The management of the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo State, has described a call by a group for the sack of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Segun Fatusi, as efforts to destabilise the institution.

The Coalition of Ondo State Indigenes Against Corruption on Tuesday presented a protest letter to Governor. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, calling for the VC’s sacking over alleged high levels of corruption.

Reacting to the protest letter in a statement on Wednesday, the Public Relations Officer of UNIMED, Isaac Oluyi, said that Mr Fatusi had repositioned the institution through transformative policies and programmes.

He said that amid challenging infrastructural deficits and limited resources, the VC and his management facilitated the start of the first Faculty of Medical Rehabilitation in West Africa, and operationalised the dream of the first full-fledged school of Public Health in Nigeria.

Mr Oluyi said, “And with its five departments and five interdisciplinary centres, commenced the first ever B.Sc. Community Health Sciences in Nigeria, established the first M.Sc. in Health Law and Policy in the country and now a PhD course in that field.’’

The institution’s spokesman also disclosed that the university had partnered with the National Universities Commission to introduce more than 10 new courses into the Nigerian university system, and much more.

“This is a man who is being accused of nepotism. A man who, despite not being from the state, is determined to continue to reposition the university and make it a pride of all – indigenes and non-indigenes,” he stated.

“We call on the general public to be wary of these detractors. They are nothing but agents of destabilisation,” Mr Oluyi said.

He said that the protest was aimed to distract the institution from concentrating on what matters.

“Despite our use of a transparent approach to governance, rumour-mongering and petitions still featured repeatedly, especially by disgruntled staff in connivance with greedy stakeholders whose evil intentions were not entertained by the university. The exploits of the vice-chancellor in the last four years and four months have continuously put the university on a progressive trajectory.

“This must not be halted by these paid protesters,” he stated.

Mr Oluyi said that successive governments in the state demonstrated understanding of what a university should be without ethnic or tribal sentiments, but an environment where people cross-fertilise ideas.

“Of the 307 junior staff in the employment of UNIMED as of December 2023, 235 being 76.5 per cent are from Ondo State. Only four out of the 307 (1.3 per cent) are from Ogun State, the VC’s state of origin. It needs to be added that not a single person among the four is from the VC’s Local Government Area – Ado-Odo/Ota. As for the academic and or senior non-academic staff, merit, competence and quality have been adopted to attract the best hands to the university who can help in accomplishing the vision of the institution.

“This does not exclude the indigenes too,” he said.

 (NAN)