By Charles Igbo
Members of the Visitation Panel set up by the Imo State Government to look at the Imo State University, had only one word to describe the state of affairs in the institution: Rotten.
They, therefore, recommended sweeping changes in the University if it must be competitive.
The Panel, headed by a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, who was also a former Minister for Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, was set up by former Governor Emeka Ihedioha, but was retained and encouraged by Governor Hope Uzodinma, to continue with the assignment for which it was set up.
Submitting the Executive Summary of the report to Uzodinma on Friday, at the Government House, Owerri, the Chairman, Professor Nebo, accompanied by ten other members, said the University was bedevilled by several anomalies, including age falsification. The Panel said there were also the need for ICT complaint personnel, especially by the Principal officers, digitisation of the institution, succession based on academic excellence, and passion to deliver rather than being parasitic to the school, implementation of summary petitions, shortfalls in school fees collected from students, mismanagement of the Bursary department, coupled with unchecked loss of Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, lack of knowledge of the exact number of the students, and over-bloated salaries of some workers.
Expressing satisfaction with the work done by the Panel, Governor Uzodimma said he was full of joy that the team did not fail to look into critical areas expected of them in a bid to find ways to check corruption and maladministration bedeviling the University.
Governor Uzodimma, who pledged to personally look at the report assured that all recommendations that will better the institution, the expectation of Imo people from the University and humanity in general, will be implemented.
He also re-assured that the expectations of the Panel will not be disappointed.
Uzodinma:“It is either IMSU becomes a University or never. I promise to apply and exhaust all extant rules to reposition the tertiary institution for academic excellence and to bequeath same to our people.”
