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Tag: IMT

  • Universal donates books to IMT

    To further deepen insurance education and awareness in Nigeria, Universal Insurance Plc has donated insurance books worth over N2 million to the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) in Enugu, Enugu State.

    Addressing the students of insurance department of the institution, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Ben Ujoatuonu, said that the gesture was part of the firm’s commitment in ensuring insurance education in the environ.

    He stated that as a socially responsible corporate citizen, the company had deemed it necessary to support insurance education across the country.

    For him, insurance as career means much for the volatile economy of Nigeria and the only way to shift the paradigm is to educate the young minds on the need to embrace insurance as a course of study which in turn would impact positively on the economy through practice.

    He said: “We are here today to tell you that insurance is a career and in deed, a social tool capable of lifting the country’s economy from the web of collapse if it is given a rightful place and conducive environment. Insurance plays significant role in the economy and as a catalyst for its growth, you the young minds do have a lot to know about it as a course of study and in practice a way to contributing to the economic stability.

    “This donation is a token of our contribution to the knowledge base of this wonderful institution which of course, is my Alma Mater. The books are of various areas of insurance that would boost your knowledge base as students of insurance.

    Replying, the institute’s Rector, Prof Austin Nweze thanked Universal Insurance Plc for its kind gesture and promised to encourage student in the department to take advantage of the various literature donated by the company not just in meeting their academic needs but also to aspire to become someone like Mr Ujoatuonu in their career path.”

  • Scores injured as cultists strike at IMT

    Scores injured as cultists strike at IMT

    A final year Mechanical Engineering student of the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Enugu cheated death, last Monday, when a three-man gang attacked him on the campus. The attempt to kill the victim failed as the gun held by his assailants failed to discharge, but many students got injured in the incident. EMMANUEL AHANONU reports.

    What could have been a bloodshed was averted at the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) in Enugu State, last Monday. While activities were at the peak on the campus, some hoodlums, suspected to be secret cult members, struck. There was pandemonium as everyone ran for dear life, turning the campus into a ghost town.

    The cultists’ target, a witness said, was a burly final year Mechanical Engineering student, who was in a storey-building classroom when the assailants arrived. The three-man gang isolated their target from the crowd and pushed him to the floor, pulling out their gun.

    The witness told CAMPUSLIFE that the suspected cultists made attempts to shoot at their victim but their gun could not discharge bullets.

    While this was going on, students, who were around the building, ran in various directions. Some, who were trapped in the classrooms on the upper floor of the building, jumped down. Many students got injured as they tried to escape from the scene. Some girls, who could not run, stood dazed, watching the horror scene.

    A student, who simply gave her name as Norah, told CAMPUSLIFE that the assailants aimed at their victim’s head but their gun’s trigger seized. She said two of the cultists continued to hit the victim with hard materials, while one of them reloaded the gun.

    “When he was done, he made another attempt to shoot at the victim, who was now bleeding profusely, but the gun still could not discharge bullets,” she said.

    When it dawned on the assailants that their mission had failed, they fled the scene, abandoning their victim in a pool of blood. The cultists, CAMPULIFE learnt, escaped through AfriHub Building, where they joined a waiting car and drove out of the campus.

    One of the victim’s classmates, who pleaded anonymity, said it was the second attack in the building by secret cult members in one week.

    He said: “The cult members visited exactly a week earlier. When they arrived in our class, they brought out a gun and ordered everyone to lie down. After a while, they ordered us to raise our faces and looked around. When they discovered that the person they were looking for was not in the class, they left. Now, they have come back again to terrorise us in the class. While all these happened, the school security officers were nowhere to be found.”

    Another student, who also did not want his name in print, said the school authorities deployed Man O’ War cadets, more than 20 minutes after the assailants left the campus, to harass students and search their bags.

    Investigation by CAMPUSLIFE showed that the campus has become unsafe because of the incessant attacks by cultists. A lecturer, who simply gave his name as Mr Ugwu, said cult clashes were becoming a common occurrence in the school.

    It would be recalled that government had recently embarked on “operation wipe out cultism”, following cult clashes that led to the death of students in Nsukka zone.

