By Dada Ahmed.
Dr. Usman Ogbo, Rector, Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja.
Few years ago, kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja which was established in the early 90s,was the cynosure of crisis.
The uneasy calm that pervaded the Polytechnic environment was characterised by cultism, examination malpractice among other negative tendencies.
The orgy of violent led to destruction of property, closure of the institution and disruption of academic activities and to some extent, death.
However, the management of the institution say they have every cause to rejoice, adding that the institution has overcome its problems and now enjoys relative peace and conducive environment for students to carry out serious academic activities.
Students, parents and other concerned members of the public with stake in the development of the citadel of higher in the state also expressed delight over the cheering news but attributed it to the participative leadership adopted by the current management in piloting the ship of the institution.
Leadership generally,as defined by Merriam-Webster diction, is the office or position of a leader.
However, beyond the realm of the dictionary definition of leadership believe human resource experts believe that leaders must apply participative methodology to achieve the desired success in the task of providing services to the people.
Participative strategy in leadership is the practice of engaging in a team-based democratic approach to advance a company, business, or project forward, according to WGU Blog, a social media platform.
Economic analysts are consistent in their assertion that participative leadership is synonymous with managing people in team-like manner and their resources for greater benefit.
For this they noted, it becomes imperative, therefore,for leaders to imbibe culture of team work by carrying along their whole team in most decision-making processes.
More so,management experts identify participative leadership as the best option for any leader that knows his or her onions in the management of human and resources, with avowed determination to effect meaningful changes in the social, economic and political life of the people.
Conscious of the advantages organization gains from participative leadership the management of the Kogi State Polytechnic, under the leadership of Dr. Usman Ogbo say they have adopted such leadership style in piloting the ship of the institution for better result.
The Ogbo-led administration proved this recently when it rolled out various projects it executed, through through such methodology for Governor Yahaha Bello to inspect.
At the end of the 30-minute inspection, the elated Bello commended the Rector and his team for achieving giant strides in improving the facilities they inherited from the previous administrations.
The governor,who is also the visitor to the polytechnic, also commended the students for being lawful and the staff for being deducted to duty urged them to improve and sustain the tempo of peaceful atmosphere prevailing in the Polytechnic.
He, however, admonished the students to shun cultism, examination malpractice and other negative tendencies and face their studies squarely for them to come out with flying colours at the end of their examinations.
The Governor particularly felt joyous by the absence of cultism,examination malpractice and strike in the Polytechnic and promised to assist the institution to ensure much enabling environment for enhanced peace.
Reflecting on the myriad of problems that confronted the Polytechnic in the past, Dr. Ogbo, in his recent interactive session with Journalists in his office recalled that the institution went through tough and rough edges as a citadel of higher education.
Ogbo,also an old student of the Polytechnic, recounted an experience reminiscent of the notoriety of some students of the institution in the past.
“A young man was coming to the campus during examination with gun, we monitored him, caught him, we arraigned him before a Magistrate’s court, he was found quilty of the offence charged and jailed eight years to deter others in his shoe.”
Ogbo was, however, quick to observe that the era of cultism, examination malpractice and the others had gone to sick bay for good since he took over the mantle of leadership.
He added that the era when the media believed that certificates of the Polytechnic lacked quality had disappeared in preference for the best quality assurance,adding that graduates of the institution now compete favourably with their counterparts any where in the world.
On employment,Ogbo said that following approval by the governor for more hands to recruited into the service of the institution,his management employed 400 youths.
According to him, those recruited have been working in the Polytechnic with great enthusiasm with commitment and contributing effectively to the development of the institution there depopulating the unemployment market.
The facilities rehabilitated,he added, include hostels, lecture theatre, library, water reticulation, fencing of female hostel,among others done through direct labour with heads of departments (HODs) as “contractors” and “procurement officers”.
“The essence is to demonstrate and entrench the idea of participative leadership in my staff.
“Instead of using contractors, I used HODs to instil sense of belonging and collective responsibility in the task of rendering services to the students and the larger society,” he further told the Journalists.
