By Bakare Harrietta
His Excellency,Governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode made an historic visit to the state owned institution, Lagos State Polytechnic(Laspotech), making him the First Civilian Governor to ever make such visit since the establishment of the institution in 1977.
Mr Ambode and members of the State Executive Council graced the 2-in-1 event; the 40th anniversary and 25th convocation ceremony of the institution, which took place on Thursday, 9th, February, 2017, tagged “LASPOTECH Aloft”, held at the main campus in Ikorodu .
The Rector, in his words stated that ‘since the establishment of this institution, we have only played host to a military governor, in person of Rtd Com. Okhai Mike Akhigbe, since then, no sitting governor, especially civilian governor of the state has ever attended the institutions convocation ceremony and is happy that, Governor Ambode broke that jinx.
However, Governor Ambode, who was commended for his passion and commitment to development of education, said the government would deploy drone made by the staff and students of the institution to effectively carry out aerial security surveillance across the state.
He praised the staff and students for being innovative, saying that government would do everything within its power to promote and fund the drone project to encourage them for the achievement.
The Governor also approved the construction of new main auditorium, administrative block, renovation of the sports complex and general facelift to the facilities within the campus environment including equipping and furnishing of the newly built School of Technology Building (Block A).
According to him, it was worthy of note that LASPOTECH, in its 40 years of existence, had occupied a pride of place among state-owned polytechnics in Nigeria, but stressed that conscious efforts must be made to build on the successes achieved especially by becoming a true centre for excellence in technological education and research.
He said being an emerging mega city, tertiary institutions and services in the state must be of acceptable global standards and be agents of development, adding that such was important for the State to compete favourably with other mega cities in the world.
“Lagos State Polytechnic must rise to the challenge of meeting the technical manpower requirement of both the public and private sectors in not just Lagos State but in the whole nation.
“We must rise above just providing education for the sake of acquiring a certificate to providing knowledge which will empower our youth to become champions of their generation, to chart their own course and establish enterprises that will create jobs and generate wealth for all,” Ambode said.
Moreso, The governor also announced increment in the number of participants for this year’s edition of Ready, Set, Work (RSW) programme targeted at making final year students in tertiary institutions in the state to emerge as ready candidates for the increasingly competitive labour market, and more importantly, as job creators from 500 to 2000 students, while a total of 10,000 students would have the opportunity to participate in RSW Academy online.
However, Ambode charged the graduating students to be good ambassadors of the Polytechnic and the State, saying that remained the pivot upon which the hope of the nation revolves.
In addition, A total of 9228 students graduated from 32 departments, out of which 273 came out with distinctions.
The overall best graduating student, Ejire Adedolapo Abdulazeez from the School of Pure and Applied Science was also offered instant employment by Governor Ambode.