    The institution’s Director of Public Relations, Dr Ifeanyi Ojobor, denied the incident when he spoke to CAMPUSLIFE on telephone.

    He said: “I was on campus till the evening on that day and I never heard of such cult attack.”

    But, students have appealed to the management to strengthen the security on the campus. They urged the authorities to equip the school security officers to combat the growing violence on the campus.

     

     

  • ‘IMT was like dead factory’

    ‘IMT was like dead factory’

    Institute of Management and Technology  (IMT) Rector Prof Iloeje Michael, in this interview with SUNNY NWANKWO, speaks on how the institution rose from rot and mismanagement to one of pride. Excerpts:

    What does it means to you being appointed IMT rector?

    Well, to be fair, it is a challenge and opportunity to put back to the system the knowledge I garnered in my academic sojourn. It is an opportunity for me to use those skills acquired over the years; managerial, administrative and academic skills to make something better out of IMT and I am happy that gradually, I think that we are succeeding.

    Have you achieved some of the things you planned as IMT rector?

    When I came here in 2011, IMT was de-listed, disenfranchised and the accreditation of the school to operate as a polytechnic was withdrawn by the supervisory and regulatory agency for polytechnic education in Nigeria, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). They had written to inform the general public that IMT’s accreditation has been withdrawn. Prior to that, the federal government had also directed JAMB (Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board) to delist IMT; so what it means is that people will no longer be processed for admission into IMT. Further to that, they had also written to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) office, directing them that nobody from IMT should be mobilised for the mandatory National Youth Service programme. What that means is that entry for admission into IMT and exit has been sealed up. It is like when the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) says that a particular brand of beer should no longer be produced or sold in Nigeria. That factory is dead. So, that’s why people like me were appointed to come and serve.

    How did you rescue the institution?

    When such first generation counterparts as Yaba Tech, Kaduna Poly, and Ibadan Poly, among others, were waxing stronger, IMT was being shamed following the withdrawal of its accreditation. It was unacceptable to academicians and intellectuals like me, particularly those of us of Enugu State extraction. So, we went to work and within two months into my administration, I provided a roadmap for the federal government through the NBTE to restore the accreditation of IMT, presenting facts and figures that cannot be challenged successfully anywhere. Having provided such roadmap, the NBTE restored our accreditation status, allowing us to operate again.

    JAMB was equally directed to again enlist IMT among institutions offering admission to students seeking for admission into tertiary institutions. Further to that, NYSC was directed to start mobilising graduates from this institution for the one year mandatory youth service. You can imagine having a backlog of about 15,812 graduates of this institution who were just pooled somewhere, denying them entry into the job market and you know that if a graduate doesn’t go for NYSC, he or she can’t get a job. What that meant was that  it disenfranchised graduates from IMT; it is unacceptable. It won’t just create educational problem, it will create a social problem, so that has to be attended to.

    “I am happy to say that within two years all the students were able to go for their NYSC peacefully and I can tell you that most of them have been absorbed in the labour market.

    I also decided to look inwards into the rot in IMT. If you had come here in 2011, you would have shed tears. This institution was rotten; every aspect of it was totally unacceptable for some of us who went to very good schools. It was also a shame and embarrassment that an institution handed over to us in Enugu State was left to just rot down the line. So, we decided to clean it up.

    The first thing I did was among the staff because they were not properly paid. There was a new salary arrangement which the federal and state government had agreed to implement in the polytechnics as far back as 2009, but that salary package was not implemented here. So, I decided to go to all extent to see that our staff were paid salaries commensurate with their colleagues in other polytechnics in this country.

    The [then] governor Mr Sullivan Chime approved a tremendous increase from N20m to N120m a month and that money has been coming.

    With the fund, I was able to pay my staff salaries commensurate with their colleagues in other polytechnics in this country.

    The next thing I did was tackle the issue of overcrowding in the institute. This place was so over-bloated with students. We have a carrying capacity of 7,080 approved by NBTE. But when I came here, they were over 35,000 students which was part of the reason why IMT was delisted and de-accredited.

