by Abo Oyeade
The Federal Polytechnic Ilaro was quietly wiped off Nigeria’s educational map on May 21 2025 when President Tinubu signed the upgrade bill turning it into the Federal University of Technology Ilaro. On society’s side it was touted as progress, while on the ground the polytechnic simply vanished without a single new technical or vocational campus to replace it.
The optics glazed over what was lost: durable skill‑training spaces, accessible OND or HND programmes, and the industrial linkages that gave local trades a backbone.
But this is not a one‑off. In the past three years, at least 24 polytechnics and colleges of education have been rebranded as universities, including Abia State Polytechnic and Yaba College of Technology among others. Instead of a balanced increase in school options, the nation gets more certificates and shrinking practical training capacity.
The National Board for Technical Education under Prof Idris Bugaje slammed the trend from the start. He pointed out that China and Germany, two of the world’s manufacturing giants, converted hundreds of universities into polys because they prize technical education.
Bugaje warned bluntly that if you convert a polytechnic you degrade it. From 2023 NBTE vowed not to accredit any programme that lacks real skills integration.
Meanwhile the staff union for polytechnics labelled the upgrades superficial rebranding, policy theatre that changes names but ignores broken roofs and unpaid workers.
When federal lawmakers floated plans to convert YabaTech, the National Association of Polytechnic Students rose up in opposition. In Sanwo‑Olu’s Lagos or wherever, NAPS insisted polytechnics fill the gap between theory and the factory floor. They demand rather that HND holders move straight to BTech degrees and that NBTE be transformed into a Polytechnic Education Commission.
Later, some student leaders endorsed the change, but only after assurances that Yaba would remain a specialist in applied tech, not a conventional university.
Media think‑tank BusinessDay published a scathing assessment. According to communications strategist Kelvin Bob‑Manuel: “We will be producing more paper‑qualified graduates, fewer technicians.” Commentators warned that Nigeria is stocking up on theory graduates while its technical departments fall idle.
In the meantime, ASUU keeps pointing to the glaring contradiction: while new university charters are being handed out, existing universities are bleeding. A university professor earns roughly five hundred thousand naira monthly while senators take home about twenty‑nine million. Infrastructure crumbles, research funding vanishes, striking staff are left with only slogans.
The real casualty here is Nigeria’s technical backbone. Polytechnics were the incubators of mill mechanics, agro technicians, welder fabricators, ICT installers.
Their alumni held up factories, ran water treatment plants, wired banks, built structural beams.
If thousands of skilled graduates disappear into lecture theatres labelled “university,” the economy loses. This is how the skills gap widens rather than closes.
What we need instead of vanity upgrades is meaningful reform. Unconverted polytechnics must be rebuilt in underserved zones. Existing ones must get real funding for labs, workshops, industrial attachments.
NBTE must be elevated into a statutory Polytechnic Commission with a larger voice in education budgeting. HND holders should receive a direct pathway to BTech degrees without school closure. Technical programmes should drive apprenticeships and micro‑enterprise.
The education funding floor for polytechnics should be raised to at least half of the sector’s allocation.
In short, turning polytechnics into universities without building replacements is not development. It is asset stripping under smart lights. Policymakers may clap for each renamed signboard. But the apprenticeships are collapsing. The maintenance crew is disappearing.
The engineers are getting fewer. Reality is refusing to applaud.
