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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Monday, July 05, 2004.
32 jostle to
be Fed Poly Ede rector
By Gbenga
Faturoti,
Special Correspondent,
Osogbo
No fewer than 32
university dons and administrators are jostling for the post of the
Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State.
The post became vacant when the
former Rector, Professor Julius Olowookere, was suspended from office by
the Federal Government, having been indicted by the panel set up to look
into his activities.
The panel had indicted the
former rector for alleged administrative ineptitude and financial
mismanagement, eight months into the expiration of his first four-year
term in office.
Out of the 32 persons that
applied for the plum job, Daily Independent reliably gathered
seven, including the Acting Rector, Deacon Joseph Oke, have scaled the
preliminary screening exercise conducted by a four-man team raised by the
Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja.
Those who scaled through the
screening were still sketchy
as at the time of filing this report, it was however gathered that the
screened candidates would face interview panel soon .
and the best three of them
would be recommended to the presidency out of which President Olusegun
Obasanjo would be expected to pick one of them.
But the Academic Staff Union of
Polytechnic (ASUP), Federal Polytechnic Ede chapter, has cautioned the
Federal Government against “importing a foreigner” as the substantive
rector of the institution.
The union in a statement issued
and signed by its Chairman and Secretary, Mr. Samson Oluga and Isaac
Komolafe respectively, urged the government to pick the next substantive
rector of the institution from within in the interest of peace and
tranquillity.
It particularly asked the
government to confirm the appointment of the institution’s acting Rector,
Elder Joseph Oke, as the substantive rector of the college.
The lecturers said the acting
rector has all the attributes to lead the institution “based on his
experience and mature way he has been piloting the affair of the
polytechnic in the last eight months.
“The acting rector is no
stranger to the polytechnic system having been in the system for about 20
years, he was a head of department and held various academic positions.
It is therefore not surprising when all the qualified chief lecturers of
the institution (about 10 in number) met and as a sign of utmost respect
and support for the acting rector, decided not to vie to the post of the
institution’s substantive rector,” the statement said.
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