By Gabriel Dike
One of the elected Lagos State University (LASU), Senate representatives on the Joint Council and Senate Selection Committee for the appointment of the 9th vice chancellor, Prof. Fidelis Njonkama has resigned.
He resigned after he failed to convince the Governing Council to include postgraduate Medical Fellowship as one of the criteria for the appointment of a substantive VC for LASU.
Prof. Njonkama, a former acting VC from the Lagos State University College of Medicine, was elected last month by the Senate alongside two other professors to represent its in the appointment of new a VC.
An emergency LASU Senate meeting to discuss Njonkama’s resignation and also shop for his replacement was held on Friday, August 6.
A senior management staff of LASU told our Correspondent that at a meeting of the appointment committee, Prof. Njonkama tried to convince members to include postgraduate Medical Fellowship as one of the criteria.
The Governing Council led by Sir David Sunmoni had last week published the vacant VC position and listed PhD and Doctor of Medicine (MD) as key requirement for professors applying for the plum job.
It was learnt that at a meeting to consider the advert, Prof. Njonkama asked for the inclusion of postgraduate Medical Fellowship alongside PhD and MD.
“His suggestion for the inclusion of postgraduate Medical Fellowship lead to a heated debated after those for and against had argued about it.
“The council chairman in his wisdom put the issue to vote. At the end, four members voted against the inclusion and one (Njonkama) in support while a member did not vote. So, majority votes carried the day and the advert was published with the exclusion of Medical Fellowship,” the senior staff revealed.
In his letter to withdraw from the Committee which was addressed to the acting VC and copied the governing council chairman, Prof. Njonkama, said his resignation is based on personal reason.
Said he: “I had wished to be able to serve LASU in this very important task. Unfortunately, emergent conditions of deeply personal nature will not allow me to give my usual best.
“I am therefore constrained to inform you of my wish to withdraw from the said Committee. I acknowledged my responsibility as a member of the Committee with regard to any and all decisions so far taken by the Committee.”
The emergency Senate resolved to conduct fresh election on Tuesday, August 10, to elect his replacement into the selection committee.