- Management debunks allegations, says: “We have ensured regular salary payments, stabilised the academic calendar, and reduced industrial disputes through dialogue with staff unions”
By Banji Ayoola
Staff and concerned stakeholders of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, RUGIPO, have appealed for the urgent intervention of the Ondo State Government to rescue the institution from a feared imminent collapse.
Particularly, they asked Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the Visitor to the institution, to enforce adherence to the law establishing RUGIPO in running it.
As gathered exclusively by The Radiance, the list of long-drawn complaints include alleged non-payment of the staff’s three-months salary arrears approved by the Governor on October 25 last year; 23 percent of 2017 salary arrears; and the new minimum wage to staff who are still being paid the old N18,000 national minimum wage.
Other complaints include alleged non-payment of over N600 million CTCS deductions of four cooperative societies; over 40 months salary arrears to part-time academic staff; 26 months salary arrears of part-time non-teaching staff including over 30 months salary arrears of the private security personnel, all amounting to over N1 billion.
They include allegations of withholding of the 2023, 2024, and 2025 staff promotions, and the 2022 promotion financial benefits;
Non-placement of retired and cleared staff on the pensioners payroll, with outstanding gratuities standing at over N6 billion;
Deplorable state of facilities including students hostels that are moribund and deserted due to alleged neglect by Management;
Obsolete students classrooms, and office buildings that are begging for renovation;
The health centre with few medical personnel, and no drugs for patients due to alleged lack of fund; and
Persistent power outage dovetailing into a blackout that has been prevailing for the last four months, and non settlement of N1.7 million electricity bill due to alleged lack of funds.
Other complaints include alleged certificates racketeering; IGR diversion; impunity; forgery; financial leakages; and illegal overstay of all the principal officers in acting capacity for years.
Speaking on the problems, the institution’s immediate past spokesman, Mr S.O. Ojo told The Radiance in an interview on Monday that he had written an article on the crisis which was “widely circulated and well-read”.
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He said, “All the principal officers are in acting capacity as against ethic.
“If the Acting Rector seeks elongation of his tenure, the questions are: How old is he now? Is he permitted to seek for elongation?
“By April this year, he will be 65. It is not good to seek for elongation of an acting capacity. It will adversely affect the growth and development of the institution.”
Also, another stakeholder and staff, and indeed the chairman of the institution’s dissolved Non Academic Staff Union, NASU, Comrade Olugbenga Aro, said that he did not believe that the Acting Rector, Dr Olorunwa Simeon Adeogun is seeking elongation of his tenure, though he saw some fliers in the last few days.
He said that in line with the institution’s extant rule, age 65 years is the maximum year of service, while an acting appointment is only for six months, extendable by another six months, whereas the Acting Rector has spent over three years.
On the alleged deplorable state of facilities at RUGIPO, Aro said, “We thank God and Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa. He has done a lot. If other governors before him had acted like him, things would have been better.
“We were owed 14 months’ salary arrears. Within his fist two years in office, he paid us 11 months’ salary arrears. And we are now expecting the last three months. He told us during the last convocation that he had approved the remaining three months’ arrears.”
He confirmed that staff are still being paid the N18,000 old minimum wage. However, he added that Governor Aiyedatiwa had promised to pay RUGIPO’S staff the N73,000 new national minimum wage with effect from this month.
Aro described the allegedly deplorable state of facilities at the institution as “highly alarming”.
According to him, “TETFUND is renovating three blocks. About 90 percent of the structures are being built by TETFUND.
“The Health Centre has no drugs. The structures are moribund. Hostels are not being used. The welfare of staff is poor. No other institution in the state is receiving the old minimum wage. The Ondo State Government should come to the rescue.”
Recommending a lasting solution to the problems confronting the institution and other polytechnics across the country, he said that RUGIPO would bounce back if the policy of scrapping the HND programme and replacing this with B.Tech degree can become workable in Nigeria.
According to Aro, “Students are avoiding the polyteechnics because of the NND/Bsc dichotomy. RUGIPO and most polytechnics in Nigeria will bounce back. It is that dichotomy that we are trying to avoid.”
He added that the implementation of the NELFUND student loan, accepted by the Federal Government sometime ago, for Polytechnic students upon their successful applications, will enable RUGIPO and other polytechnics to bounce back.
On his own, the chairman of the local chapter of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP), Comrade Saka Olokungboye, categorised RUGIPO’S problems into internal and external ones.
He defined the external problems as three.
One: There is no Governing Council, which represents the Governor as the Visitor, and which serves as the platform for policy formulation and implementation.
Olokungboye explained that there are certain things the Polytechnic cannot do without the consent of the Council, like the senior staff promotion.
He said the Council determines the tenureship of the Acting Principal Officers. According to him, “In our extant rules of the Polytechnic, because we don’t have the Council, some Principal Officers have spent between two and five years in positions they should ordinarily have spent a year.”
