Over the years, the appointment of varsity administrator has been based on political and ethnic reasons, rather than credibility and competence. And most times, the council and parties involved ended up sacrificing merit and promoting mediocrity through their style of selection.
VC is an academic and administrative head in a university system, whose position carries great responsibility to project the vision, mission and core values of the university, there must be evidence that the VC is highly qualified in his or her field of academic endeavour with demonstrative research output of international standard. This is followed by the presentation of the candidate’s vision for the university if appointed and his or her track record and pedigree in realising aspects of that vision. The answers provided constitute what makes the difference between applicants.
Therefore, it is advisable that appointments to key academic and administrative positions must be based totally on merit, without bias or discrimination based on gender, creed, social status, religious affiliations and place of birth or nationality, saying university by definition should be global in context.
Over time, the controversies surrounding the appointment of vice-chancellors of public universities in Nigeria, especially state-owned varsities, have grown into a threat to the progress of the country’s university system.
This is usually so because the groups involved try to ensure that their preferred candidates get appointed, most times against the most deserving candidate for the job.
We are hoping that those in charge of appointing the next VC to pioneer the State-owned Institution of Bauchi State University will go for competence and experience over petty interest in the overall interest of the educational system.
Josh Ghani
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