The Nigerian Association of Technologists in Engineering (NATE) has thrown its weight behind the proposed removal of disparity between Higher National Diploma (HND) and Degree holders in the nation.

Speaking on Friday, at a press conference preceding the National Council on Establishment (NCE) meeting of Heads of Civil Service of the 36 states of the federation, scheduled to hold in Ilorin, capital of Kwara State, from Monday, February 24 to Friday, 28, the National President, NATE, Leo Okereke, said: "This is the best chance to remove this disparity between HND/Degree."

According to him, "this is indeed a healthy development in the history of Civil Service in Nigeria," even as he added that "there is nothing else to be done in Ilorin this time around, than to implement the communiqué of the all embracing stakeholders forum in Abuja which was supposed to be implemented at the end of Uyo NCE's meeting in 2010."

Okereke, who was represented by the vice-president, North-Central, Muhammad Yabagi Ahmed, noted that the country cannot develop without the removal of the discrimination. He said the Federal Government had on its own removed the discrimination.

He quoted Ref: Government White Paper on report of Presidential Committee on Consolidation of Emoluments in the Public Sector, chapter 6, section 6.2 of December 2006, pages 31/32 to buttress his claim, saying that it is those who should implement the report that has refused to do so.

The national president, who disclosed that every developed economy is technologically driven and that Nigeria's could not be different, urged the NCE to save Nigeria from the inevitable march into backwardness by signing the implementation circular and release it immediately after the NCE meeting.

Okereke, on behalf of NATE, saluted the courage of Alhaji Dabarako Mohammed, Head of Service, Kwara State, who spoke with journalists on the issue even as he said that the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) also supported the removal of the disparity through a letter it sent to the Head of Service of the Federation on May 17, 2013 and signed by its president, Mr Kashim A. Ali.