From Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin

Students of the Edo State School of Nursing staged a protest Thursday to resist the appointment of a new principal for the institution from the school of midwifery.

Our correspondent reports that the students barricaded the entrance to the school, preventing teachers, workers and visitors from gaining entrance.

The protest was calculated to disrupt the handover and inauguration ceremony that was scheduled for Thursday to usher in the new principal, Patricia Osazuwa, who was principal of the

School of Midwifery.

Academic activities at the school were paralysed as the placards carrying students vowed to continue with the protest until their demands were met.

President of the institution’s Student Union Government, Anyanbu Johnson, said the students were protesting the fact that Osazuwa was not qualified for the position of principal of the institution.

“The principal will be retiring today (Thursday) and the government appointed Osazuwa who is the principal of the School of Midwifery to come to our school. Our grievance is that she does not have the criteria to be our principal. Nursing and Midwery Council stipulate that the principal of nursing school must be a nursing tutor and not a midwifery tutor,” Johnson said.

He continued, “We are saying no to the appointment of a midwife. She has been the principal of school of midwifery and the school has not been accredited for the past three years. There are only two students in the school of midwifery. Our school was also not accredited.”

Johnson insisted that the School of Nursing had qualified lecturers that the government can appoint instead of going to the School of Midwifery.

Midwifery, he observed which is a speciality under Nursing.

The state commissioner for Health, Aihanuwa Heregie, could not be reached for comments but sources at the ministry said Osazuwa was appointed in an acting capacity pending when a substantive principal would be named.