Aptech Computer Education, Uyo: The Unheard Afflictions of Staff and StudentAptech is a global computer training institution that is headquartered in Mumbai, India. It has branches in several countries around the world and in Nigeria, it has a very solid base with about 14 centers. The Lagos center is known for its high standards. It is a popular center in the country and competes favorably with the much attended NIIT. Little is known of the Uyo center which my searchlight beams upon today. This center is managed by one Mr. Inibehe Otoho who is an alumnus of the University of Calabar. Aptech Center Uyo has attracted some students over the years, mostly for the Advanced Diploma in Software Engineering (ADSE) programme which is reputably on par with Nigeria's Higher National Diploma. The average amount students pay to fund this programme at the Uyo Center is about a million naira. The average number of students on this programme is about 20. Apart from the ADSE programme, the center runs a wide range of other certificate programmes starting from basic Microsoft Word learning to Android development, among others. However, a keen observer to this center will quickly observe certain issues which this article raises. Firstly, for an institution that runs a programme on par with HND, there is a lack of faculty, to use Aptech's popular parlance. It is expected that an institution where advanced computer processes are learnt should be able to employ a moderate amount of lecturers, who are specialists in varying areas, to help the students. Sadly, the reality is far from normal. The center has only ONE functioning lecturer who is assisted by an uncertified recent secondary school leaver who is, unsurprisingly, the manager's son! This boy is underage for such an appointment, unqualified and I daresay, inexperienced. Besides, he is just 17 years old. My interview with this boy's students reveals that he is quite an unserious lecturer who has no practical knowledge of what he teaches and only dictates in his "classes"! The other lecturer who is active and by all means, the ONLY functioning lecturer in the institution is unmotivated and highly uncared for. His work load is extreme and he teaches basically all the programmes the institution runs only on an irregular salary of N45,000 for which he is to work to 7pm daily. This center has the wherewithal to attract and keep more staff even with its "peanut package"! Alas, there are no staff! I wonder why Middlesex University would partner with an institution with ONLY ONE QUALIFIED STAFF to award its unique ADSE certificate. This is a sham on the integrity of Middlesex University and any other affiliated institution of higher learning.One may wonder why there is a lack of staff in Aptech Uyo center. The answer is not farfetched. Mr Inibehe Otoho refuses to pay salaries!!! For some warped reasons, he owes staff salaries up to 6 months in the most extreme cases. In the best case scenario, he pays HALF of the agreed salaries after 3 weeks of begging and negotiation. Staff members are made to resume as early as 7.30am and close as late as 6pm (best case scenario) everyday and even on Saturdays and all public holidays even though he doesn't make the staff members aware of this until they have resumed active duties. He has had altercations with ex-staff members who were frustrated and left. He hasn't paid any of the ex-staff members a dime till this very day and it is not uncommon to see them badging in to wage war over their earned salaries. The question here is simple: why employ staff and run a center if you won't pay' For some reasons, which can be summed up to greed, Mr. Inibehe subscribes to the philosophy that all his staff members are ultimately marketers and he frequently 'pushes' them to do marketing jobs which they were not employed for. This forced marketing is due to his inability to employ professional marketers and pay them. For a center that earns nothing less than N1,000,000 naira every month from students' fees, imposed levies, ICT charges, 'resit'-fees, and more exploitative and obviously unofficial fees, the pay package is terrible. The basic pay which is found in the employment letter of staff members is N40,000 while that for faculty members is N45,000. This money can be managed by most unemployed youths if the pay was consistent but sadly, Mr Inibehe deliberately refuses to pay salaries under the guise of "national economic crisis"! It is in this same economic crisis that he employs new staff members every month and organises interviews almost every week. The pattern seems to be; employ a staff, owe them until they are frustrated, sack them or they quit and delay payments of their earnings until they leave it be. This pattern has been working very fine for him over the years. The only consistent staff members in Aptech Uyo are, unsurprisingly, his family members such as his wife, son and brother. His family members seem to be the only motivated staff members in the center for reasons other staff members cannot wrap their heads around. Apart from owing staff salaries, the staff members are also highly unmotivated. The manager is known to demoralise staff members by overusing them, underpaying them, owing them, throwing tantrums at them and inflicting damage on their psyche. I was made to understand that he actually abuses his staff members by calling them unprintable names. This point is confirmed from my interview with current and ex-staff members who wish to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. However, their identities are documented by me. His bias for his family members is evident in his swift payment of their salaries and the sugar coated words he uses to adore their hardwork and integrity over other staff members who are the Fanonian wretched of the earth in his eyes. This is from an institution that is purportedly "the best" in the Nigerian, nay, global ICT training industry. Students are not immune