Why govt will not encourage indigenous VCs, by Okojie

[TGD]

 THE Federal Government will not heed the clamour for indigenous vice chancellors as is being canvassed by communities where federal universities are to be sited.

The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie, who disclosed this Monday, said it is due to experiences in the past, which have proved such experiment counter-productive.

Okojie, who restated government's position when the management of the commission met with the vice chancellors and registrars of the three new federal universities in Abuja Monday, noted that because of the universality of the university system, reducing the appointment of such key officers to sentiments of origin would diminish their true essence.

His position came just as an Urhobo youth group at the weekend reportedly raised an alarm over the non-appointment of an Urhobo indigene as vice chancellor of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE), Effurun, Delta State.

The youth group, under the auspices of Coalition of Urhobo Youths Organisation, reportedly argued for an Urhobo man as VC of the institution in view of the fact that is situated in Urhobo land.

However, Okojie, while expressing government's disdain for such argument, told the VCs that government had demonstrated its abhorrence for indigenous VCs by making sure that none of them was appointed head of institutions in their home states. Instead, registrars are appointed from the states of location of the universities as a means of promoting good working relations between the institutions and their host-communities.

Nevertheless, he tasked them to work very hard towards producing the universities' master-plans, as well as academic brief within a short time, preferably before the commencement of academic activities, scheduled for 2015/2016 academic session.

The NUC boss, who scolded the VCs of the nine older universities for failing in this respect, however, was confident that the new set of university administrators would avoid the pitfall.

He said: "Because most were selected from the crop of former vice chancellors, they felt they could do it alone without referring to NUC for necessary guidance and they have woefully failed along the line.

"Due to that experiment, we thought this time (that) we should zero our appointment of the VCs to serving deputy vice chancellors so that we could start in an orderly manner to get to where we desire. I promise that NUC would give you all the necessary support and guidance so that you can succeed."



The Guardian

[TGD]