The Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, has concluded plans to hold its consolidated convocation after 11 years of no formal graduation ceremony, a classic example of poor leadership in the academia.

Worse yet, the school in its 45 years of existence had yet to be affiliated to any university, except for the efforts made so far by his administration. This, observers say, exposes the rot in the polytechnic in over a decade.

The Rector of the institute, Prof. Augustine Nweze, announced the convocation plans on Tuesday in Enugu on Tuesday while addressing a news conference at the school’s Council Chamber.

Nweze, who said the event would begin on Dec. 1, at the Michael Okpara Square, Enugu, however, did not give any reason the citadel of learning did not hold its convocation over a decade.

“Either by reason of omission or commission, my predecessors in office could not graduate students for that long, but here we are today.

“It’s going to happen in our own administration after eleven years. That is why we called it consolidated convocation,” said Nweze who came into office in June 2016.

The rector also said that he could not give the actual figure of the graduating students.

“Since it has taken 11 years without convocation, to avoid an error of omission, I will be silent on the number,” he said, adding that he could also not say if the convocation will now be organised annually.

“It will be too early for us to say that now,” he said.

As part of activities to mark the event, he said IMT would be giving its Fellowship Awards to some prominent individuals who graduated from the school.

“Although for security reasons, I’ll declining mentioning the names of the prospective awardees,” he said.

He added that hostels would be named after some dignitaries whose contributions had impacted the institute.

Nweze said that with the recently released N1.2 billion by the Enugu State Government and the N819 million from Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), the school was set to look different.

“In less than three months from now, the school will look like a construction site because of the quantum of construction works that will be going on here,” he said.

The rector regretted that in its 45 years of existence, IMT had yet to be affiliated to any university, except for the efforts made so far by his administration.

“This is unfortunate and it does not speak well of the institution.

“The council decided we should go the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and it took us over one year to achieve it,” he said.

The rector recalled that the institute was ranked 21 out of the 102 polytechnics in the country in 2016, adding that its current ranking was 7th position.

“However, our aim is to come first in the rating,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Secretary of TETFund will deliver the convocation lecture with the theme, “The Role of TETFUND in Education in Nigeria”. (NAN)