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By Madu Obi
Clinical lecturers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University have embarked on an indefinite strike to protest the alleged move to disenfranchise them from contesting for the position of the Vice Chancellor of the university.
The lecturers under the aegis of Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) announced the commencement of the strike on Wednesday.
The lecturers under the body of all Medical and Dental Specialists with Medical Fellowship announced the commencement of the strike in a Statement issued in Awka on Wednesday.
The chairman of the association, Dr Victor Modekwe and secretary, Dr Sunday Oriji, said the strike entails withdrawal of all the medical/clinical lecturers from the Faculties of Medicine, Basic Clinical Sciences and Basic Medical Sciences from all academic functions.
According to them, the strike was to protest alleged deliberate intention to exclude all the qualified lecturers of the Faculties of Medicine, Basic Clinical Sciences and Basic Medical Sciences from the race on the ground that they do not have Masters and Doctorate degrees.
The lecturers demanded that the advert for qualified professors to apply for the VC position should factor in the academic pathway of Medical/Clinical lecturers by putting Post-Graduate Medical Fellowship anywhere PhD appears and excluding Master’s degree from requirement, considering their long standing pathway.
The statement read: "Recall our letters of Aug. 2 and Sept. 17 on the deliberate intention to exclude our members (clinical lecturers) from contesting for the position of the Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University.
Recall also that we specifically asked for the withdrawal of the obnoxious advert for the position of the Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University in order to guarantee industrial harmony.
We observe that up till now the advert still stands and our members remain excluded from the contest for two weeks now.
The congress has therefore resolved to proceed on an indefinite withdrawal of services by all the clinical lecturers of Nnamdi Azikiwe University in the Faculties of Medicine, Basic Medical Sciences, and Basic Clinical Sciences until this advert is withdrawn.”
The contested clause in the advert among other things had a prerequisite that applicants must have a PhD of 15 years, without including postgraduate Medical Fellowship of 15 years.
The lecturers said in spite the pre-information, they were shocked to see the advert for the position of VC-NAU published in a national paper and purported to have been authorized by the Pro-Chancellor.
The doctors who viewed the advert as selective and malicious, conveyed an emergency congress on Sept. 14 and issued an ultimatum which was communicated to all relevant authorities.
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