Akperan Orshi College of Agriculture Yandev, Gboko (AOCAY) is a Benue State-owned institution. The college was founded in 1926 as a Farm Training Centre by the Colonial Administration. In 1973, it was upgraded to a School of Agriculture offering programmes leading to the award of Ordinary National Diplomas (OND). In 1983, a Benue State House of Assembly Bill upgraded it to a College of Agriculture and empowered it to award National and Higher National Diplomas. The College was later renamed Akperan Orshi College of Agriculture in memory of the late paramount traditional ruler of Tivland, Orshiviligh (Dr.) James Akperan Orshi, Tor Tiv III.
In an encounter with Time Nigeria, Benue State Bureau Chief, Akume Raphael, the Rector of the College, Dr Ahemen Samuel Aondoaver speaks extensively on the challenges facing Colleges of Agriculture and other related disciplines in Nigeria as well as his administration’s effort at repositioning the college for the needed growth and development of the state. Excerpts:
Sir, can we meet you?
I am Engr. Ahemen, Samuel Aondoaver an indigene of Benue State; I studied Agricultural Engineering at the University Agriculture in Makurdi for my first degree, I came out with 2nd Class Upper Division After my youth service at Federal College of Education Technical in the present Yobe State, I came back and immediately joined the service of the Benue State Agricultural Development Corporation.
In April 1995, I joined the services of this College as a lecturer, since then I rose through the ranks to hold several positions like Head of Department, member of several committees including the academic board and a desk officer.
I went for my Masters Degree at University of Ibadan, I eventually bagged a PhD in Agricultural Engineering specialising in Agricultural Processing and Storage.
I was Deputy Director two times, when my predecessor was leaving, we had an interview and I was appointed Rector after acting for four months, and I eventually became substantive Rector of the College.
How have you been coping with the issue of funding in the College?
Funding is one of the major problems we are facing in this College and it is really affecting the smooth running of the institution. We rely solely on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR); that alone can never be enough to finance numerous projects we have in the College. Our IGR is very small, less than Sixty million naira. When I resumed as the Rector of the College, I noticed that students were not paying School fees and I told my management that we have to sensitise students on the reasons why they have to pay their school fees regularly and promptly too. Because it is what they are paying that we are using to finance the College and it is not enough.
Though, the state government pays salaries, it is purely the IGR that we are using to run the College and we are trying our best to move the College forward. I must tell you, since the return of democracy in 1999, we have not interviewed anybody in this College for employment. Infact, most of the people that came in after that were sent in based on other considerations by the government. We have several areas that we really need professionals but even to meet up with the programmes accreditation is a challenge but we have not been given the opportunity to employ.
I made several efforts under the past regime but we were not given any attention, but we do hope that this present regime of Dr. Samuel Ortom will make the difference. We have submitted requests for the replacement of some staff, at least those that died. I do know that Government is paying attention to it; I strongly believe that it will be a thing of the past and I know he is a listening governor and will help in the smooth running of the school’s programmes and projects.
Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) is an intervention agency set up to provide supplementary support to all levels of public tertiary institutions with the main objective of using funding alongside project management for rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation of tertiary education in Nigeria. Is your College not getting its own fair share from the fund?
I must tell you the College is not getting its fair share as you said, what we are getting was peanuts from TETFund, even the peanuts have even stopped. To tell you how bad it is, we have to combine interventions for three years to build a block until 2010 when the TETFund law was amended and stated clearly that tertiary institutions such as Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and universities are captured for the intervention, even at that those little drops could not get in. We have a serious financial challenge. We call on TETFund to assist the College in the areas of the statutory intervention.
Regrettably, all Colleges of Agriculture in the country are exempted from the TETfund interventions, so this has caused a lot of setback for agriculture in Nigeria generally. Over 400 Colleges of Agriculture or related disciplines in the country are not supported by TETfund. Despite the agricultural transformation agenda of the nation, some of us that are in the agricultural sector and especially in the higher institutions of agriculture, every effort by the Committee of Heads of College of Agriculture to make the National Assembly especially the 7th Assembly to review TETfund law to accommodate and to have more focus on Colleges of Agriculture failed and we are wondering why Nigeria that is turning back to agriculture is not bothered how the farmers are being trained. I don’t know whether we are joking or serious.
But I believe that the states and federal government have to be more serious in funding Colleges of Agriculture and related disciplines. We have Colleges of Agriculture, Federal and State Colleges of Animal Production, Colleges of Fishery, Colleges of Forestry, Colleges of Wild lives. Let me say that if we really want to move forward in agriculture, the first place to start with are the Colleges of Agriculture both at the states and federal level.
I want to use this medium to call on President of Federal Republic of Nigeria; Minister of Agriculture and his counterparts in the Ministry of Education and Science and Technology to form synergies and look at these issues and ensure proper funding for the Colleges of Agriculture otherwise the dwindling fortune of the oil will continue to bear its brunt on us. I equally want to say that at our own place here, our noble efforts have reactivated our IGR. When I came on board over a year ago, the little IGR despite the problem of strikes, is what we are using to keep the school running
What is the mandate of the College?
