Vice Chancellorship race: MDCAN threatens shutdown over members’ exclusion in UNIZIK

The Medical and Dental Consultant Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) has protested what it considered a deliberate exclusion of members from contesting for the position of the Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka.

MDCAN in its communique issued at the end of its emergency general meeting rejected and condemned insertion of some criteria which did not consider the peculiarities of their career progression path.

The communique which was made available to journalists in Awka on Friday was signed by MDCAN-NAUTH Chairman Dr Victor Modekwe and Secretary Dr Sunday Oriji.

It observed that the advert required that an applicant for the position of VC-NAU must possess a first degree, Master’s degree and a PhD.

The consultants said the academic pathway of clinical lecturers, in NAU and globally, did not fit into the criteria laid down in the advert.

It said academic pathway of clinical lecturers include a first degree (MBBS/ BDS), Primary fellowship examination, Part I fellowship examination, and Part II/Final fellowship examination which leads to the award of a medical fellowship.

They said the advert which said applicants must have a PhD of 15 years, without including postgraduate Medical Fellowship of 15 years was a deviation from a similar advert for the position in 2019 and injurious to medical profession in Nigeria.

“MDCAN had on Aug.2 written a letter to the office of the Pro-Chancellor/Chairman Governing Council in which we alleged of a sinister plan to insert some injurious requirements into the proposed advertisement for the position of the VC-NAU of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

“The injurious requirements is with a deliberate intention to exclude all the qualified lecturers of the faculties of Medicine, Basic Clinical Sciences and Basic Medical Sciences.

“We appealed in that letter that the injurious requirement should not be inserted as it is not only strange to Nnamdi Azikiwe University but to all the universities in Nigeria,” it said.

MDCAN-NAU unequivocally condemned the conditions in the advert as unfair and called for its withdrawal within seven days to avert a total shutdown in all medical education sectors of the university.

The Consultants said the industrial action would entail the withdrawal of all the medical/clinical lecturers from the faculties of Medicine, Basic Clinical Sciences and Basic Medical Sciences from all academic functions.

“That subsequent advert 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 our long standing pathway.

“That if this advert is not withdrawn within seven days from the date of this letter, we will be left with no option than to embark on an indefinite industrial action until this advert is withdrawn.

“Congress therefore urges the university council and all meaning Nigerians to avert this unnecessary scenario and save our University,” it said.