Magnus Eze, Enugu
Professor Austin Nweze assumed duties as Rector of the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) on June 10, 2016. He spoke to The Education Report on some issues concerning the institution including the face-off with members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP). He also talked about accreditation of programmes of the institute and disclosed the recent affiliation with the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).
How has it been with you for almost three years on the saddle as rector?
This administration came on board precisely on June 10, 2016; as at that date we have some pictures and video coverage of what we met on ground. The whole place was in a very sorry state, starting with Mass Communication for example, it was like a motor park with leaking roof. With the support of the governor, Masscom is wearing a new look. The admin building had no roof over it for about 40 years, it was just decking that leaked; this management met with the governor and fund was released for the project. So many other development were put on ground including the medical centre, the road was in a very terrible stage; that’s about infrastructure. If you talk about the finances; it was in a very sorry state if you include the back duty liability, we inherited over N2 billion in liability because the back duty liability is over N1 billion. By the back duty, I mean the pre-deductions they ought to have made which they didn’t make and then the Board of Internal Revenue made some review and said there was under deductions and under remittances over the period amounting to over N1billion. That debt has not been cleared and they’re still hanging because that’s part of what we inherited. That’s how we started- other rectors will assume office and they have something to start with, but in my own case, I started with how to settle debts. If you talk about industrial relation/liability of staff welfare, again, as at the time we came here, May salaries had not been paid. Eventually, we paid May and till date, with the assistance coming from the governor religiously, we’ve been paying salaries. We make sure we carry staff along.
So, what’s this ASUP issue all about?
One of the things we are taking about is arrears. I came here from ESUT which has similar challenge with what they called monitisation arrears in case of ESUT or earned allowances, same thing here. I was the chairman of the computation committee for ESUT; we summed about N4billion outstanding which has not been paid. I came to IMT as the rector, they said I should pay, I told them that even in ESUT; such thing hasn’t been paid. What I did was to set up a committee, let them now establish the actual liability; even as we speak, it’s not been fully established, so when they’re talking about pay us arrears; arrears of how much? They can’t even say because it has not been established like that of ESUT. So, that money is still outstanding. Meanwhile, the outstanding arose before 2015, if it came before 2015, the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi; he wasn’t there neither was I here before 2015 to find out the arrears. Both at the state level and IMT level, I’ll say if we’re current in paying salaries, we’re trying, other polytechnics are owing as much as 14 consecutive months, the staff there didn’t take the polytechnic to court; they know the economy is very bad. When we came on board, there were so many dismissal and court cases. We were able to settle the cases. They mistook our kindness for weakness and then such things began to happen that is about the background information. The current issue, ASUP at the national level declared strike December 12. Over the years, IMT hardly joined national strike but this time around, they joined. However, we were able to pay their salary before Christmas. We came back in January and on 7th, I called the ASUP local chapter chairman; I wanted to confirm from him, he told me they would start work so that students pay in money to enable us pay salaries. He assured me that the national will meet on the 10th January and likely, they’ll call off the strike. Surprisingly, on the 8th of January around 7pm, I saw a letter to the governor, raising 14 issues not connected to the national strike. My understanding was that if there’s a national strike, you don’t embark on local strike again until the national is done with. Too, they didn’t follow the normal channel of communication which is, if ASUP wants to write to the governor, nobody will stop them, they ought to have congress, exco meeting, they’ll now write through the rector to the management, to the council before council will send to the governor. They’ve not given you the opportunity to address your issues, you’re already on air, we’re civil servants, we’re not against anybody going on air but that should be the last resort. They even set up a WhatsApp forum where they called members of the council all sorts of names. Fortunately, we had management meeting that we should now go back to class to get money and pay salaries; the same ASUP said we can’t go back to class; I invited them for a meeting at the council chambers so that students can pay money and we’ll be able to pay salaries. They kept quiet; the next thing we saw was that they reported us to DSS that we were trying to make trouble by going back to class. The DSS invited me. I went with other principal officers and explained everything; the next thing they raised was the issue of promotion. The academic staff promotion stopped in 2015. At the DSS, I told them that the method of promoting teaching staff is different from non-teaching staff, so, I assured them at the DSS that the council will approve that of academic staff. As we speak, council has approved the promotion of up to 20 staff since 2016. They also reported me to the Attorney General because what management did was to set up a committee to investigate and find out the facts from what they’re doing and report to the council. Their petition to the Attorney General was that the committee should be disbanded. In my reply, I told the Attorney General that the rector didn’t set up the committee; it was the management decision that we should set up a committee because the council doesn’t meet every day so that when council comes; there will be something to report to the council. After the reply, the next thing they did was to take us to the Industrial Court seeking injunction restraining IMT from punishing them. So, when some members of the ASUP executive saw that the chairman was no longer running the affairs of the union; that he was pursuing personal agenda, they decided to back out in writing through their own lawyer. They said that they’re no longer part of the executive because they saw that the chairman was no longer capable of leading them to where they thought; other staff also joined- over 150 staff, they wrote and signed saying ‘Don’t deduct check-off dues from our salaries. When he saw that ASUP was in two factions; he went to industrial court seeking for injunction restraining us from punishing them. Council hadn’t met then, we’re preparing for the general election; we replied to the industrial court. No meeting yet, no court order yet; then they wrote to the NBTE alleging victimization, then the director of NBTE wrote us not to victimize anybody pertaining to the strike etc.
