Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Professor Florence Obi, has appealed to graduating dentistry students and their families to remain calm as the university works to resolve their non-induction.
The crisis stems from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria’s (MDCN) refusal to induct the 2016 dentistry set due to the institution’s overadmission beyond the MDCN-approved quota.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday, July 16, Prof. Obi assured the students that the situation would be resolved soon.
“I want to really appeal to the students and to parents because I have read somewhere where students are getting depressed and some of them are threatening suicide.
“I want to really appeal to my students to hold it, to be calm, that on my honour, we will see how, together, with MDCN can resolve the problem,” she said.
She added that she would be seeking the intervention of the Minister of Education, noting that recruitment of critical staff as required by the MDCN could unlock the clearance the university needs.
“I am going to my minister to appeal to him to intervene because if we have some staff which is the critical issue, if we have staff and we know that the minister has given us the permission to employ, the sooner we employ them and get the dental clearance that MDCN has asked us to do, we will be able to invite them in the next one or two months and part of these problems will be resolved,” she said.
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According to the VC, MDCN had approved an intake of 10 students, but the university admitted 60, violating regulatory limits. She said the university is now exploring options within and outside UNICAL to help integrate the affected students.
“We may not be able to say conclusively that we have the solution, but I am sure that before the end of this week and getting to next week where I may travel and perhaps plead with our honourable minister to give us audience and attention and also help us in some areas largely with a solution to this,” Prof. Obi said.
She disclosed that the university has begun internal investigations into the overadmission, which she attributed to officials including the dean, admission officer, and provost.
“We are going to invoke the university’s internal mechanism to handle that, we have to query some people. Definitely, there will be consequences,” she said.
When asked if she would take responsibility for the crisis, Prof. Obi said, “Of course I am the head, I take responsibility, even the ones I inherited, I take responsibility, I am the head.”
She admitted feeling deeply affected by the situation, noting the personal effort she has invested in resolving the dentistry programme’s challenges.
Meanwhile, the affected students have continued peaceful protests to demand urgent action.