LASU VC: Remain focused, Lagos group urges selection panel
The call came at the weekend from Lagos Interest Group (LIG), an advocacy body. It spoke against the backdrop of the recent decision of the panel to recognize medical fellowship as equal to academic PhD as pre-qualification in the exercise.
In a newspaper advertorial, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) had condemned the process as being tele-guided to achieve a “pre-determined outcome”.
Earlier, a former acting Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Medicine, Fidelis Njokanma, resigned his membership of the selection committee following his inability to push through a case for the acceptance of medical fellowship as equivalent of academic PhD.
But in a statement signed by its General Secretary, Engineer Supo Williams, LIG defended the integrity of members of the new governing board, dismissing the insinuation that they were being dictated to.
The statement read in parts: “We have continued to follow keenly the developments surrounding the selection of a new Vice Chancellor at Lagos State University being a strategic institution to the intellectual aspiration of all Lagos people.
“We note and salute the maturity of members of the panel in bending backwards to accommodate the interest of those in the medical community who wish that their fellowship be equated with PhD. For us, this clearly shows that the selection panel are men and women of stable temperament, very broad-minded and willing to discharge their duties in the most transparent manner, without prejudice against anyone.”
However, LIG expressed the fears that: “We can only hope that members of the selection panel will, after that concession, remain firm and not succumb to pandering to further pressure to keep waiving the criteria simply because some people believe the short-cut to achieving their desperate aspiration or inordinate ambition is to mount smear campaign in the media.”
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