Peter Obi, former Anambra Governor and Labour Party chieftain, has charged the federal government to provide both financial and institutional support to the University of Calabar (UNICAL) to resolve issues surrounding the graduation of dental students.

Mr Obi, in a statement on Saturday, raised the alarm over “developments at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), where issues around the dental students’ graduation and induction quota.”

“No student should suffer for leadership failures,” Mr Obi said. “I call on the federal government to give this situation the urgent and decisive attention it deserves by providing both financial and institutional support to the university leadership.”

He added, “The vice-chancellor of the University of Calabar and her team must be empowered to resolve this issue immediately, to ensure that no student is made to suffer for circumstances that are in no way their fault.”

The former Anambra governor recalled how he swung into action to resolve a similar problem “when the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria shut down our medical school at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, citing the absence of a teaching hospital—a basic requirement for accreditation.”

Mr Obi said in less than 18 months, he “built and commissioned what is now known as Odumegwu-Ojukwu  Teaching Hospital in Awka, saving not just the accreditation of the medical faculty but the futures of young aspiring doctors to this day.”

The politician’s statement comes amid reports of over-admission in UNICAL’s Department of Dentistry, which violates the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) requirements, and could jeopardise the chances of some students graduating.

The university, against the approved 10 students admission quota by the MDCN, had admitted 60.

Earlier in the week, UNICAL’s vice-chancellor, Florence Obi, in a press briefing, vowed to resolve the crisis, even though the problem predates her assumption of office.