Professor Mohammed Yelwa, a lecturer with the Yakubu Gowon University, Abuja, has stated the need to harmonise requirements for the appointment of vice chancellors for public and private universities to avoid avoidable tension.
Yelwa disclosed this in a chat with journalists in Minna, the Niger state capital, on Wednesday. The absence of harmonisation in the process of appointing vice-chancellors will continue to generate avoidable tension and legal battles in the country. He argues that the appointment of vice-chancellors in Nigerian universities has, in recent years, been a source of avoidable disputes, crises, and prolonged litigations because requirements were not properly harmonised.
“The major source of conflict is the lack of uniformity in requirements, particularly the controversial clause of 10 years of professorial experience,” adding that inconsistency has created loopholes for manipulation in some institutions while unjustly disqualifying competent candidates in others. It is imperative that the Federal Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the National Universities Commission (NUC), develops clear, uniform, and binding guidelines to harmonise the criteria for the appointment of vice-chancellors in both public and private universities,” Yelwa concluded.
