Tension is brewing at the Federal College of Education Zaria where some lecturers have called for the cancellation of a recent employment interview for the position of provost over irregularities.
The lecturers namely; Dr. Tanimu Ibrahim Muhammed of the Department of Education, Dr. Ahmed Bello of the Department of Integrated Science, Dr. Abdullahi Gambo of the Department of Social Studies as well as Dr. Bashir Alhaji Maina of the Department of Educational Foundation and Curriculum, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, who applied for the job, jointly sent a complaint letter on Monday to the Minister of Education Malam Adamu Adamu, requesting for the deletion of the interview. They called for a fresh recruitment exercise.
The complaint letter said many of those who applied for the job were edged out using invalid age limit while two out of the three candidates that attended the interview were from the same local government area. It said the job ad which said candidates must not be over 55 years was wrong rather; the age limit ought to be 60 years at the time of assumption of office as contained in the advertisements made by the Colleges in Pankshin, Obudu and Katsina. It said two of the complainants who were within the age of 54 and 55 were not invited for the interview.
The letter called on the minister to “cancel the interview conducted on March 24, 2016, regularize the age limit of prospective applicants to 60 years, re-advertise the post to allow prospective Nigerians from different states of the federation to apply and direct the ministry to take over the screening exercise and shortlist qualified candidates who are not above the age of 60 years as is done by other colleges.”
A source at the ministry said government is giving attention to the letter.
