MDCAN Begins Industrial Action Over Eligibility Criteria For UNIZIK’s VC Position

Clinical lecturers of universities in the South-East/South-South zone of Nigeria have downed their tools over the discriminatory exclusion of clinical lecturers from the eligibility criteria for the position of vice chancellor at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, as contained in the recently advertised vacancy.

The chairman of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MD CAN), Prof. Friday Odey, made this known in an interactive session with journalists yesterday in Calabar.

He said that the strike action would not affect hospital patients, stressing that it was only for clinical lecturers at the university.

MDCAN stressed that the selection criteria for the chancellor position as advertised averred that candidates jostling for the vice chancellorship position must possess a PhD.

He said that criteria of this nature automatically exclude clinical lecturers engaged in the system as Fellows of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria and the West African College of Physicians/Surgeons.

Other discriminatory actions that the union frowned upon include the criteria that candidates must be supervising PhD students, which union members said is unfair as it disqualifies clinical lecturers whose academic responsibility involves supervising medical residents and clinical students.

Another criterion that did not augur well for union members is that candidates must have attracted research grants of at least N400 million. This criterion ignores the realities of clinical research, which may not always attract such large funding but significantly impact medical education and healthcare.

The lecturers stated that the exclusion is unacceptable as it sets a dangerous precedent in a statement signed by Dr. Iroro Yarhere, chairman of MDCAN  South East Caucus and Dr. Stanley Ogbonna.

“The union insists that should this be allowed to stand, it could encourage other universities to adopt similar exclusionary policies, effectively denigrating the Fellowship qualifications with which clinical lecturers were employed at the rank of lecturer I or higher.

“This development also undermines the professional standing of clinical lecturers who have contributed immensely to their respective universities’ academic, research, and service delivery missions,” he said.