UNIZIK pro-chancellor faces public backlash over MDCAN, ASUU claims of shady process in the appointment of Dr. Ifeanyi Odoh as Vice chancellor
By Onome Naomi
Still on the UNIZIK crisis, in an interview aired on the TVC channel on Friday, November 15th, 2024, Fred Nzeakor, a lawyer and public affairs analyst, enlightened the public extensively on why there are controversies surrounding the appointment of Dr. Ifeanyi Bernard Odoh as vice chancellor of UNIZIK and the shady process undertaken by Amb Greg Mbadiwe to actualize the process.
Fred stated that to become a vice chancellor, you must have been a professor for at least nine years. Normally, the laws of Unizik say ten years, but Dr. Ifeanyi has not attained professorship, nor has he stealthily served in the capacity of his doctorate. To this effect, chairman of the governing council of UNIZIK, Amb Greg Mbadiwe, began a kangaroo arrangement, sidelining those in the medical profession and tailoring the interview to suit a particular individual, hence the crisis began.
He said the search for qualified candidates suitable for the vice chancellorship position was constituted by the Chairman of Council, who single-handedly appointed representatives of the Senate into the Selection Committees for Registrar and Vice Chancellor, respectively.
‘In all these, the Chairman colluded with the other four (4) members of Council appointed to represent several interests to the exclusion of the internal members of Council (i.e., representatives of the Senate and Congregation), whose presence and participation were disregarded.
The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) National Executive Council (NEC) due to the recent development had called on the federal government to promptly remove Ambassador Greg Ozumba Mbadiwe from his role as pro-chancellor and chairman of the Governing Council at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, declaring a 7-day warning strike, effective from tomorrow, Monday, November 18th, 2024.
Prior to this warning strike, MDCAN wrote to the Ministry of Education before approaching the court over the discriminatory process effected by Amb. Greg and his cohorts against MDCAN members who are more suitable candidates for vice chancellor ship but disqualified to position Dr. Ifeanyi Bernard Odoh as most qualified despite discrepancies in his achievements and certifications.
It should be noted that the university council has nothing to do with the decision the pro-chancellor of UNIZIK, Amb Greg Mbadiwe, solely perpetrated. Dr. Ifeanyi Bernard Odoh does not meet the criteria for the UNIZIK vice chancellor ship position because he is a reader (an associate professor), and the rules say for you to be a VC, you must be a substantive professor, and he is not. Odoh went on to say Gov. Hope Uzodinma of Imo State appointed him a professor between 2015 and 2018, just a desperate move to assert himself as the right candidate.
Furthermore, the Federal University of Gasau denied Odoh’s claims of being made professor and head of the department of geophysics; the university registrar clearly noted upon inquiry that Odoh was accompanied with a letter in July 2024 addressing him as a visiting associate professor; a visiting reader in any university doesn’t count due to inassessibility. Only the university Odoh serves can assess him.
More also, ASUU and the UNIZIK community are saying that Dr. Ifeanyi Bernard Odoh is an imposition of an imposter that has come to perpetrate a hatchet job that might destabilize the 33-year-old prestigious university and will not be tolerated, hence the controversies and ultimatums.