Two: Olokungboye said that in the external workforce of Ondo State, it is only RUGIPO’S staff who are still being owed three months’ salary arrears.
Three: In the entire Southwest Nigeria, it is only RUGIPO’S staff who are still receiving the old 2011 national minimum wage of N18,000.
In his words, “These – absence of Council, old minimum wage, and the three months’ salary arrears, which are in the Governor’s purview – are what we call the external problems. They are in the purview of the Governor, who is the Visitor.”
On internal problems, Olokungboye said these are many, including:
One: The last staff promotion conducted was for 2022, 2023, and 2024, while that of 2025 hangs, and the staff stagnated for three years without motivation.
Two: On Principal Officers, the institution’s law says that acting is six months, renewable by the Council for another six months.
According to him, “But the fact that we don’t have Council, some acting principal officers have been there between two and five years, which is very wrong for the image of the institution which has its own law.”.
Three: On salary arrears, he noted that Ondo State Government commenced the payment of the new national minimum wage since October 2024. “But now this is not being implemented in RUGIPO. Our workers are not motivated. We are being treated as outcasts.”
Olokungboye’s recommendations to reposition RUGIPO are: “We are pleading with the Ondo State Government, which is the owner of the institution, to:
“One: Constitute our Governing Council without further delay;
“Two: Mandate Management to conduct all outstanding promotion bexercises;
‘Three: Implement the new national minimum wage, and pay its arrears;
“Four: There should be increased subvention to the Polytechnic including capital projects. Now, 95 percent of the buildings in the institution are being done by TETFUND; and
“Five: The state government should expedite action on the conversion of the Polytechnic to a University as pronounced by the government in February last year.”
However, Olokungboye said, “We will not shy away from what the governor has done for the Polytechnic including the stoppage of percentage salary payment.
“One: In the last three years, we were being paid percentage as bad as 10 percent of salary. The governor stopped that.
“Two: The governor broke the jinx that we had not held convocation for the past 10 years. When he came, he broke the jinx.
“Three: He has increased subvention to the Polytechnic.
“Four: Under him too, wage awards to workers in the state was awarded to us for six months. We want to thank him for that.
“But like Oliver Twist, we are still begging for more especially the payment of the outstanding three months’ salaries, and the implementation of the new National Minimum Wage.”
In his writing titled “RUGIPO and the dreams of its founding father” of January 14, 2026, Ojo said,
“Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, the oldest institution of higher learning in Ondo State, is begging for sustaining aid to enable the institution to justify the dreams of its founding father, late Chief Adekunle Ajasin.
“It is lamentable that today the age-long institution is administered without recourse to its edict.
“This vice has brought serious damage to the visionary dream of the late sage.”
“RUGIPO is the only institution in the Sunshine State where all its management staff are in acting positions, contrary to the edict.”
According to Ojo, the Rector has been in acting capacity for almost three years without Deputy Rector; the Registrar is in acting capacity; the Bursar has been in acting capacity for almost five years; and the Library Coordinator has also been in acting capacity for some years.
His words, “This trend is dangerous to the effective growth and development of the institution, and nobody is speaking against the menace.
“The Governing Council is as good as non-existent, and no one is in doubt that the body is no longer representing the mandate of the Visitor to the Polytechnic. The institution needs help.
“It is good to recall that the current Commissioner for Education in Ondo State, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun, was once a Rector of this institution with enviable records, and after his exit, the legacies he left behind have almost gone into the grave.
“There is smiling and suffering in the institution. The workforce is in pain due to unpaid backlog of salaries amidst the harsh economy and market forces.
“The Polytechnic is growing in age without corresponding noticeable development. Its impact is not felt by the host community, not even in the State, but it is always begging for funding.
“It was never magic for Prof. Ajibefun to survive during his tenure. He knew what a technical institution could do to bring development to its environment. He generated ideas on internal revenue, and in complementing government subvention, salaries were paid on time.
“Prof. Ajibefun was creative and established the Artisan Centre, with trainings organised on skill acquisition and spread across the entire State for mutual benefit.
“The student body enjoyed exposure, which put an end to incessant riots in the school.
The only pride in the institution today is propaganda and issues based on sentiments to impress the government that all is well.
“All is not well, and the Visitor knows that all is not well. The combined convocation address of His Excellency showed that all was not well, as often presented by previous and present managers of the institution.
“The Governor made a promise to pay the outstanding three months’ arrears and said that the dark days of RUGIPO would be over.
“This promise, ever since, is yet to be redeemed, and the dark days keep lingering.
“One needs to commend the Governor for reducing the unpaid salary arrears to three months and should sustain the tempo to bring smiles to the faces of the workers.
“A political will is needed to restore the glory of the oldest institution.
“The founding father carved a vision and a mission for the technological institution, with a mandate to drive the institution and make it a Silicon Valley. This spirit is yet to be realised. The institution needs help.
