IMT Enugu and the allegations of extortion that have not been proven
Report had it that many different social media platforms were flooded with various serialized snippets of what may at best be called figments of the imaginations and fabrications made by some hired social media hirelings peddling false and unsubstantiated allegations against the immediate past government of Enugu State, council, management, and lecturers of my great alma mater, Institute of Management and Technology, (IMT)Enugu. Because social media platforms have such a lax approach to regulation, they have become synonymous with spreading false information and anecdotes that cannot be verified.
At first, I didn't give it much thought and treated it with disdain. My initial assumption was that it was just another story shared on social media. When I recently read an article that was printed in one of the most reputable national dailies on August 6, 2023, with the headline "Extortion Galore in IMT, Enugu, Education Mess Deepens," I became more concerned and frightened about the current predicament. The Regional Editor of the national daily contributed extensive background information to the subject.
My investigations consisted of going to the school, watching things for myself, and talking to students, academic and non-academic staff members without letting them know the reason of my visit to the school. This was done so that I could assess whether or not the allegations that were published in the national daily were true and correct. My findings, which I will detail below, are able to be independently verified as being factual, perceptible, and supported by evidence. I will do so in the following way. When I found out that the appointment of any employee into the Institute requires the explicit agreement of the Governor, conveyed through the Governing Council, I was astonished.
I also found out that there would never be an exception made to this criterion. Since the commencement of the present Management and Council, the government has not given any kind of official authorisation for employing new employees. As a direct consequence of this, the Institute has not filled any open positions since the start of the current Management and Council. When making appointments to Headship jobs for staff members who are currently employed, the Council takes both seniority and merit into consideration. Because the membership of the Institute's Council is defined by the geopolitical distribution of its members, not a single member of the Council will be willing to simply watch as his zone becomes increasingly marginalized. Despite this, in response to a recent request made by the condition Government to MDAs for submissions that would make it possible for governments to examine the current state of things, IMT filed a submission that detailed the number of employees working at the Institute and indicated the ratio of employees to local government areas across the state. You may locate the document, which explains everything on its own and was given to me, in this particular location.
The Institute's Academic Board (AB) has met a total of three times during this session, the most recent of which was on July 26th, 2023. The Long Business Committee is a Standing Committee of the AB that is sometimes referred to as the BC. This Committee does not have the jurisdiction to approve anything. There is no justifiable justification for ignoring the legislative mandate that advisory board meetings be held. It has come to light that the Academic Board keeps a protocol in order to deal with any and all cases in which scripts are reported to be missing. The approach has been utilized by the (AB) in the past, and it is now being utilized at this very moment, in order to deal with difficulties; it will continue to be utilized. The requisite reprimands have been handed out to those members of the team who have been identified as having been involved in the past. There are a number of pieces of evidence that point in that way.
It has been established that all of those who accepted part-time jobs in the Institute are aware of what their remunerations are through their letters of appointment; nonetheless, this does not in any way condone any nasty behaviour that has taken place. When it was discovered that an employee had engaged in inappropriate behaviour, extortion, or sexual harassment, the Council did not hesitate to fire the employee from their position. This occurred on many occasions. In the meantime, the majority of the staff members who are on part-time appointments are those who are on full-time appointments elsewhere such as ESUT, UNN, and other institutions located close to Enugu. There are opportunities elsewhere for people to work full-time in these roles. The allegation that the management is engaging in racketeering with reference to the NYSC call-up process is imprecise and without foundation because prospective corps members print their own Call Up Letters online. This method has been utilized for quite some time now, and it is not something that is exclusive to IMT in any way. It was stated that the funds had been used by the Institute, with the permission of the Council, to create infrastructure for use by both personnel and students. This was accomplished with the money gained through the sale of land in Abuja that belonged to the Institute that was located there.
The most recent of these events was the handover to the Institute by the Consultant and the Contractor of an academic facility that had been developed using the profits from the event that took place before it. The Council strongly advised that the building be named after the woman who was honoured by the giving of land to IMT rather than any other individual. This was in preference to naming the structure after any other person.
