UNICAL: Florence Obi emerges first female VC

Professor Florence Obi of the Faculty of Education has broken a 45-year jinx by emerging the first female Vice-Chancellor-elect of the University of Calabar, Cross River State.

She emerged top after a rigorous screening exercise involving 12 other candidates.

Obi will take over from Prof. Zana Akpagu, whose tenure ends on November 30, 2020.

The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman Governing Council, UNICAL, Senator Nkechi Nwaogu, who announced the emergence of Obi on Friday, congratulated her for emerging the first female Vice-Chancellor of the 45-year-old institution.

Nwaogu described Obi as “an astute educational icon” and prayed for the success of her tenure as Vice-Chancellor of UNICAL.

“You can see the tranquility in this governing council. What we assured the university community is that we were going to be transparent, open, fair, and just.

“There is a guideline from the Ministry of Education as to how to conduct interview for the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor. There are so many parameters we had to look into and that is exactly what we did,” she said.

She said Obi’s emergence is a victory for the women and said the 10th Governing Council expects her to build on what the outgoing Vice-Chancellor had done. Punch