Institute of Scandals

Students of Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, on Friday 19, staged on a protest against interference in their election slated for that day. The students’ anger was that Professor Edwin Onyeneje’s management of the institution insisted on installing her preferred candidates as leaders of the Students’ Union as opposed to a free and fair election. (Photo shows Governor Sullivan Chime, Governor of Enugu state and Visitor to IMT)

But the interference charge is just one out of several scandals currently dogging Onyeneje’s management of the famous institute. IMT evolved from Anambra State University of Science and Technology (ASUTECH) following the carving out of Enugu from the old Anambra state in 1991.

At the moment, a policy on course allocation threatens to tear the institution to shreds. This policy, in the main, directs that lecturers be confined to teach courses they studied in their first degrees. What this policy, which the affected lecturers describe as ‘strange’, implies is that lecturers are assigned only courses that bear the same name with the ones written on their first degree certificates.

The affected lecturers, numbering about 30, complain that the policy has rendered them redundant, and has, as a result, affected sound academic delivery in the citadel-of-learning. They, also, complain that the policy generates ‘so much tension, bitterness and rancor among the staff’.

In a petition, dated May 11, 2009, the affected workers call on the Governing Council of the institution to prevail on the Rector to ‘rescind the implementation of the policy so as to minimize institutional decay and workplace conflict’.

In another petition to the state government, the workers urge Governor Sullivan Chime to direct Onyeneje’s management to drop the policy and revert to the status quo.

Notable among the affected staff is Okorie Onovo, Chief Lecturer/Deputy Registrar! Onovo, a Chartered Accountant, was one time Acting Rector of the institute.

The affected lecturers contend that, apart from implementation of the policy being selective, it never followed due process.

‘We state with confidence that this so-called policy was not articulated in any paper for deliberation at any of the organs of our administrative processes. It was not tabled for discussion at any Departmental or School Board. It was never presented to the Academic Board (our highest policy formulating organ on all matters relating to academics) for consideration. We are aware that the matter has not been deliberated upon or decided by Council (the body that ratifies all policies for the good administration of the institute)”, the petition submits.

Another roiling scandal in the centre-of-learning is Onyeneje’s appointment as Rector in the first instance. Onyeneje’s traducers argue that his appointment, November last year, was irregular, and devoid of due process.

This contention, partly, derives from provisions of the law establishing IMT, which, among other things, prescribes that ‘The Governor may, after consultation with the Council, in his discretion appoint a fit and proper person to be Rector,…’

There was no Council as at the time of Onyeneje’s appointment, as a result of which Governor Chime failed to appoint him in consultation with Council as prescribed by Section 20 (1) of IMT law. Claims abound in the state that, by the nature of his appointment, Onyeneje usurped the rectory of the institution, exploiting his relationship with the family of Governor Chime.

In particular, Professor Onyeneje allegedly got installed Rector by Jide Chime, younger brother to Governor Chime far and above more qualified candidates. KlinReports was told that Onyeneje’s qualification for the job was his having been a ‘caretaker’ to some buildings owned by the Chimes. And before his dust-raising appointment, Onyeneje, it was learnt, was an administrative staff of Institute of Ecumenical Studies, Emene (near Enugu). Institute of Ecumenical Studies is a privately owned tertiary institution.

Findings show that the position of Rector was, in line with the principle of equitable distribution of positions in Enugu state, exclusively zoned to Enugu East Senatorial Zone, that is, the Nkanus. As a matter of fact, four candidates from Nkanuland were interviewed for the plum post. But Onyeneje was, in a sudden twist, announced as Rector, thereby leaving both the Nkanus and their candidates in quandary.

Presently, there are allegations that Enugu North and East senatorial zones of the state are being marginalized in employment, appointments and promotions in the institution. In other words, Onyeneje’s management is accused of causing disequilibrium in the personnel status of the school, a situation which has led to workers of Udi, Ezeagu extraction (Enugu West) out-populating those from the two other zones of North and East put together. Both Onyeneje and the Chimes are, particularly, from Udi community in Enugu West Senatorial zone.

Available statistics indicate that out of 826 workforce of IMT, Enugu West alone has 432. Enugu East, the highest in population, and the senatorial zone of origin of Senators Jim Nwobodos, Chimaroke and Ken Nnamanis among others, has a paltry 129.

Perhaps, more shocking is the discovery that, even in Enugu West Zone, Udi, the home of both the Governor and Rector, has a staggering number of 257 staff. And Udi and Ezeagu, put together, have 370 employees.

This scenario becomes clearer when put side by side with the total number of employees from the three council areas of Awgu, Aninri and Oji River respectively. Of note, also, is that the four largest council areas of Nsukka, Enugu East, Igboeze North and Enugu North, put together, have just 162 employees. The deduction from the foregoing is that Enugu West zone alone has more than half the entire workforce of IMT.

Despite alleged dominance of the West zone (which is even the least populated among the three zones of the state), Onyeneje’s accusers say he continues to employ more of his people into the institution: “The Rector of the school is secretly employing only his Udi and Ezeagu people without any interviews, yet we hear there is embargo on employment”.

