Concerned Group, a human rights organisation, has protested Dr. Zacharia Yaduma’s nomination as the new Director-General of the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), Ibadan, and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to revoke it.
The appointment was referred to by the organisation as “a back-door appointment” in a petition that was signed by the President and Secretary, respectively, Kelvin Onaolapo and Wasiu Olatiregun.
However, the petitioners urged Buhari to reverse it on the grounds that it broke the institute’s existing law and failed to uphold morality, justice, and fairness.
The National Assembly’s Senate and House of Representatives, the ICPC, the Department of State Security (DSS), the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), and the media were all copied on the petition.
“Criminal Subversion of Due Process in the Appointment of New Director-General for Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), Ibadan” was the title of the document.
The group’s leaders pleaded with the president to immediately undo what they called a “illegal and criminal conduct” and for the already-started selection process to go through.
They said that without it, morale would be destroyed, effort would be discouraged, and industrial disturbance would not be prevented.
The “ambush of the appointment procedure set in place by the management of the institute,” as Onaolapo and Olatiregun phrased it, was condemned.
The aforementioned appointment, in their words, was “in flagrant contravention of the existing law and any known value of decency, honesty, discipline, and morality.
“This individual is not a research scientist, and there is no evidence that he applied for the position during the time for applications, let alone that he was shortlisted for an interview or that an interview was held anywhere.
“What a terrible perversion of due process and what an unbalanced, rash and impudent appointment?
On the altar of impunity and disregard for other people’s sentiments, they stated, “By the appointment, prudence was flung to the wind and due procedure served to the dogs.”
With the help of the 2018 FRIN Establishment Act’s legislative structure, the institute “enables research scientists of the institute to accept Professorial Cadre.
Six Research Scientists have been elevated to the professorial cadre since the Act took effect in 2018, while other Associate Research Scientist Professors have been created.
“Section 6 (2) of the same Act mandates that a Research Scientist Professor serve as the Institute’s director.
“According to a layperson’s understanding of the regulation mentioned above, a nonscientist researcher has no business aiming to manage the institute, just as university professors are similarly prohibited.
The organisation added that FRIN has enough of trained and authorised staff to run the institute, with six Research Scientist Professors on staff and several Associate Research Scientist Professors.
