ASUU kicks against appointment of first female FUTA VC

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Federal University of Technology (Akure) has kicked against the appointment of Prof. Adenike Temidayo Oladiji as the eight substantive Vice Chancellor (VC) of the institution.

A statement in Akure yesterday by concerned members of Senate and signed by Prof. P. A. Aborisade and Prof. M. B. Oyun alleged that the selection process of the VC was fraught with fraud and lacks transparency.

According to them, the appointment tramples on the law of the university (Act No. 11 of 1993) as amended (2003) concerning the processes of the selection of a vice chancellor.

The concerned members noted that the new head of the university emerged through election process rather than selection on merit, saying that the resort to voting during the process is alien to the law guiding the selection of VC.

They said that the candidate who came first during the selection process, Prof. Shadrach Olufemi Akindele with 73.9 per cent, was dropped, while Oladiji that came second with 73.8 per cent, was selected as VC through election.

“The election of a predetermined preferred candidate whose overall score in the process is lower than that of the candidate who came first, throws merit overboard. Unfortunately that cannot and will not be acceptable to us and shall not stand.

“We in FUTA stand for merit. We found problems with the process at the very end of the procedure for the appointment of the VC when the council had to pick from the list of the three candidates submitted to it.

“Three nominees will be presented to the council in order of their positions. Under normal circumstances, the council should have picked the first based on merit. There is no lobby about it.

“In case the council will not select the first, it must give cogent reasons the first must be jettisoned. If the second would also not be picked, there must be a set of reasons for settling for the third.

“But in this case, the council in its own wisdom decided to leave the first, second and the third, and opted for voting between the first and the second, thereby disenfranchising the third. By the law, any of the three candidates presented is good enough for the position of VC.

“If the council wanted to go for voting, we would have liked to see the votes of the three. But we have a vote for two and zero recorded for the third and that is where we believe something played out. If you are not picking the best for the university, there must be cogent reasons and we will not accept it until the governing council does what is needed,” the statement stated.