Concerning the issue of choosing candidates for the position of Deputy Rector, it came to light that the Extant Law provides that the Academic Board must choose candidates who are qualified and appropriate as long as those candidates are members of the Academic Board. This led to the discovery of a solution to the problem. It was on the suggestion of the Academic Board that the current Deputy Rector was selected, and there are no indications that this decision broke any rules or regulations that are currently in effect. After a contentious election campaign, the results of the election for the Deputy Rector were ultimately chosen by the Academic Board and afterwards ratified by the Council. Therefore, everyone who is a member of the Academic Board, regardless of their status within the board, is qualified. The Chief Lecturers are included in this. Before being assigned to his current post, the current Vice Rector for Academic Affairs had served on the Academic.
Regarding the issue of bringing the name of the former Governor, Rt. Hon. Dr. Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi into the fictitious tale, investigations revealed that IMT enjoyed the best of times under the administration of the former Governor Ugwuanyi. In contrast to the misleading assertion that the name of the former Governor was pulled into the bogus story, this is the truth. It would be impossible to provide a comprehensive account of all of the policies and steps that have been done by his administration given the sheer volume of such acts and policies.However, in the interest of history, I will use a tiny amount of space to highlight what he done for the Institute, which has made it stand out among the league of polytechnics in Nigeria. For the sake of history, this will certainly be carried out.This includes, but is not limited to the following: roofing and repainting of the Administrative Block; remodelling of the Old Mass Communication Block; construction of Sound Proof TV Control rooms in the department of Mass Communication; remodelling of the Medical Centre; construction of a Block of Class Rooms, 2-Storey Building (3 Floors); construction of a Block of Staff Offices, 2-Storey Building (3 Floors); construction of a Block of Medical Centre (Bungalow); and construction of a Block of Medical Centre (Bunga On the list of projects are the renovation of the Civil Engineering Block, the renovation of the Achike Udenwa Block of Offices, the renovation of the Female Hostel Blocks, the construction of a storey Building Block of Registry Offices (with two floors), and the purchase of Furniture for the Medical Centre. Re-roofing of Plant House in Campus III and reconstruction of Roof of Modelling Laboratory in the Department of Civil Engineering, Reconstruction of Roof and Installation of Electrical Services in the Main Structure of Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Reconstruction (asphalting) of the School's Network of Roads with Drainages, and Others Are Also Included In This Project.In addition to this, the former Governor allocated the sum of one hundred fifty million dollars for the first phase of the re-accreditation of eighteen programs in the years 2018 and 2020, respectively.
This was then followed by the disbursement of 285 million dollars for the second part of the re-accreditation of 38 programs in the years 2021.
It is already general knowledge that IMT does not have any difficulty in acquiring accreditation for any of their programs. Despite the fact that they only began offering degree programs around four years ago, IMT has been a leader in this field. Concurrently taking place during this time period was the 32nd–42nd Consolidate Convocation Ceremony that was held at IMT. When the former Governor, Rt. Hon. Dr. Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, came to commission these projects in February 2022, he further released One Hundred Million Nigerian Naira for the completion of the internal network of roads and ordered the State Ministry of Works to go back to site and complete the network of roads in the Institute. This took place in 2022. 2022 was the year that saw the occurrence of these events. It is common knowledge that the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) in Enugu became affiliated with the University of Nigeria under the leadership of the late Rt. Hon. Dr. Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
This was done in order to start offering degree programs in a total of eight different departments. Accounting, business administration, public administration, and banking and finance are some of the departments that fall under this umbrella. Additionally included are the industries of information technology, marketing, and public relations communication. The efforts of Rt. Hon. Dr. Lawrence Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi have resulted in a revitalized look for the school. It was also discovered that the Institute has paid staff salaries up till the month of July 2023, and that the government of His Excellency, Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mba has been as prompt in sending monthly subventions to IMT. These two pieces of information came to light. It was alleged that a particular member of the Institute's staff, who has been questioned for various offences including his failure to retire over N55 million cash advances taken from the school for over ten years now, has been on a rampage sponsoring all manner of things and allegations against the school.
This is especially the case after the staff member lost a suit that he personally filed in Industrial Court to prohibit IMT from investigating his failure to retire these assets. The litigation was intended to stop IMT from examining his inability to retire these monies.
Mrs. Edemba is a resident of Agbani Road in Enugu. She received her degree in management and technology from the Institution of Management and Technology in Enugu.the state