IMT boils as the Rector hijacks SUG in Enugu

The infrastructural decay in IMT has forced the students to go on rampage; the outcome was inauguration of the VP to replace the President by the Rector, as the president was fingered for architecting the rally. Emmanuel Ahanonu, a serving corps member in Enugu reports;

SOME OF THE CLASSROOM ROOFS ,

 Peace may take a long while to be broker between the Students’ Union Government SUG and the Management of Institute of Management and Technology IMT Enugu, as the fight for infrastructural emancipation launched by the SUG has been seen as a thorn in the Management flesh and a ploy to incite the students for rampage.

IMT seem decades infrastructurally backwards among peers, this is owing to the scenario the classrooms and the hostels is currently in; it has been neglected and mismanaged over the years. To this end, Isiani Kingsley led SUG in few of her courtesy visits to the Rector Prof. U. Iloeje, has pointed out these dire needs of students the Management need to urgently attend to. According to the SUG leader, the challenges include the roofless classrooms, payment of Ten Thousand Naira annually for development levy without anything to show for it, payment of N3,000 for biometric ID card which has been previously paid thru technology fees; ID card which stays more than a year before it is being produced.

Others include mandatory payment of N40,000 each by all the newly admitted student for hostel accommodation which made some who couldn’t urgently afford the money to forfeit their admission notwithstanding that it wasn’t expressly stated as a yardstick for seeking admission into IMT. Worst still, six persons are forced to share a room meant for 3, cooking is prohibited so that students will be cowed into patronizing the school canteen, no mattress is provided for the those who purchase the accommodation, no fan, no water. The logging loom reached its zenith when some two hundred and fifteen persons who paid for the accommodation were not allotted spaces because it was exhausted nor was their money refunded to them.

The infrastructural decadence has degenerated to the extent that any `day it rains, lectures will discontinue and the students must subsequently mop the hall before they could be able to seat and learn because the roof is half opened; that is the fate of FT Main lecture venue which is one of the biggest lecture venues in the institution.

ONE OF THE LECTURE VENUES

Back in the hostel, the students who are favored to owe accommodation are made to squeeze themselves 6 in a room that has capacity for 3, they are left at the mercy of sleeping with whatever they have in place of mattress, cooking equipment is not permissible so one is left with only the school canteen option, pipe borne water is not guaranteed. This propelled the consistent agitation by the SUG that Management should look into their plight.

But the Rector was of the opinion that the SUG leadership should focus more on their studies than in pork-nosing over the infrastructure. At a point the president was threatened with expulsion if he continues to ask for infrastructural upgrading but he wouldn’t give up.

When the option of consultations and negotiations weren’t yielding positive fruit, series of meeting was organized by the students’ leaders to seek a means of long lasting solution to these anomalies. Peaceful protest was accepted as an alternative.

When the students filled-out to protest the management’s insensitivity to their plight, they intended to protest peacefully only for that day just as they hope to take the protest to government House, but things got awry as some invited security personnel persisted that the students will not leave the school environment.

The more than 4hours protest ended when the Rector summon all the SUG Executives to Campus One for dialogue, but the round-table discussion ended in fiasco as the President was barred from altering a word after the Rector’s address. But one of the Executive who spoke to Campuslife in confidence believed that the Rector was more furious towards the President for not picking his calls and for coming to the meeting very late; several minutes after the arrival of others.

Because of the unresolved indignations in the heart of the students’ leaders, the protest continued the second day. This time, the Institution Man O’ War halted the protest and told the leaders that the Rector demand their presence. Instead of the Rector, the Chief Security Officer took over the scene. He queried the rationale towards the continuous protest. He notified the Excos that their presence is urgently needed by the Divisional Police Officer DPO of Ogui Police Station.

In the DPO’s office were the President and his Excos, the CSO of the Institution Mr. Eneonyia Geophry, the DPO and the coordinator of Students Affairs Mr. Chinedu Ekwueme. At the cause of the meeting, a letter emerged from the DPO’s office that the President has been removed by his Executives. But the President argued that such removal was kangarooly done as no constitutional procedure for removal was followed.

