Gbenro Adesina
As the election of the 13th Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan (UI) approaches, the political atmosphere in the institution is becoming tense with the contestants shifting the battle field to the Congregation election.
Major aspirants of the position of the Vice Chancellor seem to be matching one another shoulder to shoulder and neck to neck as they have all demonstrated that they are not novices in the political game of the institution.
The name of the former Vice Chancellor, Professor Isaac Adewole, who is also the immediate past Minister of Health keeps featuring as it is believed that he introduced sophisticated politics into the appointment of the institution’s Vice Chancellor.
All the contestants have aggressively sponsored their trusted colleagues to contest in the forthcoming election to be among the 153 congregation members, whose singular relevance and role is to elect two Senate representatives, that will join others to finally elect the successor of the outgoing Vice Chancellor, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka.
Their preferred Vice Chancellor’s candidate will guide them on the two Senate representatives to vote for and after the exercise is discharged, the nominees become inconsequential in the election process but hopeful of being compensated in whatever form if their candidate occupies the exalted Vice Chancellor’s Office.
The congregation, which usually do not have enough academic staff to fill it up and in most cases, aspirants to the office are normally returned unopposed, and the University will still have to look for members to make it up to the required numbers, now have about 365 aspirants jostling for its 153 vacant positions.
PrimeStarsNews gathered that each Vice Chancellorship aspirant printed the form and distributed to their trusted ones, who they are sure, will not disappoint them.
Though, the election will be held electronically on Wednesday July 29, 2020, the institution has concluded arrangements to hold mock election on Saturday July 25, 2020 to determine the challenges that may arise during the proper election and fix it so that the election will be hitch free.
A statement signed by the Deputy Register, General Administration, A.A. Oladeji and titled, “Congregation Election: Mock e-voting” , stated, “The University Community is hereby notified that preparatory to the Congregation Elections scheduled for Wednesday 29 July 2020, there will be a Mock e-voting on Saturday 25 July 2020 from 8.00am to 1pm”.
However, political analysts are of the opinion that the result of the mock election will give the direction voting will eventually go, adding that it may help the weak candidates to see what can be done to shore up his or her opportunity before the substantive election is held.
