About30persons hadapplied for the position of the Vice Chancellor of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudikein Abiastate, butrecent developments indicate that the selection process may have run into troubled waters.
While the process to produce hissuccessorseemsfraughtwith controversy, the tenure of the incumbent Vice Chancellor, Prof. Francis Otunta will elapse in February2020and areplacement must emerge. The selection process which hadrelativelystartedwellisgradually being marred by alleged political intrigues, influencepeddling, distrust, accusations and counter accusations. A senior academic who confided in our correspondent lamentedthatmembersofcouncil wanted to violate an agreement between ASUU and the federal governmentonthetemplatethat should be adopted for selection of Vice Chancellors which was communicated via a white paper. According to him, the white paper should guide the grading of the applicants for the position of the Vice Chancellor but that seemed to have been jettisoned.
Feelers from the University community suggests that according to the screening done in accordance with the white paper, one Prof. Maduebibisi Iwe was said to have come out tops with about 92.35 points while his closest rival, Prof. Val Ekechukwu scored 88.93 points.