    Our admission policy was reviewed in order to ensure that only qualified students were admitted here, there is no magic to it. What we did was that we implemented the age old National Council for Education policy that for you to be admitted for tertiary institutions; universities or polytechnics, you must have five O’ Level credits at not more than two sittings and those credits must include English Language and Mathematics. It wasn’t being implemented here; people were being admitted and graduated with only one or two credits at school certificates, so I insisted on it and by that, I was able to sift the admission process in order to ensure that only qualified candidates were actually registered in IMT.

    The next thing I equally did was to look at the admission process. There was a lot of hanky-panky going on here; people were collecting money to syndicate admission and I immediately put an end to that syndicate and now everything about admission in IMT is done online.

    After achieving that, I went on in pursuit of getting professional and academic accreditation for our programmes. We were able to put on ground and called various accreditation bodies; NBTE among others to come and look at our institution, department by department, asking them to tell us what we need to do to increase our library facilities and our teaching to improve teaching and learning in our institution. I can tell you that 34 of our programmes have been accredited by the National Board of Technical Education. Seventeen of those programmes received full valid for the next five years. Other ones received interim accreditation valid for the next two years. That is the way of restoring the academic credibility of this institution.

    I also looked at our libraries, laboratories and workshops. We used all funds made available to us by TETfund (Tertiary Education Trust Fund) to buy laboratory and workshop equipment. We have 2,000 refurbished mini laboratories and many workshops here, particularly in Engineering and Technology where it will be easy to make a faster intervention if we want to buy new equipment.  We also have new equipment in our mechatronics lab; we have new equipment like we do have in civil, mechanical and electronic engineering departments.

    Meanwhile some of it came from the TETfund for Library equipment.

    To top the list is our new international ICT centre which we have built from our IGR (Internally Generated Revenue) of about N300m within seven months of the building project commencement and has since been commissioned by the Commissioner of Education, Enugu State.

    I will encourage visitors in the state to go there and look and avail themselves the opportunity of making use of the tremendous ICT facility that is at their disposal in IMT.

  • Re: “At IMT, lectures stop when it rains”

    Our attention has been drawn to a report by Emmanuel Ahanonu on pages 29 and 30 of Thursday, September 25 edition of The Nation.

    Without wasting useful time on the unverified claims made in the report, we wish to keep the records straight as follows:

    • Ahanonu’s report lacks one of the most important ingredients of news – balance. The reporter did not bother to get the views of any officer of IMT before publishing the story. Not only is this approach unethical, as you know, it smacks of a poorly done paid job.

    • IMT has one main lecture theatre/auditorium. It is in Campus 1. This facility is air conditioned, has fans in it and has a seating capacity of about 300. The photograph presented by the reporter is that of an uncompleted ASET-Fund project of the Gp. Cpt. Samson Omerua era. This project is held up by contractual entanglements that are being addressed by this administration. That cannot be IMT’s main lecture theatre.

    • In front of the picture published in that report is a collection of on-going projects for the Schools of Business; Financial Studies; Environmental Studies; Art Design and Printing Technology as well as Staff Offices. Also, clearly starring Ahanonu in the face before he took his photograph is a 750-seater Auditorium that contains Staff Offices. Even the brand new asphalted road leading into Campus 111 did not assuage his search for potholes on IMT roads. What should be important to any right-thinking reporter is that even though this institution is not without problems, all the problems are being tackled from every corner. I believe that with a little patience, the reporter would have seen the brand new edifices for the Schools of Technology and Engineering and the new Library and Entrepreneurial Studies blocks.  All these buildings are just awaiting painting. Their furnishings are already available. He would also have noticed the new AfriHUB IMT ICT Centre – the best in the South-East. This Centre contains 600 mega-speed workstations for all sorts of ICT applications. But these developments do not matter to our reporter because they do not advance the negative assignment he came to do in IMT.

    • We are looking forward to the public institution, secondary or tertiary, where students do not bring their own mattresses to the halls of residence. The fact is that they go home with these mattresses after their stay in the hostels. The reporter may have taken a mattress to his own University. Why is it an issue in IMT?

