ARCN staff disagree with management over retirement of directors

A disagreement has ensued between the Staff of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) and the council’s management over the retirement of some directors that have either attained the age of 60 years or served for the maximum period of 35 years as civil servants in Nigeria.When the disagreement started, the Office of the […]

A disagreement has ensued between the Staff of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) and the council’s management over the retirement of some directors that have either attained the age of 60 years or served for the maximum period of 35 years as civil servants in Nigeria.
When the disagreement started, the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation (OHSF), twice, wrote to the council, directing it to retire the affected directors but the Executive Secretary of the agency, Professor Baba Yusuf Abubakar, insisted that only the governing board of the council had the right to convey the directive of the OHSF to the directors.
He said: “What I am telling you is that we have a governing board and I have been a civil servant for many years. I retired in 2010 as a director in the federal civil service, and that for me the extant regulation is to take such issues to the governing board. And I will give you an example, the Raw Material Research and Development Council also was faced with a similar issue the council is facing and the director general took the case to the governing board. When they governing board members met, letters of retirement were issued to the affected directors.
“That is what I intend to do. So, I am trying to see if we can have a governing board meeting in April so that we take all these issues to the governing board to take a decision. Our governing board is a huge governing board, made up of chairmen of all research institutes. We are not just talking of the ARCN headquarters in Abuja, we are talking of the entire research institutes.”
But the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI), ARCN Branch, Ademola Oloyede, said the disagreement will not, in any way, affect the primary responsibility of the council, adding: “The circular that stated that the directors should retire after spending 35 years in service or if the attain 60 years of age is not peculiar to ARCN, it cuts across ministries and agencies. Other ministries and agencies have been complying. We don’t know why in our case, as a council, we are not complying with that directive from the civil service in Nigeria.”
Oloyede said the workers of the council were concerned because unless those due for retirement did so, others in the system will not be promoted and the teeming unemployed youth will not be recruited.
The Chairman of the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), ARCN Branch, Abubakar Abdullahi, said the problem emanated because agriculture research council was set up primarily as a supervisory body to all research institutes and colleges of agriculture in Nigeria, adding: “The researchers are saying that they need to retire at 65 years as it is obtainable in research institutes. Since government says no, why can’t they go?
“The head of service replied, through the minister of agriculture and copied the executive secretary, telling him specifically that we are a supervisory body, just like NUC, and we are not researchers. They are not supposed to retire at 65, they are supposed to go at 35 years of service or 60 years of age, whichever one comes earlier.”
ARCN Branch Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions, Barrister Shehu Aliyu, and other officials of the Joint Action Committee of the labour unions in the branch were also at the meeting.