Senate dismisses petition against NIEPA DG, Prof. Jagusah

By YANGE IKYAA

The Senate on Wednesday waded into the lingering crisis at the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), dismissing the prayers of a petition filed against the director-general of the institute, Prof. Olivet Jagusah.

The decision by the upper chamber of the National Assembly to intervene in the leadership feud followed the consideration of a report by its committee on ethics, privileges and public petitions during plenary.

The committee’s report was on a petition received by the upper chamber against the director-general of the institute, Prof. Olivet Jagusah for abandoning his duty post and operating from Abuja.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Patrick Akinyelure, in his presentation, said 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.

According to Akinyelure, those affected include Prof. (Mrs) Olatoun Akinsolu, a most senior academic staff and former acting DG of the institute that handed over to the present DG; Dr. (Mrs) Adebola Agbaje, former librarian of the institute; and Dr. Olaolu Festus, former acting registrar and secretary to the council between 2006 and 2009.

The lawmaker said the petitioner also accused the DG and the governing council of violating the rule of seniority in public service by supplanting Mrs. Abimbola Fayanju as the acting registrar of the institute over her senior colleague, Dr. Olaolu Festus, adding further that despite the fact that Fayanju’s tenure had elapsed for the past three years, no attempt was being made to replace her.

He stated that the petitioner also accused the DG of making 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, in his submission to the ethics and privileges committee, Jagusah said he was appointed as chief executive of NIEPA by the federal ministry of education with the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari on June 1, 2020.

The American-trained professor also 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, manager and administrators, with its take-off in the defunct Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo State.

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

According to him, for three months on assumption of duty, he stayed in a hotel because there was no apartment for him in which to live around the school vicinity.

Concerning the idea of relocating the Institute to Abuja, Jagusah maintained that the idea 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.

Following this development, correspondences were exchanged between the federal ministry of education, the 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 director-general stated that as at date, the institute has no enabling law establishing it, which, according to him, “has been a clog in the wheel of its progress.”

Before he assumed duty, the institute, he said, had no administrative structure and organogram, which 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.

Jagusah also said that 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, refused to adopt the three recommendations by the ethics and privileges committee over their failure to address the contentious issues surrounding the lingering crisis at the institute.

The committee, in its recommendations, had called for the cancellation of relocating the institute. It also urged the director-general to re-introduce the offices abolished and re-instate the officers dismissed.

The Senate, however, in ditching the committee’s recommendations adopted new ones proposed in amendments by the Senate leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, and seconded by the deputy minority whip, Abdullahi Danbaba.

Accordingly, the upper chamber 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 underscored the need for an enabling Act to guide the operation of the institution and provide legal backing for its establishment.