UNICAL Vice-Chancellorship: Search For Best Candidate Begins

She has been a Professor of Special Needs Education for 13 years (Having been made a Full Chair Professor in 2007). Her leadership role in University of Calabar (UniCAL) began in 1993 immediately after her return from a Scholarship programme in Jodan Hill College, Glasgow, UK, when as an Assistant Lecturer, she was

appointed Coordinator, World-Wide Fund for Nature/Nigerian Conservation Foundation

(WWF/NCF) funded Schools and Community Education programmes in 1993.

Since then she has served the University as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic); Dean, Faculty of Education (In fact, she was elected Dean back-to-back, making her the first female to have served as 2-times

Dean of the Faculty since the history of the University); Chairperson, University of Calabar

International Demonstration School; Deputy Dean, Faculty of Education; Head of Department;

Member, Convocation Committee; Coordinator of Teaching Practice; Deputy Director (On

Campus Programmes of the Centre for Educational Services – CES; Chairperson, CES/ASUU

Negotiating Team on CES Programmes; Chairperson UniCAL Housing Loans and Implementation Committee; Examination Officer; Coordinator, Ikom and Ogoja Centres of the then Off-Campus Programmes;  Member, University Environmental Sanitation Committee;

Member, representing the University on the Cross River State Police Public Relations Committee.

She has been instrumental to the establishments of some new Departments and academic

programmes of the University and pioneered the Affiliation programme of the University, as

approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

As a scholar, researcher and mentor, she has over 60 publications to her credit in both local and

international peer-reviewed journals, and has authored two books, co-authored one and also

authored several chapters in Books.

She has supervised over 30 postgraduate Diploma Projects, 12 Master’s Degree Theses and 8 PhD Dissertations and had so far assessed 13 persons for professorial positions. On 26th February 2020, Prof Florence Obi became the 92nd Inaugural Lecturer of University of Calabar when she enthralled the University and indeed the world with her Inaugural Lecture titled “From Exclusion to Zero Reject: A Road Map to Inclusiveness”.

In terms of community service, Prof. Florence Obi has served as Honourable Commissioner for

Women Affairs and Social Development and Member of the Cross River State Executive Council;

Board Member of NUC; Member, Cross River State Carnival Commission; Pioneer Chairperson

of the School Management Committee of Government Secondary School Bansan-Osokom, Boki

LGA, Cross River State, where she is still serving as a member of the School Development

A committee from inception in 2002 to date.

She is very committed to quality university education in Nigeria, having served as a member of the: University Development Committee; Quality Assurance Committee; and Finance and General Purposes Committee while on the Board of NUC, and has participated in several NUC quality assurance activities such as Institutional Accreditation, Programme Accreditation and Resource Verification.

She is well-travelled and has attended so many academic events both locally and internationally.

She has taught in the first African University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, during which she

served as the Faculty of Education Graduate School Representative and Chairperson of the Faculty

Seminar Committee.

She was: UNESCO Visiting Professor at the University of Buea, Cameroon; Visiting Professor (as Erasmus Mundus Exchange Lecturer) at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; and Visiting Professor at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port-Harcourt, Rivers State. She has equally attended an eight weeks training programme at the University of Oregon, USA funded by the Mobility International USA (MIUSA) Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability.

Florence has served as External Examiner and assessor to some Nigerian Universities, including the Universities of Ibadan, Lagos and Jos; the University of Nigeria,

Nsukka; Federal University of Technology, Akure; Bayero University, Kano and to some foreign

Universities, one of which is the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.

Professor Obi has also served as Managing Editor and Editor for some local and international journals, including the African Journal of Vocational Education of the Department of Vocational and Special Education, the University of Calabar and the African Journal of Special Education (The official journal of the

Department of Special Education of the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana).

In terms of membership of learned societies, she is a Fellow and past National President of the

National Association for Exceptional Children; Member, International Council for the Education

of Children with Visual Impairments; Member, South African Society of Education (SASE);

Member, World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP); Member, Division of

International Special Education and Services (DISES); and Member, Nigerian Academy of

Education.

Prof. Obi, who is a serving Professor and Member of Senate in University of Calabar is a recipient

of several awards in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the growth of the education

sector and society at large. Furthermore, Prof. Obi is: the Vice-President (The first female to

be elected as such) of Ochibe Bokyi – The Boki people apex pan-sociocultural organization

founded in 1951; Director, University of Calabar Microfinance Bank (The first female to be elected

as such by the Shareholders of the Bank) and Editorial Board Member of the International Journal

of Research, a publication of the Department of Educational Foundation, the University of Lagos since

Aside from her unparalleled accomplishments, outstanding qualifications and displayed

competencies to take the ivory tower to unprecedented greater heights as Vice-Chancellor,

it is profoundly germane to also convey that, since its inception in 1975 (about 45 years ago),

no woman has superintendent over the affairs of the University of Calabar.

Therefore, in accordance with the advocacy for gender equality, as enshrined in the Sustainable

Development Goals (SDGs) to which the amiable incumbent administration is committed to,