Leadership crisis hits education parastatals as tenure of Oloyede, Rasheed, 15 others end

OVER 17 parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education are facing leadership crises as the tenure of all the chief executive officers are said to have expired with no clear directive from the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, to the affected officers on whether to hand over to the next person in command or continue their work. 

Nigerian Tribune checks on Monday revealed apparent confusion in some of the agencies while some of the affected chief executive officers have stopped work following the expiration of their tenure. 

Most chief executives in education parastatals were appointed on August 1, 2016 and inaugurated on August 2, with a four-year tenure, which expired on Monday. Notable on the list of affected officers is the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede, who reportedly stayed away from office on Monday.

Others affected are Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Rasheed; Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Board (UBEC), Dr Hameed Boboyi; National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB), Professor Ifeoma Isiugo-Abanihe. 

Also affected are: Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Professor Josiah Ajiboye; Computer Registration Council of Nigeria (CRCN), Afolabi Aderinto; National Teachers Institute (NTI), Professor Garba Dahuwa Azare; and Librarian Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN), Professor Michael Afolabi. 

Other heads of the agencies affected are National Mathematical Centre, Shedda, Professor Steven Ejugwu Onah; National Institute of Nigerian Languages, Professor Chinyere Ohiri-Aniche; National Library of Nigeria, Professor Lanre Aina; National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education, Professor Abba Haladu; and Nomadic Education Commission, Professor Bashir Usman. 

Meanwhile, as lobbying is being intensified for the plum jobs, analysts believe that there is no vacancy in NUC, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and JAMB, as the trio are said to have delivered excellently on their mandate and are likely to have their tenure renewed. Minister of State for Education, Honourable Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, also spoke eloquently about Professor Josiah Ajiboye, of TRCN, while appearing on National Television Authority (NTA), on Monday, where he noted that Ajiboye lifted the council hitherto unknown to a household name, by bringing issues of teachers to the front burner while ensuring that only qualified teachers are allowed to teach children in classroom in the country. 

Quite a number of the heads of the agencies were said by the analysts to have performed abysmally low that would not require any form of tenure extension. 

“This is one of the reasons the Federal Government decided to allow everyone to hand over. When the Minister is announcing the new heads of the agencies, those who merit to be returned would be called back,” a source close to the Minister of Education said. 

The National Secondary School Education Commission (NSSEC), National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), NECO, and National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) all have their new chief executives recently appointed by the Federal Government. The pen in the hand of Minister Adamu will determine who goes, who stays or who comes back. 

Checks at some parastatals indicated some of the chief executives have handed over, as was the case of Oloyede of JAMB, who is said to have handed over the baton of leadership to the Board’s director of Information Technology Services, Fabian Okoro. 

Nigerian Tribune gathered the JAMB’s the Director of Test Administration, Yusuf Lawal, who was employed by the Board in 1989, and is senior to Mr Okoro in ranking, is currently away out of the examination body for training. 

Efforts to confirm from the Permanent Secretary why the Federal Government has failed to give necessary directive on who the outgoing heads of agencies should hand over to or appointment of acting or new chief executives, proved abortive as text message to his mobile line is yet to be responded to at the time of filing this report. 

Meanwhile, a former Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Peter Okebukola has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to consider reappointment of both Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, and Professor Is-haq Oloyede as Executive Secretary of NUC and Registrar of JAMB respectively. The renowned educationist in a statement on Monday in Abuja described the duo as two pillars of higher education in Nigeria that should keep leading the Nigerian university system.

The first tenure of both Adamu Rasheed and Is-haq Oloyede, ended on 1st August 2021 alongside other heads of 15 parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education. But Okebukola, while calling for the renewal of the tenure of the duo, said the tenure of Professor Rasheed as Executive Secretary NUC and that of Professor Oloyede as Registrar of JAMB had been marked by unprecedented success.

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