The presidential candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi, has criticized the Vice Chancellor of University of Calabar (UNICAL) over recent students welfare which has given rise to pockets of protests.
Obi, calling for urgent intervention in the crisis affecting dental students at the University of Calabar (UNICAL), stressed that “no student should suffer as a result of leadership failings”.
Obi stated this in a post on his official X handle, following reports of issues surrounding the graduation and induction quotas of dental students at UNICAL.
“No student should suffer due to what I consider a failure of leadership. We must give our youth the necessary education, particularly in critical fields like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Education in these areas is far too important to be jeopardised by bureaucratic or institutional lapses,” Obi wrote.
Over 300 Dentistry students at the University of Calabar, Cross River State are going through difficult times, following the refusal of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to induct graduates from the university’s Faculty of Dentistry due to persistent over-admission beyond the Council’s approved annual quota of only 10 students as a result of provisional accreditation of the faculty.
This situation has resulted in a complete academic standstill, with the university authorities recently directing all students in the Faculty of Dentistry across all levels-to vacate campus indefinitely, pending a resolution of the impasse.