IMT Enugu in deep Mess as anonymous reveal unfortunate situations in the institution, cries for Governor Peter Mbah intervention
Part time lecturers on N50,000 stipend live large
ENUGU – The problem of academic exploitation is growing at universities across the country. This practise involves instructors selling students' copies of their books and other materials at inflated prices. Sorting, a catch-all term for any and all forms of money-for-mark activity in the system, has been institutionalised at this point.
Students who have not yet completed the National Service requirements are being illegally mobilised for placement. Many Nigerian institutions have encountered issues like this. Some sober professors and employees are scared to complain for fear of retaliation from higher-ups.
The once-prestigious Institute of Management & Technology, IMT, which is controlled by the state of Enugu, is in danger of being destroyed by these and other criminal practises. Staff and students who spoke to Saturday Vanguard about recent events at IMT portrayed a bleak picture of the once-prestigious institution.
They listed a number of problems plaguing the school, such as a lack of accountability and a failure to diligently supervise school activities; nepotism in the appointment and recruitment of staff; academic fraud; alleged gross violations of the act establishing the institution; dereliction of duties; and economic sabotage. A faculty member complained to administration about what he called "rascal violations of IMT laws" that were hurting the school. Unusual combination of business committee and academic carelessness.
The administration was charged with creating a sham organisation called the Business Committee to usurp the authority of the legitimate academic board. Evidently this has been affecting the school's academic output, as it was recently discovered that some ex-ND students from the 2021/2022 academic session of the Department of Agric and Bio-environmental engineering were illegally granted free 30 marks or more as examination scores after it was determined that their examination answer scripts in entrepreneurial studies had gone missing due to the carelessness of a lecturer. The extortionists' victims enjoy lavish lifestyles.
The results show that professors frequently demand money from their students. The administration of the institution has also been accused of fostering an atmosphere conducive to criminal behaviour. It was discovered, for instance, that part-time professors are paid a meagre N50,000 for a semester that lasts five or six months. I don't see how those people can provide for their families. They can make up the difference by extorting the pupils, though. That's an area where some people are deemed to be "doing well," with their ability to make large purchases like automobiles and houses. A member of staff expressed concern about the situation in an online statement.
“My dear brothers and sisters, why are we standing on a bridge and be lifting the bridge? How can you pay a part-time lecturer in a tertiary institution in Enugu N50,000.00 per semester of six months and expect quality education and proper conduct? “Meanwhile, while in the N50, 000.00 six months employment, he gave gratification to get the job. Why are we pretending that we don’t know what is happening? Let us help Mbah handle this matter and help our education system. Prof. Oji’s committee may start with this. This is the job of ‘Leaders of thought’’ “As a matter of fact, it is the examination hall that has been put on sale to the students. The Institute is fully commercialized.
Consequently, we have different products for purchase either in cash or in kind. “Examination scores, continuous assessment scores, headship appointments, directorship appointments, assignment of classes to lecturers to teach; assigning students’ projects to supervisors, mobilization of non-graduates to National Youth Service etc, are the order of the day.”
Prejudice based on familial ties is suspected.
The administration at IMT is also being accused of violating section 2.3 of chapter 2 of the terms of service for appointments and recruitments by actively promoting favouritism in the institution's hiring practises. They say that management is biassed towards people from the Enugu North zone, citing the hiring of two women from his region as an example. As if things weren't bad enough, "the Deputy Rector of the institution is a Senior Lecturer who is not qualified by the NBTE strict provision to head a Department that awards HND." In violation of Section 9(2) of the Polytechnic Act, which says that the Council shall pick the Deputy Rector from among the Chief Lecturers in the Polytechnic, it is inappropriate for a senior Lecturer to serve as the Deputy Rector. An outraged Chief Lecturer said, "This is a reckless violation of the statutory act and done solely for personal and political interest."
A professor told Saturday Vanguard that enrollment has been falling over the past six years, coinciding with the tenure of the current administration.
“The story of the past six years or more, of the current leadership of the Institute is no doubt, overflowing with tears of applause for evil and tolling jeers for honesty, principles, values, dedication and
commitment to duty”. Some concerned staff of the institution heaped the blame for the rot in the school on the door steps of the immediate past administration of Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and they are calling on Governor Peter Mbah to wade in to save IMT from imminent total collapse.
One of them said: “I express my disappointment with the immediate past State Government’s response to the executive lawlessness at IMT Enugu between 2016 and 2020 when despite a lot of evidence of misconduct and inefficiency; they went ahead to elongate leadership of the institute. The immediate past Government shielded them which encouraged them to violate acts and rules of the institution. This has brought the institute’s image to shame and desolation.
“Today, public confidence in the Institute is utterly eroded to the precipice that the students admitted by the Institute on yearly basis are fundamentally those who cannot persuade well-managed academic institutions by their poor academic performances in the Joint Administration and Matriculation Board’s examination to admit them. The solid foundation of the school has eroded”. Academic fraud and NYSC call-up racketeering. Added to the numerous ills in the school is alleged NYSC call-up racketeering. Some fraudulent staff of the school allegedly engage in issuing call-up letter to students yet to graduate. A case in point was that of one Ede Onyinye Lillian (MKT/H2012/201) who was said to have been mobilized and later recalled from the NYSC, and no punishment was meted to the Director of Student Affairs for this heinous act of national embarrassment for mobilizing her despite being aware that she did not graduate.
Reckless spending
The management was accused of spending more than N100 million in August 2022 or thereabout to procure 5 cars for Principal Officers as their take home severance entitlement when their appointments were yet to be severed. Also, the Governing Council in February 2022 or thereabout sold IMT land in Abuja on the purported claim that it was under the threat of revocation. More than N200M was said be realized from the sale of the said property. A source from the institution said the decision to sell the land was in bad fate . According to him, at the Governing Council meeting of 27th April 2021, where the plot to sell the property was hatched, it was decided, that the proceeds realized from the transaction be utilized for physical infrastructural development in the Institute” and “that the Institute should engage an Agent or a Professional in Real Estate to facilitate the transaction. “However, in a later Council meeting of April 2022 after receipt of payment for the said property in February 2022, Council abandoned its earlier decision of 27th April 2021 and decided that “the proceeds from the Abuja land sales should be used to put up a structure that will be named after somebody who facilitated the sale of the property.
Several calls and text messages to the Rector of the Institute, Professor Austin Nweze were not answered or replied and the PRO of the school Barrister Mark Eze said that the Rector just lost his elder brother, Justice Centus Nweze and would not be in the mood to react now. He also declined comment as PRO of the school, preferring to wait for the approval of the Rector or probably after the funerals. Said Eze in a text message: “Wait for us to get approval from the Rector. He is in Abuja. “Death is death and not tea party. Please, wait till the Rector comes back to enable us talk with him. I will appear insensitive if I call him to discuss this issue while he is trying to pick the body of his late elder brother. We met this morning and decided we should give him that benefit of doubt. The brother’s corpse was supposed to come into Enugu today. They couldn’t come back because of the weather problems. The death of Justice CC Nweze is a national issue far and above so many things. Thank you.”
Source:
Vanguard