NBTI Workers Commence Three-day Warning Strike

By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI) under the umbrella of Academic Staff Union of Research Institutes (ASURI) yesterday commenced a three-day warning strike to protest the re-appointment of the Director General of the Board, Mohammed Jibrin.

The NBTI branch Chairman of ASURI, Mr. Adolphus Ugwu, while addressing journalists in Abuja during the protest to commence the strike, stated categorically that the workers are opposed to the re-appointment of Jibrin due to his poor performance at the agency in his first four years.

According to him, “Having reviewed the performance of the DG/CEO during his first tenure, it is clear that he performed abysmally below expectation, and therefore, deserves no re-appointment for a second tenure. What is the basis for re-appointing somebody who has performed poorly in his first tenure to superintend over a people who have passed a vote of no confidence on him?”

He explained that the agency whose mandate is to provide an integrated support programme designed to assist budding entrepreneurs in the development of new technology-based firms in Nigeria has lost focus and direction due to mismanagement of the DG

Ugwu noted that should the government fail to reverse its decision to re-appoint the DG at the expiration of their warning strike, the workers would not hesitate to take further actions to ensure that their demands are met.

He stressed that the once revered agency was grossly mismanaged by the DG, leading to complete collapse of infrastructure and working materials, stressing that there was no capacity building for staff for over four years.