Staff of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) yesterday shelved a planned protest over the non renewal of the tenure of the Executive Vice Chairman of the agency, Prof. Mohammed Sani Haruna.
While the Non Academic Staff Union are insisting that the Prof. Haruna should vacate office and allow the most senior Director in the agency act pending the appointment of a substantive Executive Vice Chairman, a group of staff under the auspices of All Concerned Staff of NASENI and its Institutes wants the Minister of Science and Technology to wade into the issue and give Prof. Haruna a well-deserved second tenure in the spirit of justice and fairness.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu had, in a letter to the President in January 2018 recommended the renewal of the tenure of Prof. Haruna due to what he has done to reposition the agency. The President is yet to act on the recommendation. The concerned staff who prevented a planned protest rally at the agency’s headquarters complex located in the Idu Industrial area of Abuja said they will not allow any external forces hijack the agency in the name of fighting expiration of tenure.
They said: “We have watched with dismay the insincerity and hate being implored by some masked forces win and outside NASENI to thwart the excellent efforts of the Executive Vice Chairman/ Chief Executive of NASENI by pretending to hide under expiration of tenure. “NASENI established twenty years ago had operated in a one story structure without enough office and facilities to perform its mandate until Prof. M.S.Haruna stepped in five year ago.
The huge turnaround of NASENI and its institutes has brought NASENI to a new limelight and envy among other parastatals. “The most sensible thing to do is to advocate for continuity of leadership so that total success of the ongoing works and projects for the science and technology drive of the nation would become a mission accomplished.
“It is unfortunate that some enemies of progress masquerading under staff union ate not happy with the achievement of Prof. M. S. Haruna, hence the desire to disrupt the peace and harmony of the agency by calling for tenure expiration.” According to the concerned staff , the transformation of the the agency in the last five years include the conversion of Directors to Managing Directors at the institutes to pave way for elongation of staff cadre; reflection of federal character in employment as against the former lopsidedness; staff training both local and foreign, new emerging office complex at the headquarters, enhanced and timely staff promotion, and payment of many years of unpaid staff entitlement. While pledging to remain solidly behind him, they said “these are just few of the innovations that are now being enjoyed in NASENI and put in place by Prof. Haruna whose first tenure has put a new hope for the country in the area of Science, Engineering, Technology and innovation”
They warned that “NASENI Is not for sale and not for any particular region, but for a focus and articulated leader whose orientation is for the overall development of the nation. We say no to sponsored protest by some third forces.
We as concerned staff are saying no to any external force, hijacking the agency and we are saying no going backward”. On its own, the leadership of the Non Academic Staff Union wants the Executive Vice chairman to step aside and hand over to the most senior Director in the agency pending his reappointment or the appointment of a new Chief Executive, accusing the government of not obeying its own rules. Chairman of the Non Academic staff Union, Peter Edibo who spoke to Journalists after the aborted planned protest said the concern of the union was for the Executive Vice Chairman to follow the part of honour by handing over to his most senior Director pending his reappointment.
He said Prof. Haruna’s tenure expired on the 2nd of April 2018 and was supposed to hand over to the Most Senior Director in compliance the directive to the circular from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation that Heads of Extra Ministerial departments should keep to the date of the expiration of their tenure of office.
Edibo said government agencies has failed to comply with the directive contained in the circular while the government has closed his eyes, refusing to act, adding that as the substantive Chairman of the Board, President Muhammadu Buhari should take immediate steps to address the anomaly since there is no reason for the Executive Vice Chairman to remain in office. While insisting that the President should appoint an Acting Chief Executive for the agency, adding that they had expected the man to hand over and await his reappointment, saying “if he had done that, he will be coming back when reappointed with honour.”
However, in a letter to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the union asked the government to stop the illegality going on in the agency and compel the Minister of Science and Technology to immediately write Prof, Haruna notify him of the expiration of his tenure in line withextant laws.
