President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration takes shape with cabinet composition this week, prompting a call to review previous administration’s late-hour appointments for equity and justice.

This call, which was made by a human rights group, Concerned Group, was in respect of the appointment of the Director-General (DG) for the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), Ibadan, at the twilight of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, which was described as warped and conscionable.

In a press statement signed by both the President and General Secretary of the group, Kelvin Onaolapo and Wasiu Olatiregun, respectively, said the appointment of Dr Zaccharria Yaduma was wrong and not in tandem with the rules and regulations governing such an appointment in an institute of FRIN nature.

Asking for the outright removal of Dr Yaduma as the FRIN DG, the group said his incompetence for the job has been reflected in his almost four months in office, stressing that “the appointment was based on a personal relationship with the former SGF (Mr Boss Mustapha) and this is his only credential, which has reflected in his poor outputs since assumption of office”.

The group recalled that everything about the appointment of Dr. Yaduma was outright illegal as it ran contrary to the law of Nigeria (FRIN ACT, 2018) and was complemented by the advertisement for the vacant post in some national dailies, which stated that intending FRIN DG must be, among others, a research professor within the institute and not even a professor from the university.

To render the entire appointment process ineffective according to the group, Dr. Yaduma did not even apply for the advertised post as required that “a prospective candidate must have applied for the post” despite his failing the earlier stated two conditions, and to now discover that the institute currently boasts six research professors with the required capacity and capability put into task logicality.

“It is an aberration and absurdity to disregard the law and willingly destroy an existing organogram of the institute.

The leadership of a research institute is built on competence and not ‘just a job for the boys’ and we are requesting the prompt removal of Dr. Zaccaharia Yaduma and the appointment of a competent researcher within the institute”, the statement added. (Nigerian Tribune)

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