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By Madu Obi
The Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Professor Charles Esimone has said that not everyone who has been a professor for at least 10 years as provided by the rules, could occupy the position of a Vice Chancellor of a university.
Esimone spoke against the backdrop of the current horse trading in UNIZIK for the emergence of a new VC, as his tenure would end next year.
He said: "We have laid down procedures for appointment of Vice Chancellors. A Vice Chancellor must have certain level of academic excellence. Some of the professors, since they were made professors went to sleep."
"You are not supervising PhD students and not publishing. Why are you looking for the position of Vice Chancellor? Just manage the position the management of the university gave to you and go and rest. Clearly, such people cannot meet the criteria to be Vice Chancellor of this university.
"Apart from length of professorship and poor academic performance , honestly, every other professor is a potential Vice Chancellor."
"I know that a professor who is not up to ten years cannot be a Vice Chancellor because we shall follow the laid down rules strictly."
"The rule says that for you to be a Vice Chancellor, you must be a professor for at least ten years. That was what was responsible for the rancour during the selection of my predecessor."
"The National Universities Commission, NUC, template that says at least ten years was being tampered with by the council because some people were fronting a particular candidate who was about seven years as a professor. We said no, that it was not what NUC gave as procedures for selection of vice chancellor."
"I know for sure that any professor who is not up to ten years as a professor cannot succeed me. We also know that there are those who have gross academic deficiency."
On his promise to make UNIZIK one of the first 200 universities in the world, Esimone said the process is on course.
"When I started with project 200, the goal was to make UNIZIK among the best 200 universities in the world, first 10 in Sub -saharan Africa and first in Nigeria. That was the mission, the vision and the overall goal."
"We anticipated that within the five years I will serve as a Vice Chancellor, that is accomplishable. As we speak, we are moving up."
"We are fourth in Nigeria today, in Sub-Saharan Africa, we are number 13 and in the world, we have moved from 4494 to around 1200", the VC said.
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