On accreditation of programmes,he revealed that he secured accreditation of 30 core programmes to boost the quality of academic activities of the Polytechnic at the cost of “N170 plus” instead of over N1 billion presented to his management by a committee.
He recalled that in the past ,the HODs would stand aloof, saying that after all, rehabilitation work was meant for the contractors and at the end of it and that they had no stake in its success.
According to him, but with the direct involvement of the HODs in such work, using democratic approach, they became more committed to the cause of developing the institution,
He expressed delight that by involving HODs, quality job has replaced shoddy job.
“They are also mindful of the need to shun corruption because I told them that in the event of involving in corruption in the execution of the work, their job is on line,” Ogbo, described by students and staff as a no “nonsense man,” emphasised.
The Rector, who earlier displayed to Journalists some industrial products such as liquid soup and air freshener, produced by the students of the Polytechnic said the effort was part of his his management to put the institution on the parth of viable industry venture.
He expressed optimism that the new venture would increase in revenue of the Polytechnic among other advantages.
On students and management relationship, the Rector said it has been cordial, adding that his administration has been attending to the request of the students enroute their union governnent(SUG).
Commenting on the welfare of staff, he said he approached the governor on Workers’ agitation over non implementation of their promotion, adding that the governor on May, 2022, approved the implementation to encourage productivity.
On security situation at the Itapke campus of the Polytechnic, the Rector said that N300 million has been approved for the fencing of the campus in response to his proposal on the issue, assuring efforts were on to get the money for the project to commence.
The Rector commended the governor for giving him and his management free hand to administer the Polytechnic,a development he noted attributed immensely to the success of his administration.
Ogbo, however, identified participative leadership, prudent management of resources, culture of instilling discipline and aversion to cultism and examination malpractice as the core values of his administration propelling him and his management to do more for the Polytechnic.
Beyond the Polytechnic environment, experts on human resources management are explicit on the advantages of participative leadership in managing people and their resources.
One of such experts,George N. Root III, described participative leadership as a managerial style that invites input from employees on all or most company decision.
According to him,participative leadership, motivates staff more readily to accept policies and decisions reached by general consensus, thereby cutting down resistance and speed up the process of implementing new ideas.
The expert argued that when employees were given personal stake in the success of new policies by involving them in the process of creating and approving policies, it enabled them to help company adjust rapidly to policy changes.
Participative leadership,he added, improved employee morale, pointing out that when employees were given voice in the operation of the company, they would feel personally liable for the success of the company.
Root III further said that employees would also take more active role in improving the work conditions when they know that they could directly affect the policies that govern the workplace and be more creative in finding solutions to problems.
“When you encourage employees to give their opinions on issues, you will get a variety of solutions to choose from. To be involved in the decision-making process, for the company, the staff must be intimately involved in how the company operates.
“A participative style of leadership offers employees more than just the opportunity to improve their income through good performance. It gives your staff members the chance to be active in determining the future success of the company.
“Allowing employees to be active in the growth of the company encourages those employees to stay with the company to see their plans result in success. This will improve employee retention and cut down on the costs of turnover.
“It decreases competition and increases collaboration. When employees are included in decision-making, however, the environment often becomes one of collaboration instead.
“Rather than seeing their peers as competitors, workers see their coworkers as associates working towards common goals that will benefit everyone,” Root III said.
Keen observers of developments in Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, believe that the institution may not be a company perse,but that the the principle of participative leadership features prominently in the style of leadership adopted by Dr. Usman Ogbob administration to steer the ship of the institution.
Observers called on heads of other tertiary institutions in the state and others in position of responsibility to emulate the leadership style of the Ogbo-led management to enable them achieve the best result.
They also urged students and members of staff of the institution to cooperate with the management to enhance the prevailing peace in that tertiary education community.
Above all, they advised the Rector and his management not to deviate from their noble goal,but continue harnessing the potential of participative leadership for the institution to achieve its aims and objectives in line with vision and mission of the founding fathers of kogi state,a geo-political entity.
The state was carved out of the old Benue and Kwara state, by the regime of General Sani Abacha on August 27,1991.
Dada Ahmed is a member, Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and a publisher.
ahmeddada008@gmail.com.
