ONE of the applicants for the Vice Chancellorship of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof. Rasheed Ijaodola, has asked for the interpretation of paragraph one of the requirements for the office as contained in the advert placed by the institution.
Ijaodola, who is the 11th applicant for the plum job, is currently the Dean, Faculty of Law of Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State. He was of the Faculty of Law, UNILORIN.
The said advert published last May 14 specified that “the ideal candidate must be a distinguished professor of not less than 10 years in one of the disciplines offered by the University of Ilorin.”
The Guardian had in its publication on June 27, 2012, interpreted the clause as requiring the applicant to be a professor of 10 years standing in one of the disciplines offered by the university.
But Ijaodola said yesterday that “if candidates are disqualified on accounts of this paragraph one, invitation to the court for interpretation can’t be ruled out because of its ambiguity but we are sure that the members of the council are distinguished persons and will be careful in disqualifying any applicant based on that paragraph one.”
He added: “I must not be misunderstood in respect of paragraph one as contained in the advert. That paragraph not only requires a professor to be eminent, he must have been involved in one of the disciplines in UNILORIN for a period of not less than 10 years. If a professor is involved in a discipline in another university for the said period, he would not still be qualified to be a vice chancellor at UNILORIN if the course was not taught at the university for the past 10 years.
“That is why applicants for the post of vice chancellor’s post are disqualified in respect of courses just introduced at UNILORIN; courses that are not up to 10 years as Mass Communications, just introduced some five years ago. So also Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy introduced not up to four years ago. The fact that they are not disciplines at UNILORIN for the past 10 years disqualified any aspirant in those disciplines from being a vice chancellor at the school although they might have been teaching the disciplines in other universities for the past 10 years.”
He also criticised paragraph 12 of the requirements, which stipulates that the applicant must have outstanding publications and made outstanding discoveries in his discipline.
For Ijaodola, “The person needs not be a professor for 10 years before he could be held to have distinguished himself in terms of discoveries or publications. We have people in the university system, who have been victimised for several years because they are caucusless and we have some who are professors because they belong to caucus. The Council of UNILORIN should be painstaking in doing justice to all those who have applied for the position.”