AOCAY is a specialised institution with a mandate to train middle level manpower with technical skills in the agricultural sector. The College runs several programmes including Remedial Science, Pre-National Diploma, National Diploma, Pre-Higher National Diploma, Higher National Diploma and Post Graduate Diplomas in agriculture and allied courses.
Our mandate also covers Agricultural Engineering Technology, Farm Machinery and Equipment, all areas of Irrigation and Training as well as all areas of Crops Processing and Storage.
Apart from farms which are used by students for practical, we engage in commercial activities like piggery, poultry production, fish farming, hatchery services, animal feed production, nurseries/orchards, tractor hiring and consultancy services among others.
Sir, we are in the 21st Century and approach to teaching and learning has changed, so what are you doing differently to raise the standard of the College to meet the 21st Century approach in teaching and learning?
Like I said earlier, we award HND and ND in different fields and our products, because we give in our best and they are doing well in their respective course of studies. We train people in fishery and forestry; we train people in areas of the economy. Recently, we had to introduce courses that are contemporary and complimentary to agriculture. Agriculture today is not just for subsistence sake alone but also for commercial. So we have to introduce courses that are relevant to agricultural business, courses that have to do with accountancy, information and communication technology, those ones that have to do with laboratory analysis, research and development.
Unfortunately we have shortage of equipment because of lack of funding. Our staff need to be trained properly, they need to attend international workshops, seminars and conferences, to enable them to be in tune with 21st Century approach to learning, so that they can be exposed to new approach in teaching, learning and research.
What is your administration’s doing to make the College a Centre for entrepreneurship development and academic excellence?
Our efforts are numerous as it can be seen in our structures, we have reactivated our fish ponds, our pottery is in operation, we have put in a surface and we are rehabilitating our fish hatching so as to reposition our self properly, not just to train people in agriculture but to run and expose students to agric business in the College.
For several years we did not have any chicken in our poultry, but at a least for now we have reactivated it with over 2,000 layers on the farm, we hope to increase the number as soon as our resources can take us. They have also started laying too, we have increased the stock of our cattle, we want to rear our cattle, we had brought in rabbits, high breed rabbit instead of our people going to north east, they can now get it here in Benue state. Don’t forget that as we are doing all these that have to do with agric business, students are involved not only to develop business skills but also the academic technical-know-how of doing them.
As we are raising rabbit by the time we start multiplying and increasing them, then we will start roasting and selling. We do hope that apart from training the students in the act of raising rabbit, we will also be generating revenue for the College. We have also tried to live in peace with our host community, this place is not fenced, with that, there is infiltration on our farms and people try to come in to steal and even to attack our research students and workers. With the level of insecurity in the country now, we are attempting to put a fence, still from our small resource. Had it been we are enjoying TETfund intervention may be things would have been much easier than we are experiencing now.
If you go there, you will discover that some of our laboratories are undergoing renovations and have not been put in place. When Governor Ortom came, when he looked at the situation on ground, he wept, actually he wanted to set up machineries in place to fix them but the legal issues concerning those who were given the contracts before they abandoned them, is still slowing down the pace of the projects. These are the areas my administration is working hard to reposition the College for academic excellence. Though, the Governor is on their necks to ensure that those projects are completed. Staff are ready to work to see that the college is better but their capacity also needed to be built and upgraded.
What about the challenges being faced by the College?
Apart from the issue of funding, strike is another challenge that is posing a threat to the smooth running of academic calendar of the College. When one union suspends strike, the other union in the same College goes on strike and in AOCAY, we have three unions, Academic Staff Union, Senior Staff Union and Non-Academic Staff Union and sometimes all the three unions are on strike at the same time, sometimes two, hardly we have a smooth running of academic session for four months without one union or the other going on strike. It is counter-productive and I think the government and all stakeholders have to sit and look at these issues facing Colleges of Agriculture in the country.
Also the problem of insecurity, we have Palm Oil plantation but because it is exposed and we understand the nature of the neighborhood everybody comes there at night to harvest them. When we go there it is only unripe ones we are managing to make oil from. As I talk to you, we only have four security men that are being paid by Government. We have to engage sixty others that are on casual basis that we are paying them from our IGR, all these have made operations difficult. How can somebody you are paying N5,000 be so committed to give his life to fight a thief?
So all of these are serious challenges that we are facing here, we have tried to live in peace with our host community, when I came on board we had to buy a transformer for them, so that we can be relating and be at peace with them. As part of our social responsibility we hold meetings with them yet because we don’t have fence around us, the challenges always come at one time or the other. So I want to use this medium to call on the government of Dr. Samuel Ortom to actually do something to rescue the College. We understand the situation of things around him and enormous tasks before him as well. We equally call on the Buhari-led Government, if we are serious with the issue of agriculture, agricultural institutions must be given adequate attention to include special interventions apart from normal ones, because the situation with the Colleges of Agriculture in Nigeria is very poor and pathetic. It is very important that if we are to get agriculture back to its rightful position as the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy, then we need to, as a matter of urgency make Colleges of Agriculture function properly, especially now that oil can hardly feed us.