According to the IMT Constitution, for a President to be removed, the Parliament must treat the issue and pass it to the General Assembly (which is the conglomerate of all the students) who will then vote in referendum.

The DPO after reading from the constitution understood that acclaimed removal was not constitutionally done. He later advised that all should remain calm in status quo till the next two days to enable them launce and conclude investigations on the issue. They all agreed and left.

Suddenly the next day, the Rector called the Executives excluding the President as well as some Management team for swearing-in of the Vice President as the substantive President. The President in response quickly wrote a petition to Enugu State Commissioner of Police and copied to DPO Ogui Police notifying them of the breach in the previous day agreement.

According to the petition, it noted that the action of the Rector contradicts the order of Police which ordered for statusquo maintenance pending the out =come of the investigation. It added “this letter is really to notify you about their (Management) action so far which is also in contradiction to the stipulation of the constitution page 30 to remove President from office for no justifiable reason even without the parliament’s approval nor the general assembly approval… I would be delighted as you will use your good offices to look into their actions knowing that peace is good but justice is better”

As scheduled, all converged at Police station on the second day, the Deputy Commissioner of Police who was then handling the issue queried Mr. Chinedu Ekwueme (who represented the Rector). Mr. Chinedu exonerated himself from the plan of inaugurating the VP but explained that the Rector initiated that and invited others including him, and he couldn’t argue with his principal. The Police boss then officially pull themselves out from things that concern IMT and warn that in subsequent protest, his team shouldn’t be responsible for responding as the Rector’s unilateral decision could be detrimental to the peace which the institution enjoy.

To seal the Management plan to hijack the students’ union, all the 30 departments President were threatened with expulsion should they ever attend any meeting again as it concern the issues. They all chickened-out.

The solution seemed to be hanging in pendulum as even some NANS leaders who came to quell the issues has been fingered for compromise as their stand dissolved into uninterestedness once after meeting with the management. A department President who spoke to Campuslife in confidence noted that ‘those so called NANS leaders has been bribed by the Management to sell the goodwill of the student, what do you expect us (the Department Presidents) who are still students here to do, if not, why is it that after their visit and being logged in a hotel the school often give to their visitors, the issue started dying a natural death from their side. I’m a leader but I can’t forfeit my certificate for it’

There is also another allegation that the Rector hijacked IMT ASUP and NASU. It was also alleged that the Rector is having some financial mismanagement which made him to be in EFCC bad book as well as that of ICPC. Thus, he’s dragged to the court by ASUP, NASU and two financial commissions.

The battle line seem drawn as the President when contacted said that he will defend the interest of the students who elected him to the latter while the PRO of the institution Dr. Ifeanyi Ojobor said that the issue is beyond him and it will be preferable to meet with the school Rector to know exactly what happened. When he was asked the authenticity of the Rector’s 4 suits in the court (with the Institution ASUP, NASU EFCC and ICPC), he also said that the Rector himself can comment on that.

Another student of ND Computer Science expressed fear in the acclaim new leadership of SUG as he just called them the Management stooge. He added that the Rector is only interested for his pocket as there is no single project to show for his administration since 2011 he assumed office even with the ‘heavy N10,000 we are forced to pay annually for development levy.

Campuslife equally spoke with two other students who confirmed that they are yet to receive their N40,000 accommodation fee back. The hostel Governor who spoke in confident when asked about the accommodation issues noted that he is aware of the tussle between the Management and some new students about the repayment of their accommodation fee. Although he confirmed that the issue is real but he can’t confirm instantly if their money has been completely refunded for now.

To this end, IMT seem to have no union of its own except the one expressly remote by the Rector and the subsisting SUG is the Rector’s annex which either do his bid or be expunged by his armies/cronies.

Viewed 1 times
IMT boils as the Rector hijacks SUG in Enugu