Polytechnic rectors, lecturers, students and other stakeholders yesterday in Abuja urged the Federal Government to end the dichotomy between degree and Higher National Diploma holders in the country.

This is just as Senate President Ahmad Lawan described the discrimination against graduates of polytechnics as “undesirable.”

Representatives of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, National Board for Technical Education, the Forum of Nigeria Polytechnic Alumni Associations, the National Association of Academic Technologists, the Committee of Federal Polytechnic Rectors, all spoke against the discrimination against polytechnic graduates at a public hearing Monday on the a bill to abolish discrimination between first BSc and HND holders for the purpose of employment in Nigeria.

Lawan said the HND/degree dichotomy had really affected significant number of people in a way considered undesirable.

The national chairman of polytechnic alumni association, Obialor Ibebuike, said if Nigerian government was serious about its technological development, the dichotomy should be abolished and polytechnics be well funded.

The Committee of Federal Polytechnic Rectors said abolishing the dichotomy between HND and degree holders would end the ill-treatment melted out on the polytechnic graduates in the labour market.

Meanwhile, stakeholders from Kogi West Senatorial District, led by Obaro of Kabba, Solomon Dele Owoniyi, appealed to the authorities of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to allow its College of Agriculture in Kabba, upgraded to a University of Agriculture.(Daily Trust)