Merit strictly, will determine the appointment of the new Rector of Osun State College of Technology, Esa Oke, according to the institution’s Council.
The Council’s Chairman, Prince Diran Odeyemi, affirmed this in a statement, as he dismissed allegations of favouritism being levelled against Governor Ademola Adeleke by the opposition All Progressives Congress as baseless calumny campaigns.
He accused the opposition party of making desperate attempts to score cheap political points even on purely academic matters with already laid down guidelines, thereby trying to soil the ivory towers with with rubbish.
Defending the Governor against the APC allegations, Odeyemi said, “The Governor who apparently is the Visitor to the Institution, in his usual character instructed me to follow the rules and due process with no favouritism or bias on the bases of gender, religion and ethnicity.
“If this is what the APC alleges as interference, I want to advise them to look elsewhere for their uninformed criticism and unreasonable accusations against the Governor”.
He said that the position was advertised to attract best brains from any part of the world to manage the affairs of the College.
His words: “When we wanted to kickstart the process to appoint a new Rector for the College, the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, criticised me as the chairman of the Governing Council, insisting that the position should not be advertised externally insisting that it should be done internally because they wanted one of them to be selected.
“I rejected that idea and the Governor agreed with me because he wants the best applicant to be appointed insisting that he does not mind wherever such person comes from.
“With his approval, we advertised the position in The PUNCH newspapers . We want the best from anywhere in Nigeria and even beyond to run the school. In all parts of the globe we have visited, we have seen old students of the College doing well as good ambassadors of the institution. Tis good image I want to improve upon.
“For that reason alone, we can’t afford to lower the quality of management the institution has enjoyed over the years, more so now that we have a governor that has almost an insatiable appetite for quality.
“Candidates who are sure of themselves will not rely on blackmail and sentiment as a means of arm twisting the process. Anyone using media to call out the governor or the management over the process is obviously afraid of going though the normal process.
“Also, everything we are doing to select the Rector will be guided by the NBTE regulations and our internal demands of the College as contained in the edict.
“The selection is the business of the Governing Board and the Visitor. Bringing Governor Adeleke’s name into it at this stage is nothing but a cheap attempt to blackmail him.
“No sentiment or favouritism in the selection process. Capacity to deliver, good projection for the College, academic qualifications and experience are going to play major roles in choosing the next Rector for the institution.”
