By Peoples’ Guide Reporters
As the tenure of the current management team of Ebonyi State College of Education, Ikwo comes to an end on February 16th, 2025, concerned staff and stakeholders of the institution have called on Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru to save the institution from its current ugly sorry State by appointing a new Provost and other management team that will revive the school. The call was contained in an article tagged “for the survival of Ebonyi State College of Education Ikwo, the Prof. Mbam led management should not be reappointed” and made available to Peoples’ Guide Newspaper in Abakaliki.
The group stressed that the ugly state of the school is due to the ineptitude of the current management led by Prof. B.C.E Mbam, whose tenure will end on 16th Feb, 2025. They called for the Governor’s quick intervention to safe the institution from going into moribund.
The article reads;
FOR THE SURVIVAL OF EBONYI STATE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION IKWO, THE PROF. MBAM LED MANAGEMENT SHOULD NOT BE RE-APPOINTED .
The sorry state of Ebonyi State College of Education Ikwo is due to the ineptitude of the current management led by Prof. B.C.E Mbam, whose tenure will end on 16th Feb, 2025. Recall that that same management was sacked about 3 years ago due to poor performance by the immediate past governor of Ebonyi State but was later recalled back to service with a stern warning to improve on its performance. That opportunity of second chance didn’t change anything rather the situation became worst. So as it’s tenure ends on the above date , the Governor of Ebonyi State and Visitor, to the College, His Excellency, Rt. Hon Blder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, who is interested in reviving the College so that it continues to play its primary role of producing teachers for the basic education sector of the state, should not reward the team members with reappointment, having led the college to its parlous state in these six years. If any of the team members should come back, it will not be in the interest of the college to bring back the two arrow heads of that administration, the head and neck, that is the Provost and the Registrar. This position is substantiated with the following dire situation in the college:
1. The current management ended JAMB CBT exam in the College. The College was the first centre for JAMB Computer-Based Test (CBT) in Ebonyi State but since 2019 when the current provost, a professor of ICT assumed the leadership of the College, the centre died without any plan to restore the CBT exam. What an irony!
2. Other ICT infrastructure have collapsed: Other ICT facilities and infrastructures in the College have either collapsed or gone moribund under the watch of a professor of ICT. For instance the College digital library is non-functional and the National Communication Commission equipped ICT centre at ALGON House which provides free WiFi networks for purposes of teaching and research has collapsed without plan by the management to revive it. What a shame!
3. Admission into progs: The greatest misfortune of the College under the present management is low enrollment of students for NCE and the degree programmes in affiliation. The danger of re-appointing the management is that admission may hit ground zero because the managers have no plans to reverse the trend and do not honour good ideas of staff on how to increase enrollment of students.
4. Staff welfare: The welfare of staff under the current management is at its lowest ebb. The staff still receive the same salaries since 2014 despite the current economic condition of hyper inflation in this 2025. Yet there have no terminal benefits like pension and gratuity on retirement. In view of this, the academics in the College are leaving in droves in search of greener pastures.
5. College farms: The livestock inherited from College of Agric like cows, pigs, fish ponds which have been maintained over the years by previous administrations in the College where sold out in one-fell swoop by the current management.
6. College solar plants: The giant solar plant installed in the College by the last administration in the state was allowed to collapse by the College management. Even the smaller solar plant built by TETFund in 2023 was vandalised under the management watch and now the entire College is without electricity supply.
7. Attitude to work by management: The provost’s attitude to work is like that of a visitor. He manages to come to the college ones in a week for a five day working week. This attitude only encourages his subordinates and all other staff to absent themselves from duty.
9. TRCN registration: The College over the years has been a centre for Teachers’ Registration Council exam where professional exams are organised for N.C.E, degree and even higher qualifications in education certificates. This exam qualifies the candidates as professional teachers. For the past six years, the current management has helmed the affairs of the College, not even a single person has taken the exam, forcing the graduates of the College to go elsewhere.
10. The Provost and registrar do not attend statutory meetings: In an academic environment there are statutory boards and committees chaired in the instance of the College by the provost and the registrar as secretary. Such include the Academic Board, the Appointment and Promotion Committee (A&PC), etc. This present administration in the College has a culture where the Provost and registrar do not attend these statutory meetings. They delegate others to represent them. This frustrates the system and leads to delay in taking decisions and and implementing same. For instance this leads to delay in release of students’ results and delay in carrying out staff promotions. The last promotion exercise in the College was that of 2022.The 2023 and 2024 exercises are still outstanding and soon that of 2025 will be due
The last mistake of the immediate past administration in Ebonyi State in the education sector was to hand over the state owned high institutions namely EBSU and EBSCOE to unfit hands in the persons of the current V.C and provost respectively. Instead of retrieving these institutions from their stranglehold on completion of their 4 years first tenures, the then governor rewarded them for destroying the institutions by extending their tenures by 2 years each. Now that these extensions are over and the institutions haemorrhaging from the rape it received from these unfit hands, His Excellency Rt. Hon. Blder, Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru should appoint fit persons who have the brain and brow to revive comatose institutions esp in the case of the College. He should not reward the current Provost by reappointing him for another 4 years because by the time he spends another 4 years in the college making a total of ten years, the place now laying in the emergency ward waiting surgical operation of experts will be death and buried and not even the carcass can be exhumed. When you reward failure, you re-enforce it. A stitch in time saves nine.
We are staff of the College, we are concerned.
Signed
Concerned Staff, Ebonyi State College of Education Ikwo