after determining their qualifications for automatic employment as lecturers, instructors and other categories, even as he indicated readiness to approve other ways to support families of staff.
Before those 20 jobs to children of staffers, Zulum, at a sitting, listened to numerous challenges enumerated by the Polytechnic’s rector, Dr Modu Z. Kyari and those listed by the school’s chairman, Academic Staff of Polytechnic (ASUP) AbdulRahman Shettima, former Chairman of Non- Academic Staff of Polytechnic (NASUP), Musa Umar Chiroma as well as the chairman, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP), Abba Aji Suleiman.
In responses to the challenges raised differently by the three union representatives, Zulum directed the state’s commissioner of finance to within 24 hours, remit about N12m to the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, which was deducted from salaries for the purpose of union dues.
He also also directed the SSG to immediately convey approval for inclusion of two staff said to have been excluded from a new policy of a 65-years retirement age, which was extended from 60 years.
