Olaleye, Fagbemi, Falaye, nine others vie for UI VC

The race is getting hot by the day for the election of the 12th Vice Chancellor of the 67-year-old premier University of Ibadan (UI) as 12 candidates from various disciplines are now falling over one another to succeed the incumbent Professor Isaac Folorunsho Adewole, whose five-year tenure expires in few months.
The candidates from within and outside the institution include Dele Layiwola (Institute of African Studies), Omigbodun Akinyinka (Pediatrics), Francis Egbokhare ‎ (Linguistics and African Languages), Arinola Sanya (Physiotherapy), Kunle Fagbemi (Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology), Labode Popoola (Forest Resources Management), Abel Olayinka (Geology), Ayodeji Oluleye (Industrial and Production Engineering), Olufemi Olaleye (Virology), A.E Falaye (Aquaculture and Fisheries Management), Adigun Agbaje (Political Science) and Abdullahi Adedeji (Civil Engineering)‎.
They are all warming up for a university community interactive session where they will showcase their manifesto on Monday at the Trenchard Hall of the institution.
Though it is believed that all the contestants are qualified considering their administrative and academic contributions in their various areas of discipline, ‎one of the agitating questions being asked in various quarters ‎within the school community is why three contestants from the College of Medicine jostle for the VC position when the outgoing VC was also a product of the same faculty.
To some people, of the 11 Vice Chancellors that ‎the institution has had since inception, four had been from the College of Medicine of the University. They were Professor Adeoye Lambo, Professor Horatio Oritshejolomi, Professor Allen Okediran and Professor Ayodele Falase.
This feeling has been fuelling some insinuations of gang-up against the three contestants from the College of Medicine‎, which include Clinical Sciences, Virology and Paediatrics.
To some independent minds, such consideration amounted to sacrificing merit on the altar of politics. Whoever is found to have scaled through the screenings ‎and merits the office, should be allowed to go for the post. Academic community should not be likened to the political environment where decency has been compromised by many Nigerian politicians, a former university administrator, who preferred anonymity, said.
‎Responding to the development that three candidates should not have indicated interest from the College of Medicine since the incumbent is also from the faculty, former VC, Professor Olufemi Bamiro, said: “What logic is in that? Such thinking cannot be operated in the academic circle. The position was advertised for and people have responded. If four or five candidates come from a faculty or college does not mean anything once they are entitled to their right to contest.
“My only prayer is that the election panel should operate on merit basis. Those involved should be of merit, and to me the primary concern should be merit and nothing but merit”, Bamiro asserted.
Corroborating Bamiro’s submission, former Minister of Petroleum Resources and UI don, Professor Tam David-West, said: That sounds disturbing to me. The current Vice Chancellor was my student. He deserved the position. All the candidates jostling for the post have their right to contest. So, why would anybody say that certain number of contestants coming from a particular faculty or college, offends him? I know one of them to be from my department, Virology.
“The contestants can be as many as possible from any department or faculty. Where any candidate is coming from is immaterial. The only thing I can say in this circumstance, however, is that decency must come to play. There is need for moral obligation ‎on the part of all of them”, David-West counselled.
The high number of contestants also worries some stakeholders as they claimed that the number was not as much as it is currently being experienced. To them, it appears the position attracts so much patronage, including financial comfort, a development they think is capable of rubbishing the objective for which the position was created ab initio.
To David-West, who expressed concern over the trend, “‎It does appear to me that the position is now very lucrative. Many of them are now fighting for the position as if they are fighting for political office.
“In the past, it was the exclusive preserve of the University. There should be no political input into it as academics. This trend is very disturbing. Have they sufficiently equipped the schools already? That should be the major concern of the university. However, I want to suggest that the government should put more money into the university education because universities are degenerating”.
In his opinion, Bamiro responded to the rush for the office, saying “whatever anybody likes, he can say regarding that. It is when you are appointed that you see the reality whether the position is juicy or not. It is a perception and everybody has the right to perception.
“To me, there are people who know what they are going to the office of the Vice Chancellor for, and there are those who don’t know. It is when they get there that they know the reality”, he said.
Professor Olusegun Ajiboye, Chairman of UI chapter of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), however, would not want to have anything to do with the discussions. According to him, “all the candidates are welcome to the community interactive forum. I don’t want to say anything about any candidate or where they come from.‎ All of them are welcome. I am not ready to discuss anyone of them,” Ajiboye said.