Barely 48 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari last Tuesday ordered the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the NASENI, Prof. Mohammed Sani Haruna, to immediately hand over his office to the next most senior officer in the establishment, a crisis of leadership has erupted over the choice of successor.
President Buhari’s order follows the reversal of the extension in office granted by the President from 2nd April, 2023 to 2nd of April, 2025 due to the fact that the EVC had completed two tenures of five years each in the organization.
Managing Director of one of its subsidiaries – Hydraulic Equipment Development Institute (HEDI) Kano, Engr. Prof. Ibrahim Onuwe Abdulmalik in a petition to the Secretary to the Government of the federation has protested Prof. Haruna’s ‘wrong selection’ and purported handover to Mrs. Nonyem Onyechi as a violation to all known norms in Public Service
The letter of protest sighted by Daily Trust also states that Mrs. N. Onyechi has attained retirement age of 60 years on 26th November 2022 and only remains in NASENI as Political Appointee of Mr. President alongside with other four candidates.
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Prof. Abdulmalik in justifying his protest argued that the most Senior Director in NASENI is Limited to Regular Career Officers in NASENI System, such as: Directors in NASENI Headquarters/Institutes and Directors that were appointed from Headquarters/Institute to become Coordinating Directors or Managing Directors and still function within their career service age, not New Political Appointees.
He also posited that the new political appointees from outside NASENI System cannot claim seniority of directors especially the coordinating directors that were appointed all on the same day by the President as principal officers.
He satated that: “Career Officers who have exceeded their career acceptable age for retirement and not possessed acceptable qualification and still in service due to their political appointment cannot be described as most senior director or research director in any case and therefore cannot claim seniority in comparison with other career directors in this regard.”
Prof Abdulmalik gave an example of the above analogy in NASENI history, with the appointment of Engr. Aliyu Adnan, the then most senior research Director in 2019 as Acting EVC pending the renewal of Prof. M. S. Haruna’s second tenure that was delayed.
He further argued that in the situation of appointment of acting permanent secretary in federal ministries in the event of vacancies at any time, no political appointees from outside career service line would be so invited to compare seniority with regular directors within the ministry.
He said the unique situation in NASENI system is such that a career director can wear two caps of being a managing director of a development institute, earning equivalent salary with other directors as well as become a research director after his tenure ends, if he or she has not exceeded retirement age of 65 years.
He, therefore called on the SGF to intervene and right the wrong in the leadership process of the agency.
