Federal University Otuoke Rushes To Appoint Unqualified Candidate As Vice-chancellor, By Ejike Mokolobia

In an inexplicable rush to appoint an unqualified candidate as Vice-Chancellor, Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State has lowered the qualification bar to accommodate a ‘son of the soil’ Dr. Teddy Charles Adias who happens to be the current Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the university.

Dr. Adias’s Record of Service (copy attached) shows that he entered the service of the Niger Delta University (NDU), Bayelsa State on 1st October, 2014 and was appointed a professor on entry. Prior to that, according to his Curriculum Vitae (copy attached) he was Provost of the Bayelsa State College of Health Technology (BYCOHTECH), Otuogidi, established in 2005, from 2008 to 2015; Visting Reader, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, 2013 – 2014, Senior Lecturer (Adjunct), Madonna University, Elele, Rivers State 2007 – 2011, Part-Time Lecturer, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, 2001-2010.

From the foregoing, it is clear that Dr. Adias’s FIRST appointment as a FULL-TIME Lecturer in any university was on 1st October, 2014 as a professor at NDU where he served for about 1 year before transferring to Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State in November, 2016.

The fact of the matter is, as of today, Dr. Adias has only held a FULL-TIME lectureship or professorship position in any university for a total period of 5 years including 4 years spent at Federal University Otuoke where none of the programmes he studied for his degrees – Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science in Haematology and Blood Transfusion Science, Master of Science in Medical Microbiology and PhD in Immuno-Haematology is offered to students.

It is pertinent to note, also, that Dr. Adias did not attend any tertiary institution or university as a FULL-TIME student since during the period he obtained his academic degrees at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (1990-2006) he was on active military service with the Nigerian Navy (1988-2000) or employed as a Clinical Scientist at Nigerian Agip Oil Company, Port Harcourt (2000-2008).

Although Nigerian Federal universities are empowered by law to appoint their Vice-Chancellors, guidelines from the Federal Ministry of Education (copy attached), which represents the President of Nigeria, the Visitor to the universities, specifies that a candidate for the post of Vice-Chancellor must have been a professor for at least 10 years. Federal universities have conventionally complied with this requirement.

However, Federal University, Otuoke has lowered the bar to a period of 5 years post professorship qualification for the position of Vice-Chancellor (copy of advert attached) specifically to accommodate Dr. Adias’s inadequacy, in clear contravention of government guidelines and convention in Federal universities.

The university is doing so in spite of the fact that Dr. Adias’s arrival 4 years ago, and his appointment as Deputy Vice-Chancellor by Professor Seth Accra Jaja, the outgoing Vice-Chancellor a year later, has brought nothing but strife and chaos to the young university; a situation that has divided staff into feuding cliques and engendered cult activities among students. Presently, there are more than 15 court cases brought against the university by its staff.

More so, Dr. Adia’s 8-year tenure as Provost of BYCOHTECH during which time the college’s programmes were never accredited calls into serious question his competence as an administrator.

In order to arrest further deterioration of academic and social activities in Federal University, Otuoke, the Federal government must not allow the appointment of such a patently unqualified candidate as Vice-Chancellor over better qualified candidates.

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Ejike Mokolobia

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