    • A very ridiculous part of the report talks about the ban on cooking in the hostels as one of the grouses of the students. We may need to know which institution allows students to cook in their hostels. Just imagine for a moment that 500 persons are cooking in one building. Give a thought to the fire threat and the mess associated with cooking. IMT hostels have cafeteria where food is provided at student-friendly rates. So no one needs to cook.

    • The current administration in IMT did not meet a functional hostel in the Institute. Through a public-private-partnership, the hostels were refurbished for use by students. Tankers bring water to these hostels and the agreed number of students stay in one room. The reporter should have verified this from the administration before running to publish as if he is the one to determine for IMT how many students can live in a room. Similarly, no administration anywhere accounts to students about how their school fees or any of its components are used on the pages of newspapers. This information is readily available to information-seekers in line with the freedom of information law.

    • Ahanonu knows that if our hostels are bad (as he speculated), students will not live in them. That is why more students paid than there are spaces. Let it be known however, that any student who paid the hostel fee (arguably one of the cheapest around) but did not get a room, is entitled to a refund the moment he applies. This is on-going.

    • Concerning the former SUG President, Kingsley Isiani, he was involved in acts that ran contrary to the oath of office he took.  His colleagues discovered, passed a vote of no confidence on him and subsequently impeached him. It has nothing to do with the IMT leadership no matter the allusions and insinuations from the reporter. The IMT administration has a popular record of allowing students to choose their leaders in a free, fair and transparent manner.

    It is our hope that you will publish this expression of our right to reply since your reporter did not give us a chance to speak on the issues raised and did not verify or corroborate the story before publication. If anything, he did a bad job of the assignment. Despite the challenges IMT has, never before has so much good happened within its school boundaries. The IMT administration is straining every nerve to ensure that when people like Emmanuel Ahanonu visit us in the next few months, he will see that all on-going projects have been completed and that our goal of building a modern 21st century institution of higher learning has been achieved.

     

    Dr. Ifeanyi Ojobor

    PRO, IMT Enugu

     

  • At IMT, lectures stop when it rains

    At IMT, lectures stop when it rains

    At the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) in Enugu State, lectures stop whenever it rains. Reason: most of the classrooms are without roofs. The hostels too are decrepit. The school is frustrating the students’ efforts to draw attention to the pitiable situation, reports EMMANUEL AHANONU (Political Science).

    On its website, automatic display of neat pictures of students reading in a cozy library welcomes visitors. But a visit to the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) in Enugu State presents a different picture – that of a polytechnic battling dilapidated infrastructure. IMT is a state-owned institution established in the 1970s.

    When CAMPUSLIFE visited the school last week, defaced hostel walls, perforated roofs and pothole-ridden pathways abound everywhere. This state of infrastructure led to students’ rampage last month.

    According to the students, the management collects N10,000 development levy  from them every session, to maintain the  infrastructure. But the sorry state of the classrooms and Halls of Residence shows nothing is being done with the money.

    Students are not happy with the administrative style of the Prof Mike Iloeje-led management, which they claimed has done nothing to improve things. Students, who spoke to CAMPUSLIFE, pleaded for anonymity for fear of victimisation.

    They complained that some classrooms are flooded whenever it rains, prompting lecturers and students to flee. They cited  the main lecture theatre whose roof has been blown open.

    Students also complained about the hostels for which they paid N40,000. The hostels, they said, have no mattresses, fans and water. They said the mandatory payment of accommodation fee was requisite for admission.

    Six students, they alleged, are forced to stay in a room meant for three. CAMPUSLIFE learnt about the grievances of 215 freshers, who paid the accommodation fee, but are yet to be allocated a bed space, months after their matriculation.

    Other complaints are prohibition of cooking in hostels and double payment of N3,000 for biometric identity cards, which they claimed was paid with technology fees.

    The condition of the hostel led to a disagreement between the management and the Kingsley Isiani-led Students’ Union Government (SUG) last month.

    Kingsley led students to draw the government’s and the management’s to their plight. The protesters challenged the management to account for the N10,000 development levy students pay to maintain infrastructure.

