Crisis is presently brewing in the Ondo State College of Health Technology, Akure over the proposed appointment of a new Provost to oversee the activities of the institution.
This is just as the stakeholders threaten a showdown over plans to appoint a successor for the incumbent Provost of the institution, Dr Felix Soledayo Olawoye, whose tenure of four-year tenure expires in February.
The stakeholders warned against appointing a successor outside of the system, insisting that the new Provost must come among the academic staff instead of imposing an outsider on them
According to them, appointing a successor outside the institution is alien to the practice over the years, warning against such practice.
In a statement by Oloruntoba Ikuyinminu and Yemi Ayodele on behalf of the stakeholders, they alleged that the College was being run without recourse to the Law establishing the College of Health Technology.
The aggrieved staff alleged that the government was not sincere when it said that the appointment of a Provost to replace the incumbent in three weeks would be appointed by a Board of the College that is presently not in place.
The stakeholders said since the coming into effect of the Law establishing the College, the Board has not been constituted. They queried the Board that would recommend the candidate to be appointed by the Governor as the College Provost
The statement read: “The Law under Section 32 (2) requires that the person who is to be appointed Provost must have at least 15 years Cognate experience. Can we say a candidate who has never been in the academic environment and who has never held academic positions in the College will be said to have cognate experience?
“Yet such is imposed on the College as against more qualified lecturers with better college administration who have been in the College lecturing and have held different academic positions such as Course Coordinator, Heads of Department, Deans of School and Deputy Provosts.
“The law provides for establishing of the Governing Board which should be the highest Authority of the College and will be responsible to the Visitor who shall be the Governor
“It is therefore surprising that the Honourable Commissioner for Health could deny the allegation of a candidate and tell the whole world that due process will be adhered to when in fact he has concluded an arrangement with the incumbent who is a Dentist to appoint another Dentist who is from outside the College as the next Provost of the College in preference to any of the more qualified lecturers of the College.”
The stakeholders, however, maintained that the new provost should be appointed from the crop of dedicated generation of lecturers who are patient, disciplined, and for over twenty years never complained of imposition of external candidates over and above them.
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