from the manager's eyes of Horus. The students, upon the payment of millions for fees, are left to their fate. Any past or current student will confirm that lectures are not always held and the manager does virtually nothing about it (since, of course, he will not pay the lecturers and employ more hands). Students are dictated to like secondary school students instead of being taught and there is virtually no practicum to their learning. All the computers in the center are destroyed and the manager has refused to repair them. This has forced students to get a laptop and bring it along with them. It should be noted that most of these personal laptops lack the needed software to code, compile and debug programming/coding languages yet the students are expected to learn the languages like that. At the end of the day, students leave with a shallow theoretical knowledge of ONLY HTML as against the C#, Java, Oracle, Python, Php, Mysql and so on, that they are supposed to learn. Students pay large amounts of recurring fees after they are literally "scammed" by the center for months.The learning environment is also in a state of squalor. There are only two classrooms and an office annex in the entire "school" and there are no obvious plans to move to a better location. The roofs are leaking in all the rooms and offices and nothing is done about them. Students protect their laptops from the rage of the rain when it rains its angst at them. The staff area is not immune from the rain's rage as well. The school has no functional toilet which remains unkempt all day. This, of course, is apart from the private toilet designated for only the manager's family and which he ensures is cleaned daily. It is only recently that the manager agreed to reconnect the center to the power grid after being cut off for, perhaps, years. There are no working fans or air conditioning systems in the school. The windows are mostly bad and there are no curtains to protect against the raging heat of the vexing sun. It is apt at this juncture to state that the institution shares a building with other anti-academic establishments like a gambling joint and this often makes students leave the learning area to gamble. The man behind the name, Inibehe Otoho, is a very peculiar character to examine. He frequently shouts and throws invectives at students and enquirers when he falls into his frequent mood swings. He sets unreasonable targets for staff in a bid to justify his non-payment of their salaries and he has a knack for being a workaholic only when office hours are over and he always drags staff into this bout of "sudden hard work"! He frequently speaks of the joblessness that has rocked Nigerian youths and he absolves himself from his crimes to his staff under the guise of "many are looking for jobs, you already have one!" He sometimes uses uncouth language at staff as a means of beating their psyche. Staff members are even unable to seek for new jobs because of the lack of free time to do so. There are no overwork benefits, bonuses, severance packages, leave allowances, and other staff welfare packages. Once a new month clocks, he disappears to avoid the question on everyone's lips "when are we receiving salaries, sir'"! After a week or two, he resurfaces and sets new target while blaming the "Buhari economy" for his inability to pay! It is simple for staff members to quit and move on but they often realise this when they have worked for, at least, a month! Mr. Inibehe will not pay them for that month that the enslaved staff members have worked. This is his ultimate undoing. Staff members change faces month in, month out and this has a drastic effect on the students especially as the offices of the secretary, counsellor, faculty and receptionist are concerned. Aptech Center, Uyo is always employing on Jobberman and unsuspecting applicants from far and near fall prey to Mr. Otoho's misogynist machinations.On my first encounter with this center and the conditions which staff and students are made to suffer, I asked the question; what is the headquarters doing about this' It seems that this center lacks any form of supervision or overarching authority whatsoever. I was touched by the plight of staff and decided to undertake an underground investigation, the product of which forms the foregoing. Some of the members of staff are owed as much as 3-6 months and when they call to ask for their earnings, he is known to throw invectives at them and call them names that no sane human should ever utter. At the end, the staff members are frustrated and give up, even on their salaries. This is a great injustice which no one should bear. Mr. Inibehe should pay salaries and if there is no money to run the center, shut it down and start a new business. It is better than using people, dumping them and frustrating their lives. I took this cause and my findings cannot all be written within the confines of this article. Other articles on this issue should be expected from me. I contacted the said manager and he, unsurprisingly, ignored all means to resolve the issues amicably.I plead with Aptech Worldwide and its centers everywhere to intervene in the plight of staff and students in the Uyo center before this issue gets out of hand. I have already began the process of filing a lawsuit against the company and I have asked for the payment of damages to the aggrieved staff members. I am in the process of locating frustrated ex-staff members and connect with them for this common cause. I have also met with some students who have paid fees and have not been taught or attended to for months. It is hoped that this sham of an institution will come to public glare and the evils of Mr. Inibehe Otoho, unveiled like the Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin of old. - Ndoeyop Bennet, a journalist and human rights advocate, writes from Ukanafun, Akwa Ibom. CC: Lalasticlala
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