Port Harcourt city’s first urban higher educational institution – the Port Harcourt Polytechnic was approved by Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike on Tuesday, with the appointment of Sam Kalagbor (PhD) as the substantive Rector of the Polytechnic, formerly known as Rivers State College of Arts and Science (RIVCAS).
The new institution, which is Rivers State’s second polytechnic, comes with a vision to be “a leading urban polytechnic that provides quality and functional skills in science, technology and commerce education for national development.”

It also has a mission “to provide instruction and training in science, engineering, technology, environmental sciences, commerce, applied arts and information and communication technology (ICT); provide scholarship, consultancy and research in all fields of human endeavours; provide technical, vocational, scientific and entrepreneurial needs of individuals, industry and community; provide opportunity for distant learning for persons who desire to improve their academic qualifications while pursuing regular jobs.”

The upgrading of RIVCAS to a Polytechnic followed the signing into law of the Rivers State Polytechnic Law No.4 of 2016 passed by the Rivers House of Assembly converting the institution to Port Harcourt Polytechnic.

Governor Wike, while signing the Port Harcourt Polytechnic bill into law, said it was regrettable that some people were peddling the rumour that the conversion of the RIVCAS into a polytechnic would affect the fortunes of the Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori in Gokana Local Government Area of the state, which is deep in Ogoni land.

He described the protesters as “only mischief makers, and not saying the truth.”

Meanwhile, the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has berated protests by some people alleged to be from Bori in Gokana Local Government Area of the state, where Rivers first polytechnic, now called Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, is located.

MOSOP’s spokesperson, Fegalo Nsuke said: “We are not opposed to the establishment of a new polytechnic in any part of the state. We understand that education is on the concurrent list, and we cannot deny the right of the government to establish new tertiary learning centers in any part of the state. We also do not think that every new higher level learning center should be established Ogoni.”

Our concern is that the establishment of tertiary institutions in the state will not not affect the funding and quality of education.

We urge interest groups to be objective in their agitation and desist from actions that are inconsistent with the objectives of the Ogoni struggle for a clean and safe environment and from political and economic marginalization.

For Governor Wike, he said if funds were available, a Polytechnic would have been established in each of the three senatorial zones in the State, to increase access to tertiary education; noting that there would be more admission spaces by so doing.
“Some states even have up to four polytechnics,” he stated.

The chairman of the Port Harcourt Polytechnic governing board, Lee Meaba, a former senator who represented Rivers South Ease senatorial zone, in a statement charged the Rector to see his appointment as a challenge to take the Port Harcourt Polytechnic to international standards

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