No fewer than 12 candidates have applied for the post of the Vice Chancellor of the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado Ekiti which becomes vacant in four months time.
Incumbent Vice Chancellor, Prof. Patrick Oladipo Aina, is expected to vacate office on December 2 when he would have completed a five-year non-renewable term.
Aina, a professor of Soil Physics, is credited with massive infrastructural development, execution of reforms which has repositioned the university and better welfare for staff and students, among others.
He was a senior academic at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile- Ife before he became EKSU Vice Chancellor.
EKSU Registrar, Emmanuel Ogunyemi, confirmed to The Nation yesterday that 12 candidates were interested in the office of the Vice Chancellor, but he declined to give their names.
Ogunyemi, who is also the Secretary to the Senate and the Governing Council, disclosed that filing of applications has since closed while candidates will be interviewed in October.
Inside sources told our correspondent that out of the 12 candidates who beat the deadline for submission, six are senior academics in the university while the rest six are from other universities around the country.
The Nation gathered that candidates have been lobbying powerful individuals, including politicians, council members and other people that matter in pushing their case.
Expected to play key roles in the emergence of a new VC are the Visitor, Governor Ayo Fayose and Chairman of the Governing Council who is also the immediate past Minister of State (Works), Prince Dayo Adeyeye.
In the race for the EKSU VC job are former Vice Chancellor of the defunct University of Science and Technology, Ifaki (USTI), Prof. Oye Bandele; Prof. Joel Adegun, former EKSU Deputy Vice Chancellor (Development) and Prof. Gbenga Aribisala; former EKSU Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic).
Other EKSU senior academics gunning for the plum job are Prof. Samuel Ashaolu, former Dean of Faculty of Science; Prof. Adeolu Ibijola of Mathematical Sciences Department and Prof. Joshua Kayode.
The identity of the six applicants from other universities could not be ascertained at press time, but a strong lobby was being intensified to ensure that one of the ‘insiders’ got the job.
A source said: “The candidates are expected to face the interview panel in October and it will involve the Governing Council, the Senate and members of the congregation.
“The papers of the applicants are being scrutinised while for the outsiders, visits are being paid to the universities where they had worked in the past.
“The search party is already on the field and this is one of the measures to ensure that the process is credible and transparent.”
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