The Offa Professors Forum, a group comprising of more than 100 professors from Offa in Kwara State, has called on the incoming Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq administration to halt the ongoing selection process for a vice chancellor for the state-owned university.
The group, in a statement issued in Ilorin on Sunday said the ongoing process was
fraught with irregularities and urged the new government to ensure due process in the choice of the new vice Chancellor for Kwara State University, Malete.
The statement was signed by Prof. Hussein Oloyede, a former Vice Chancellor of Fountain University, Osogbo and interim Chairman of the association.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the institution in accordance with its Act had set in motion the process that would usher in a successor to the incumbent, Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’allah, whose tenure would expire in July.
NAN also reports that the university’s Governing Council apart from the statutory Senate-Council Selection Board and search team had set up an internal screening committee to specifically scrutinise applicants from within the institution.
The OPF, however, faulted the selection process, describing it as “skewed” and aimed at favouring certain ethnic interests.
It said: “With such mindset that is totally antithetical to the universality of a university
and the expected academic excellence, the ideals of fair play and equity have been jettisoned for parochial sentiment.
“Beyond the fact that KWASU is founded and being funded by all the local government areas in the state, academic excellence is hinged on competence and merit.”
The group also argued that the appointment of a vice chancellor ought to go beyond ethnic and religious colouration.
The group, which said it was rejecting “a jaundiced process” where certain interests would be favoured, also called on the new government to appoint the most senior deputy vice chancellor as Acting Vice Chancellor, while also constituting a new equitable council.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
