NASU NACETEM Vows to Continue to Protest over DG’s Appointment

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) at the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) has resolved to continue its industrial action in all its offices all over the country to protest what it described as the illegal appointment of Dr. Olusola Odusanya as the substantive DG/CEO of NACETEM.

Rising from a congress of the Union held  at the Ile-Ife headquarters of the agency, the union felicitated the new President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on his assumption of office and expressed optimism that Nigerians should look forward to a more economically vibrant nation.

The union then urged Tinubu to look into the several appointments made into sensitive offices in the Federal Civil/Public Service of Nigeria in the twilight of the Buhari’s administration, arguing that many of the appointments were hurriedly “and fraudulently done by politicians with sinister motives, abandoning extant rules and guidelines.”

 The Union leader, Gbadamosi Funminiyi, who is the Branch Chairman, NASU NACETEM, referred to the appointment of Odusanya as one of such appointments.

According to him, “NASU NACETEM also called on the agency’s Governing Board to rise up to the occasion and promptly reach out to all necessary offices and departments of government that could facilitate a probe into the illicit appointments championed by the erstwhile Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, Chief Henry IKOH and his cohorts in the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (FMSTI).

“The union, while open to all meaningful dialogues and discussions on the way out of the conundrums in NACETEM, shall maintain its stand that Dr. Olusola Odusanya will not be recognised nor referred to as the duly appointed DG/CEO of the Agency because the process that produced him was grossly flawed and corrupt.”

The union opined that, “legality cannot be built on illegality and an appointment fraudulently carried out, like the contested one, would leave the appointee with the burden of illegitimacy all through his tenure in office. This should be a cause for worry to any honourable person.”

The NASU NACETEM Branch had expressed its huge disappointment in the ASURI National Secretariat over its display of desperation at the North Central Office of NACETEM in Abuja last Thursday.

NASU NACETEM Congress berated the General Secretary of ASURI, Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, for allegedly hiring hoodlums on the streets of Abuja, to carry placards on an issue they knew nothing about and made them impersonate researchers in NACETEM.

The NASU NACETEM Congress advised Ndubuaku, saying he should be the one to steer clear of NACETEM because even researchers in NACETEM do not welcome him.

 It said “The ASURI Headquarters should know that NASU NACETEM has never directed any of its actions towards it since the onset of the current struggle.

“NASU NACETEM is also using this medium to warn Prof. Ndubuaku and his cohorts to shelf the sinister plan of bringing hoodlums and rented protesters to the NACETEM Headquarters in Ile-Ife.”