The National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS), yesterday, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to end the dichotomy and discrimination between Higher National Diploma (HND) and Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) holders before leaving office on May 29, 2023.

They, therefore, vowed to shut down higher institutions if the president failed to stop the discrimination.

In a statement by the NAPS Deputy Senate President, Temitope Adeniji, in Ibadan, the students stated that: “Nigerian polytechnic students and polytechnic graduates have been facing difficulties of dichotomy for the past years, in which the stakeholders in polytechnic education sector have put so much pressure and resources on the Ninth National Assembly to pass the “Bill for an Act to Abolish and Prohibit Dichotomy and Discrimination between First Degree and Higher National Diploma.

“The Ninth National Assembly has done a very good job by passing the Bill but the President’s assent to make it a law is necessary.

“The Senate arm of NAPS, through the Office of Deputy Senate President, has agreed on shutting down all polytechnics, colleges of technology and allied institutions that award HND across Nigeria if President Buhari fails to assent to HND/B.Sc. dichotomy bill in the next 14 days.

“For some time now, we observed that the President has been assenting to many bills, but the HND/B.Sc. dichotomy Act has not been attended to. In line with this, if the President fails to assent to this bill within 14 working days, the polytechnic students across Nigeria will occupy the Presidential Villa in Abuja and continue to cry until he assents to the Bill.

‘’Polytechnic students and graduates are one of the major groups that supported and sustained the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last seven years and 10 months. We should not be treated like an outcast in our nation,” they said. (Guardian)