Members of the academic staff of the National Center for Technology Management (NACETEM), a research institute located on the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University, have decried the forceful imposition of a holder of the Higher National Diploma as the acting director general.

The staff members questioned the board’s appointment of Yusuf Abdullah Muhammad as the acting Director General/CEO after the exit of the last DG, Willie Siyanbola. The protesting staff expressed dismay over the appointment of Mr. Muhammad, whom they described as having no qualification in research or technology, adding that such qualification ought to be requisite.

In a solidarity press conference, the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI) called on the Federal Government to intervene by reversing the appointment in order to save the institution from crisis. The union threatened a series protests at OAU and outside if the government failed to intervene.

The Union explained that NACETEM is an agency that provides critical knowledge support in the area of science, technology and innovation (STI) management adding that its activities span across human capacity building, policy research and consultancy services in STI management and criticized the imposition of a DG with no background in either technology administration or in research.

The union admitted that Mr. Muhammad is the oldest staff after the former DG, but insisted that it was wrong to use seniority as the criterion in appointing the institute’s leader.

It also accused the agency’s new board of modifying its statutes in order to clear the way for the appointment of the new acting director, adding that Mr. Muhammad played a role in doctoring the statutes.

ASURI alleged that Mr. Muhammad had introduced some changes into the laws to facilitate his eventual appointment as NACETEM’s substantive DG. The union stated that some of the irregularities that arose from changes made by Mr. Muhammad include composition of the governing board, the requirements for the position of the DG/CEO, the functions and mandates of the agency, and the removal of the power of the agency to award postgraduate certificates and degrees.

According to the union, the “abridged enabling law” reportedly made by Mr. Muhammad also ceded some powers and sole responsibility of the DG/CEO to the board. The ceded powers include the responsibility to set up guidelines, regulate and manage NACETEM funds, ratify appointments as well as termination and dismissal of junior staff of the agency.

NACETEM staff charged that the board, in a desperate move to push through Mr. Muhammad’s appointment before its ratification, his name was hurriedly used in a national daily newspaper as the acting DG.

In a letter to Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Ms. Omobola Johnson, who also oversees the Ministry of Science and Technology, the union demanded that a candidate with a PhD in Technology Management, Sciences, Engineering or Social Sciences be appointed as the new acting Director-General in order to avert a crisis.

The statement also called for a new board composed of technocrats and at least a south westerner. The union gave a two-day ultimatum for their demands to be met.