How did the anti-graft agencies get involved?
I mentioned that petitions have been flying up and down here. They’ve dragged me to many agencies you could think of. For the record also, I lost my mother September 7, 2017. As an ASUP member who has been contributing, by December, I had contributed N113, 960. So, they came for condolence with letter and gave me N20, 000 on November 24, 2016. When this matter began, they wrote a petition to the EFCC that the rector was bribed with N20, 000 by ASUP because they gave me a cheque, so the evidence was there. Their lawyer went to the Attorney General and told him that the rector had been implicated without telling them the amount and purpose. When I went to the EFCC, I brought my mother’s burial brochure; fortunately, I was able to get the executive minutes, where they decided to give me N20, 000. They insisted that I should write a statement on that; after writing, they now said I should look for somebody to bail me, they accepted that I should bail myself since I am the rector. As I’m speaking with you, I’m on bail, I’m a suspect because my mother died and ASUP gave me N20,000 and I’m a member of ASUP, so you can see the embarrassment. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the petition to NBTE, the supervisory body alleging that we’re over admitting students. It was written by ASUP through their lawyers. The body of the letter said all sorts of things about the rector; the rector has been diverting TETFUND money, mobilising people for NYSC even those that went to school and those that didn’t, has been giving only his people TETFUND opportunity and against even the chairman of the council. We began to probe and discovered that one of the staff on suspension was behind all these manipulation. Currently, he’s facing a charge at the Federal High Court; he’s on suspension, so, he’s now trying everything possible to pull down IMT. They have bitten more than they could chew because they’re not pursuing ASUP again, they have their personal motive, I raised the alarm; council met, and reviewed all I’ve been saying, in doing that, we had to bring all the staff files to review. Unfortunately, for those in ASUP, we found cases against them not connected with ASUP strike. Council took a decision, since you don’t have a good record and you are masquerading as ASUP leaders then let’s capitalise on your bad records and ask you to go. That’s exactly what council did, one of them was the case of plagiarism; he wrote a ten chapter book, out of it, nine were copied from another person’s work which you know is academic theft. Ordinarily it should attract dismissal but in its wisdom and gesture, council gave him six months suspension and downgraded him by two grades, so the council that is benevolent like this cannot be said to be harsh. Without telling the national ASUP the truth, they went to the national and told them that they were victimised because they went on national strike. The true position was that they were dismissed because of what they had done in the past and present for trying to pull down IMT and God will not allow that.
Some people said they were not given fair hearing
We gave them opportunity to defend themselves; we issued them queries and time to reply, they replied. Letter was given to them on 4thApril and they were asked to come on the 8th with reply to their queries were given up to 12noon, council met by 1pm for them to appear and defend themselves after they submitted their reply to their queries, one by one they appeared before council. There was fair hearing even when they wanted to get more documents, we were there till 11pm we waited and they were not forthcoming, we had to take decision; they requested the issue be left till the next day. We were not comfortable leaving it till the next day because the next day they got a letter from the Industrial Court asking us not to punish them.