The National Planning Commission (NPC) has appointed a new Acting Director-General for the Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan.

 The Acting DG, Professor Olakunle Odumosu, is a United States of America-trained research expert, who succeeds Professor Olufemi Taiwo.

It will be recalled that during Professor Taiwo’s last days in office, he battled with the workers of the institute, who didn’t like to his style of leadership, especially on workers’ welfare.

However, during Taiwo’s brief handing-over ceremony on Wednesday in Ibadan, his management staff members showered encomiums on him, with leading professors in the institute, describing his tenure as the one that had engendered “stability and productivity.”

Taiwo bowed out after completing his four years of leadership in the institute, and handed over the baton to Professor Odumosu, who is the most senior director in NISER in line with a letter from the Secretary of the National Planning Commission.

Professor Taiwo used the occasion to call on the federal government to continue to make the best use of outputs from policy research institutes like NISER “with a view to taking correct decisions that would lead to national development”.

The management team of the institute at the event took turn in applauding the leadership acumen of Taiwo, which they claimed had contributed immensely to ‘the noticeable success that NISER had recorded in the recent times”.

Specifically, they described the out-going Director-General as a stabilising factor in the enhancement of the harmonious relationship of the institute’s research staff in working together as a team rather than as caucuses that he met on ground.

In his remark, Professor Odumosu, the newly designated Acting Director-General, who hitherto was the director in charge of the Social and Governance Policy Research Department of the institute described Professor Taiwo as “a true democrat and transparent leader, who always allowed all committees at NISER to work and deliberate on matters before taking decisions, not allowing himself to be the sole decision maker”.

Speaking in the same vein, Professor Victor Adeyeye, Nyemetu Robert, John Adeoti, Godwin Akpokodje as well as the Director of Administration, Alhaji Suleiman Liman submitted that the out-going director-general had succeeded in carving a niche for himself as an administrator, who is leaving NISER better than he met it in terms of deepening policy research formulation, publications and dialogues.