“Today, and for a new year, one of the unions embarked on an industrial action demanding urgent attention to several demands, ranging from unpaid salary arrears, promotions, and balance payment of wage benefits as instructed by government to cushion the effect of economic hardship. The best that came out of the several demands was only a ₦15,000 payment.
“My appeal to the Visitor of this noble institution is to honour his promise to the workers as made during the combined convocation and set a target for both the Governing Council and Management of the institution to realise the good vision of the institution.
“It is not tidy and never in the spirit of the edict of the institution to keep all management staff in acting capacity. When regulations are not followed, disorder will surface.
“The hope of pensioners is in danger. Little attention given to gratuities is on a selective basis. This is unjust. Management and government should see to the plight of the institution.
“The student hostel is unhealthy and more of a slum. The initiative for investors is dead. The vast land is wasting and untapped. The institution needs urgent help.”
Ojo, now a public affairs analyst, wrote, “For the restoration of glory to thrive, the government, management, alumni, unions across levels, and retirees of the institution should come together and make RUGIPO live up to the dreams of her founding father.
“RUGIPO is waiting for restoration to create a new dawn for the progress of the Polytechnic, free from silent management cronies and marauders who are milking the institution to the detriment of others in the Polytechnic community.
“It is hoped that something positive will be done in this direction before calling on EFCC and ICPC.
“RUGIPO must not die. The welfare of the workforce must not suffer. The academic life of the institution should not be stunted. Those whose efforts have made the institution great must not go to waste.”
Management debunks allegations, says “we have ensured regular salary payments, stabilised the academic calendar, and reduced industrial disputes through dialogue with staff unions”
RUGIPO’S Acting Rector, Dr. Olorunwa Simeon Adegun
Responding to the questionnaire by The Radiance on the Management’s own side of the story, the institution’s SAR, Public Relations and Protocol, Mr Olumide Olugosi, anipr, debunked allegations of mismanagement levelled against his principal and the institution’s entire Management.
In fact, he made robust clarifications on staff welfare, administration, and public concerns.
According to him, “Since assuming office, the current Management of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic has ensured the regular payment of full monthly salaries in line with approved government payroll frameworks.
“Matters relating to staff remuneration and welfare are handled strictly in accordance with extant financial regulations, and any outstanding obligations predating the current administration are being addressed through ongoing engagements with the appropriate authorities, who have given assurances toward their resolution.
“It is also important to note that the current leadership structure of the Polytechnic, comprising principal officers serving in acting capacities, is in full compliance with statutory provisions and regulatory requirements, ensuring continuity, stability, and effective administration of the Institution.”
On support for Institutional Development, he said, “The growth and sustainability of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic are anchored on strong institutional support from the government and key intervention agencies.
“The Ondo State Government continues to play a pivotal role in policy direction and oversight.
“At the same time, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has been instrumental in supporting infrastructural development, staff capacity building, and the provision of modern teaching, learning, and research facilities.
“In addition, the Institution welcomes continued collaboration with alumni, development partners, the private sector, and other friends of the Polytechnic through strategic partnerships and intervention initiatives.”
On challenges and priority needs, Olugosi said, “RUGIPO, like many public tertiary institutions in Nigeria, faces significant funding and economic constraints.
“The Institution’s priority needs include sustained infrastructure upgrades, expansion of student accommodation, acquisition of modern laboratory and workshop equipment, and continuous investment in staff development.
“These challenges are being addressed progressively through government support, intervention funds, and prudent internal management.”
On coping strategies and institutional resilience, RUGIPO’S spokesman said,
“Management has continued to ensure institutional stability through prudent financial management, prioritisation of critical needs, constructive engagement with relevant authorities, and effective utilisation of available resources.
“These measures have helped to sustain academic activities, maintain programme accreditation standards, and ensure an orderly academic calendar despite prevailing sector-wide challenges.”
On the Management’s achievements so far and vision for a greater RUGIPO, he said, “Since assuming office, the Management has ensured regular salary payments, stabilised the academic calendar, and reduced industrial disputes through dialogue with staff unions.
“To further enhance productivity and create a more conducive working environment, the Management has also expanded lighting and energy solutions through the installation of solar power systems in key institutional facilities.
“These include the central administrative complex (comprising the Rectory, Registry, and Bursary) as well as other strategic locations such as faculty buildings.
“This intervention has improved energy reliability, supported efficient service delivery, and aligned the Institution with sustainable energy practices.
“Looking ahead, Management’s vision for a greater RUGIPO is focused on modernisation, industry-relevant and technology-driven programmes, enhanced student experience, stronger partnerships, and digital transformation.”
Olugosi added, “Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo remains firmly committed to its mandate of manpower development, innovation, and service to society.
“The Institution values constructive engagement with the media and the public and believes that sustained collaboration among government, intervention agencies, and stakeholders will further enhance its contribution to socio-economic development in Ondo State.”
He said, “Management remains committed to transparency, growth, and academic excellence.”
