New Senate Bill Stops NIEPA’s Relocation from Ondo to Abuja

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Senate has initiated a bill to stop the alleged plans by the management of the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Ondo from relocating its headquarters to Abuja.

The chamber had, last year, passed a resolution warning the management of the institute and the office of the Head of the Federal Civil Service from moving NIEPA’s headquarters from Ondo town to the Federal Capital Territory.

The red chamber through, the proposed legislation titled ‘National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration, Ondo (establishment) Bill 2022,’ has therefore put an end to the panned relocation.

The sponsor of the bill, which passed second reading last week, Senator Ayo Akinyelure (Ondo Central), said that the move to provide legal powers to NIEPA would not add further financial burden to the country.

He explained that the institute already has physical structures and manpower needed to run it in Ondo town where it has been operating since its establishment in 1992 by the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the International Institute for Educational Planning.

It was meant to be a staff college for planners and managers in the Nigeria education sector and West African subregion.

The Senate had first intervened in the affairs of the institute in November 2021, after it considered its committee’s report on a petition against the Director-General of the Institute, Prof. Olivet Jagusah, who was accused of abandoning his duty post and operating from Abuja.

The Chairman of the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Akinyelure, in his presentation, had said that one Alhaji Haruna Yahaya accused the Director-General of NIEPA of gross misconduct and deliberate attempts to frustrate and humiliate former principal officers of the institute by scrapping their offices.

The lawmaker had said the petitioner also accused the DG and the Governing Council of allegedly violating the rule of seniority in public service by supplanting one Mrs. Abimbola Fayanju as the acting Registrar of the institute over her senior colleague, Dr. Olaolu Festus.

He added that despite the fact that Fayanju’s tenure had elapsed for the past three years, no attempt was made to replace her.

The lawmaker stated that the petitioner also accused the DG of making a clandestine arrangement for the relocation of the institute from Ondo State to Abuja, an action which he described as a disservice to the state.

However, the Director-General of the institute, Prof. Olivet Jagusah, in his submission to the Ethics and Privileges Committee, said he was appointed as the Chief Executive of NIEPA by the Federal Ministry of Education with the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) on June 1, 2020.

He explained that the institute was established in 1992 by the federal government in collaboration with UNESCO-IIEP, Paris, with a mandate to develop a critical mass of education sector planners, managers and administrators, with its take-off in the defunct Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo State.

He said his appointment as DG of the institution witnessed stiff resistance and protest by some individuals from the institute who organised a blockade against him, adding that: “The actions affected his assumption of duty.”

Jagusah recalled that for three months after assumption of duty, he stayed in a hotel because there was no apartment for him to live in around the school vicinity.

He explained further that the idea of relocating the institute to Abuja was mooted by his predecessor, Prof. Lilian Imuetinyan Salami, through a letter with reference No. NIEPA/LANREQ/001 dated March 20, 2017, and addressed to the Minister, Federal Ministry of Education.

He said based on the idea of relocating the institute, correspondences were exchanged between the Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Capital Territory Administration and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Disposal of Assets forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria for possible allocation to NIEPA.

The DG stated that as at today, the institute has no enabling law establishing it, which, according to him, “has been a clog in the wheel of its progress”.

He disclosed that before he assumed duty, the institute had no administrative structure or organogram.

Jagusah said this prompted him to demand for its restructuring, a request which was approved by the Head of Civil Service and resulted in the creation of six departments, seven units and nine liaison offices.

He said at a virtual meeting of the Governing Council of the institute held in December 18, 2020, the restructuring of the institute was approved in line with the organogram.

The Senate, in a swift turn, stopped the planned relocation of the institute to Abuja

The upper chamber, however, urged its Committees on Tertiary Education/TETFUND and that of Establishment to work out an arrangement with the management so that the school would be running effectively in Ondo pending the passage of its enabling law.

It also urged the Federal Ministry of Education and the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation to appoint a committee to rejig the administration and management of the institution to provide effective leadership and guidance, in order to reposition it for effective performance and operational confidence.

The chamber also asked its committee working on the Bill for an Act to establish NIEPA in Ondo, to accelerate its timely passage in order to give the institution legal backing.