    Reacting, the management allegedly removed Kingsley and replaced him with his Vice, Millicent Ogbuaka. It was gathered that the Rector warned the Kingsley-led SUG leadership to focus on its studies and not intrude  in administrative matters.

    CAMPUSLIFE gathered that the Rector  initially threatened to expel Kingsley if he leads students in demonstration. Despite the threat, Kingsley mobilised students to meet Governor Sullivan Chime at the Government House. But riot policemen prevented them from leaving the campus.

    The peace meeting between the Rector and students’ leaders last month ended in stalemate when Kingsley was reportedly barred by the Rector from listing the students’ grievances. A students’ leader, who did not want his name in print, said the Rector was angry late because Kingsley came late for the meeting.

    When the students gathered again for the protest, they were stopped by the school security personnel and Man O’ War cadets.

    The Chief Security Officer (CSO), Mr. Geoffrey Eneonyia, was said to have invited Kingsley to a meeting at Ogui Divisional Police Station, where the co-ordinator of Students’ Affairs, Mr Chinedu Ekwueme, was waiting with a letter removing him as the SUG president.

    Kingsley protested, saying he could only be removed through a referendum by the general assembly, comprising all students.

    After being shown the SUG constitution stipulating how the union president can be removed, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) urged the parties to maintain the status quo for two days to enable the police make consultations.

    But, the following day, the Rector summoned other members of the union executive and some members of the management and swore in Millicent as SUG president.

    Kingsley petitioned the Commissioner of Police and the DPO, notifying them of the development.

    The petition reads: “This letter is to notify you about the management’s action, which is in contradiction to the provisions of the SUG constitution on how the president can be removed from office. They, for no just cause, want me out of my position as the SUG leader, without approval by neither the parliament nor the general assembly. I would be delighted if you can use your good office to look into the actions, knowing that peace is good but justice is better.”

    The police dropped the matter later when Ekwueme told the Deputy Commissioner of Police investigating the case that the management took the decision.

    Dissatisfied, the students notified the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). It was learnt that the NANS officials, who came to resolve the matter, were lodged in a hostel by the management.

    A departmental president, who did not want his name in print, said the NANS officials sold their goodwill to the management. “What do you expect from the NANS leaders? They were lodged in comfortable hotels at the expense of the school. We never heard anything after that,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the embattled Kingsley has said he would not vacate the position, vowing to defend the interest of the students who elected him.

    Students, who spoke to our correspondent, urged Governor Chime to visit the campus and see things for himself.

    Contacted, the Public Relations Officer (PRO), Dr Ifeanyi Ojobor, said he could not comment on the matter, because it is beyond him. He told our correspondent to speak to the Rector.

     

  • ASUP decries non-payment of salary

    The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) in Zone D met in Enugu at the weekend, with a resolution affecting the welfare of chapters.

    The chapters include Abia State Polytechnics, Aba; Federal Polytechnic, Oko; Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu; and Akwa Ibom State College of Arts and Science, Ikono.

    In a communiqué, ASUP decried the non-payment of salary in Abia State Polytechnic for over seven months.

    It said it would not accept the excuse of poor finances. But reports, however, said the school, was owing financial institutions over N1.4 billion.

    ASUP, Zone D hailed the Abia State government for increasing the monthly subvention of the institution from N25 million to N90 million, “but, however, noted that practical and urgent steps must be taken to clear the backlog of salaries and debts owed banks.”

    It noted the disturbing degeneration of industrial relations in the chapter at Federal Polytechnic, Oko,

    “The union is worried at the gradual but persistent degeneration of Federal Polytechnic, Oko, into a theatre of industrial disharmony, ASUP Zone D said.

    “It is our guided conviction that with these disturbing events coming at the end of the tenure of the Rector, Prof. Godwin Onu and the principled position of the chapter in Oko for the next rector to be appointed from within the sector, these events could be related.”

    According to it, the zone identified with the chapter in the face “of such persecution and at the same time insists that the age-long position of ASUP national that rectors should be sourced from within the sector is not negotiable in Federal Polytechnic, Oko and other polytechnics.”