NITR: Minister’s Non Compliance With Presidency’s Non Interference Order On NITR Ignites Protest in Kaduna

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ZAINAB TANIMU
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NITR: Minister’s Non Compliance With Presidency’s Non Interference Order On NITR Ignites Protest in Kaduna
Zainab Tanimu
Kaduna, Northwest, NIgeria
The non compliance by the Minister of Science Technology and Innovation (FMST&I) Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu with the Presidency order to stop interfering with the affairs of Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis and Onchocerciasis Research (NITR) has provoked protest in Kaduna.
A decision by the Minister to dissolve the Board of Governing Council of the NITR did not go down well as members of the Board petitioned the Presidency over alleged intimidation and harassment by the minister.
The Minister is said to have attempted to reinstall “his annoited DG Dr. Augustine Chinyere Igweh” which was resisted.
“In his bid after exhausting most avenues, the Minister seek approval to reconstitute some agencies governing council without listing them in his request, after the approval was granted he raised an Internal Memo and included NITR among the reconstituted board members which was published in Daily Trust of 12th September, 2021 despite the fact that the presidency warned him to stop interfering in the affairs of the Institute.
“Also In a letter to the Overseeing Director General of NITR, Kaduna from the Chairman of the Governing Council Shehu Haruna Lambu dated 11th October 2021 lamented that It cannot be true that President Muhammadu Buhari, a completely destribalized Nigerian and a personification of the rule of law will give approval of reconstituted/ inauguration of a new council of the institution when the current tenure is subsisting.
He said the President will not take such decision when the members of NITR are law abiding, hard working and transparent.
It would be recalled that the Minister, in a recent public notice had also directed the reconstitution of some of the Governing Board and Council of Agencies and Institutes under his purview which drew protest.
The Governing Council of NITR has asked the Minister to withdraw the decision of dissolving the Board, saying that the tenure of the members which began in 2018 will lapsed in 2023.
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