Specifically, out of 19 newly employed staff, 15 are said to come from Enugu West, two from Enugu North and none from East zone. As regards headship of departments, Enugu West has 23 (70%), Enugu North, seven (21%) and Enugu East, six (03%). Statistics of principal officers, also, indicate that Enugu West has nine (56%), Enugu North and East, three each (19%).

There is, also, a claim that IMT is the only government establishment in Enugu state that has refused to re-absorb workers that were disengaged between 1999 and 2001 despite the pronouncement of Chime government recalling all disengaged workers in the state.

The scandals seem endless. Onyeneje’s management allegedly constructed the institution’s entrance gate with over N20 million! It is alleged that the gate project which did not follow due process was personally executed by Basil Offor, Administrative Secretary of school, of course, in collusion with Rector Onyeneje. Onyeneje and Offor are Udi kinsmen, and are said to enjoy blood relationship. In particular, many describe Offor as the institute’s defacto Rector, as the Rector reportedly has little or no time to run IMT.

The gate project is currently a subject of a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The petition, dated April 28, 2009, and signed by one Ozoani Chiagozie (for Committee on Justice, Prudence and Fair-play), claims that Offor, between March 16 and 17, ‘collected the sum of Twenty Million Naira (20 Million) part-payment for the construction of the gate’.

Entitled, ‘Institute of Management and Technology’s Management-Corruption Epitomized-A Need for Urgent Intervention’, the petition which vehemently challenges Offor’s qualification for the Administrative Secretary post he occupies, also, alleges that the Rector, in collaboration with the Registrar, approved more than N10 million for Offor to procure three official cars, including the vehicle assigned to the council chairman, Dr. Leonard Ugwu.

Accusing Onyeneje rectory of admission fraud, using Offor, the petitioner calls on the crimes commission to quickly intervene to save the institution from total collapse. Although the signatory to the petition appears unreal, EFCC is said to have already commenced investigations into the allegations against the institute’s management.

The easy reference to the relationship between the Rector, Onyeneje, and Chime government is, as it were, given impetus by Onyeneje’s headship of Total Mandate, a pro-Chime political outfit. Onyeneje chairs Chime’s Total Mandate, and he is, at the same time, Rector of IMT, a situation which, his critics argue, distracts him from effective running of the school, as a result of which he has reportedly relinquished his functions to Offor, the Administrative Secretary.

However, Onyeneje waves the bouquet of allegations against his management aside, saying his accusers are merely bringing state politics into the institution.

Onyeneje denies that his administration discriminates, in recruitments, appointments and promotions against staff from the two other senatorial zones of Enugu North and East.

To buttress this, he maintains: “I tell you personally, I came in here- my office of rectory, you can go and ask: 95 percent of them are from Nsukka, for instance. 95 percent of the staff in the rectory are from Nsukka. Till today, my personal driver is an Nsukka man. My domestic driver is an Nsukka man. My security, two of them, one is from Nsukka. So, sometimes I do not understand why people just peddle some rumors”.

The Rector goes further to submit that out of ten deputy registrars in the school, eight come from Nsukka (Enugu North) while Enugu West and East has one each. He adds that all the key administrative offices in the institution are headed by Nsukka people, including the personnel.

“I want to tell you that there is no way somebody in this state who has a correct sense of history can begin to, not up to two years I assumed office, say that I have created disequilibrium in the staff structure.”, Onyeneje thunders.

On the issue of recall of sacked staff, the Rector explains that he had taken the matter to the state government, and that, as soon as he gets any directive from the government to that effect, he would take action. He debunks the notion that his management refused to recall the disengaged workers, challenging his traducers to come forward with evidence.

Onyeneje, also, insists that the recent policy on course allocation in the institution followed due process, adding that what his administration had done was directed by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

The Rector notes that the problem had existed before his assumption of office, but that the concerned staff, on each occasion, frustrated it implementation. Onyeneje, also, dismisses the notion of redundancy, and assures that the institution would continue to pay affected staff their salaries. As it were, the Rector promises that complaints arising from implementation of the policy are being looked into by a committee set up to that effect, and assures that the matter would, soon, be resolved.

Onyeneje, equally, denies that his administration used N10 million to construct the entrance gate. Unknown to the Rector, there is this other version of the allegation that the gate gulped much more than the sum, from where N20 million was paid to Offor as part payment.

“There is no sane head who will believe and even imagine that a gate of that nature would be done with the sum of N10 million”, Onyeneje quips.

But what seemed like a snag is that Onyeneje, for inexplicable reasons, refuses to disclose the actual cost of the contract, retorting: “Is it their business? “

Another explanation of Onyeneje was that the Total Mandate, which he administers alongside IMT, is not a political party, but an association of like minds.

“I have no apologies. I have no apologies. I cannot because people are pursuing their selfish ends and deny a relationship with His Excellency”, the embattled Rector intones.

For now, the allegations against Onyeneje management of the institute continue to stream in. Will the Professor-turned Rector pull through the murky waters of academic politics? Or will he be submerged in the tornado? Time will tell!