The Governing Board of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), on Friday, urged President Bola Tinubu to probe the appointment of its Director-General, Dr Olusola Odusanya, by the immediate past administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Describing Odusanya’s appointment as illegal and a flagrant disrespect for due process, the board noted that the development had sparked controversy and protest by the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife chapter.
According to a press statement forwarded to the Nigerian Tribune by the chairman, NACETEM Governing Board, Sir Haastrup Adewale Olatunji, “our attention has been drawn to the purported appointment of one Dr Olusola Odusanya as the DG/CEO of NACETEM on the pages of many national dailies.
The statement read: “This is misleading as the legally constituted Governing Board of the agency never interviewed the ‘appointed’ DG nor had any interaction with him at any time.
“We wrote several open letters to the former President Muhammadu Buhari, on the surreptitious move of the former Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, Chief Henry Ikechukwu Ikoh, to impose his anointed candidate on the agency against all known extant rules and without recourse to due process.
“We need to stress that since the purported appointment of Odusanya as NACETEM’s new helmsman, it has sparked unending protests by the union, particularly NASU, which viewed the appointment as an affront on due process.
“As much as we are trying to douse the tension, it is imperative to make it clear to all stakeholders that the Governing Board is not a party to the illegal appointment as the board was completely sidelined by the former Minister of State, Chief Ikoh.
“While we assure NACETEM staff that we will deploy all known legal means to uphold peace and progress of the agency, we call on the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to probe the circumstances leading to the last minute ‘appointment ‘ of Odusanya without recourse to due process.
“His appointment is rejected by the Governing Board as even though he submitted an application initially to the constituted selection committee, he did not, like 10 others, get past the screening process, before the committee was halted by the former Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, “the statement concluded.
