Amapakabo: Success of Any Chief Executive Depends on Registry

Biekoroma Charity Amapakabo, from Okrika in Rivers State, completed her 10-year tenure this week, as the Registrar of Yaba College of Technology, against all odds. Both the Chairman of the institution’s Governing Council, Barrister Lateef Fagbemi, SAN,and its Rector, Dr. M. K. Ladipo, attested to her high moral standards and integrity at a valedictory lecture in her honour last week. In this interview with Bennett Oghifo, she talks about the spurious petitions that almost cost her a second term among other issues

Tell us about your tenure as registrar, Yaba College of Technology

My tenure began on 2nd October 2007. It is a tenure for a period of two terms; five years in the first instance and renewable for another five years. I was lucky I got a renewal for the second term in 2012. This term should lapse on the 2nd of October, 2017, which should be my last working day as Registrar of Yaba College of Technology.

What was it like to be the registrar of the institution?

It is like every other life experience. My early tenure was peaceful; at least my first two years, I had a good working environment to do all that I could do. But the last eight years were very challenging and, in fact, I always tell people that it is the most challenging time of my career, but I thank God that I have been able to pull through to the end. Even to get a second term was difficult but, you know, God has a way of doing things, and because we are humans, sometimes we like to put snares in the way of our fellow human beings but God did it His own way and that has built up my confidence such that I have an implicit confidence on the fact that if God wills it nobody can change it. Today, I’m here at the end of my tenure and the beauty of it is that I’m leaving the office as a better person and more experienced than I came in. I’m leaving the office as a more confident and experienced human being, because I have learnt a lot about people, temperament, politics in the office, and so many other things that go along with offices such as this. Looking at it, I’m able to go through it because of my spiritual background because I believe that there is no accident in life. So, the experience I have gone through is not by accident; my belief tells me that if I didn’t need that experience, it would not come my way, but we are encouraged at all times to look at the positive side of whatever experiences that we go through.

What specific experience would like to share with us?

There are several of them, but the most turbulent for me was to get a renewal for my second term. Yes, it was a very difficult time for me, because I have worked so hard, I do not think that I have been an indolent person in all my career, I believe that I gave my best and I have carried the registry to a point better than I met it. So, I didn’t need to struggle to get a second term, but that was not the case. I thank God that at the end of the day, God did it his own way. It’s a time that will be difficult for me to forget.

Were there personal setbacks you suffered during the struggle to get a second term?

I do not have any personal issues, but, you know, this is public service; no matter how hard you work, most of the time you are not there when decisions about you are taken. In my own case, I want to believe that the institution, for whatever reason, did not think that I deserved a second term. But when it dawned on me that things like that were going to happen was when I was invited by the Honourable Minister of Education. When I got to her office, I was told that there were some petitions against me from students and staff and which would not imagine in my wildest imaginations. I couldn’t have imagined it, because in this community, I’m a grass-roots person and I have a good relationship with staff and students. I do not have issues that would warrant such petition and I never knew about them until I got there. It dawned on me that they were petitions that were arranged just to ensure that I didn’t get there. So, it was a good thing that the minister decided to hear the other side, and that was what changed the situation.

Tell us about your contribution to the institution during your tenure.

I like to allow people to assess me, but I know that I have moved the registry away from where I met it, and today the registry is a very respectable department. We have a better working environment and a better sense of duty by all staff, because I have been able to build a cohesive department. We have been able to equip the registry better than we met it, we have a better accommodation, we have a good level of productivity and, to the glory of God, we have an electronic record management system. I’m happy to tell you that this college is the first Polytechnic to issue Transcripts online. That is one of my greatest achievements.

Your position is the engine room of the institution and now that you are leaving without being replaced immediately, will there be a vacuum?

There will be a replacement soon. There will be no vacuum, because by the time I’m due to leave, an acting registrar will be appointed. And you know that when you’re in an office, your personality also has a lot to do with the office. It is definitely not going to be the same, because I’ll move out with my personality, but whoever is coming after me, I have a registry that has capable hands because everything I did was done collectively through consultations, teamwork and all of that.

So, I do not have any fear that the programmes of the Registry will be scuttled; they will continue, because I think that I have worked hard enough to entrench that.

If you have opportunity to change something on how the system works at the registry or the school, what will that be?

You know that this is a parastatal; it is not a typical ministry, so the issue of bureaucracy does not arise, because we are very close to our stakeholders and things are done when they should be done. But what I will like to be changed is for the Registry to be given its pride of place at all times in any administration, because the success or failure of any chief executive depends on the performance of the Registry, and when that is not done, you have issues all over the place. You’ll have issues with students, with staff, because it is the Registry that will tell the chief executive what the Extant Regulation says, how to go about it and what should be done. But once the confidence is eroded, for whatever reason, it will be difficult for that administration to achieve what it wants to achieve. So, there has to be a synergy between the chief executive and the Registrar, if the institution is to move seamlessly.

What is your opinion about the dichotomy between HND and Bsc?

I’m not a polytechnic product in the first place, I’m a product of the university, but having worked in the polytechnic sector all my life, I have some sentimental attachment to the issue, and one of it that has been so recurrent, is the issue of parity between degree and HND. My take is that it will be difficult to put the university and polytechnic on same level, because even for government, the objective of establishing these institutions is different. We should not always be talking about parity to mean that they are at the same level, but what I will like to be advocated is that the polytechnic graduate should be given his rightful place either in public service or in any place of endeavor because the polytechnic education is skill-based. Nigeria is moving towards technological development, acquisition of skills, entrepreneurial education, and if you don’t have skills, there will be no entrepreneurship. So, it is for government to place its priorities right and take these issues the way they should be. They are both unique institutions; they should be treated as such. That is my personal take.

What are you going to do next since you’re still young?

The issue is that I’m just leaving the office as registrar, Yaba College of Technology, but I’m still in service. I’m not retiring, because we retire at the age of 65 and I’m not yet 65 years. The Polytechnic Act says at the end of the tenure of the registrar, the officer will be redeployed. So, I will be redeployed but where I don’t know yet.