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Graduates of the Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola whose programs have not been accredited have protested the delay, demanding intervention of the state government.
The graduates, joined by current students who face the same fate, took their peaceful protest to the Rector’s Office and the Government House Yola, passing the message to the school management and the state government that their future is being delayed.
The protesters who comprised graduates from the 2023, 2024, and 2025 sets, expressed frustration over the failure of the institution to upload their accreditation details on the portal of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, thereby leaving many qualified graduates unable to participate in the mandatory national service.
Students currently in HND I and those who just completed their programmes this year are particularly apprehensive that they may suffer the same fate.
The protest was driven largely by students from the Science Laboratory Technology (SLT) and Biochemistry departments who are worse hit.
Multiple sources reveal that the HND SLT programme has been running since 2021 without full accreditation from the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE; after the institution graduated two sets of students.
This accreditation gap has rendered many graduates ineligible for NYSC mobilisation, as the NBTE requires that only graduates from fully accredited programmes are cleared for national service.
One of the protesting graduates who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “We have written letters, asked questions several times, and sought answers from the school management. The only response we keep getting is, ‘We will do it soon.’ Nothing changes and our hard work is being wasted.”
The protesters, who had initially gathered within the school premises, later marched to the Government House, hoping to see Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, but they were turned away.
However, in a turn of events, the Rector of the Adamawa State Polytechnic, Professor Mohammed Toungos who was not on campus when the protest began, turned up and received the demonstrators.
Professor Toungos commended the protesters for their peaceful conduct and assured them that the management had heard their grievances and would expedite action to resolve the lingering issues of certificate issuance and accreditation.
The rector promised to engage with the NBTE and other relevant authorities to fast-track the accreditation of the affected programmes.
