Re: Agric research suffers setback over refusal of directors to retire

We wish to state that this is a clear misinformation and misrepresentation of facts relating to the true situation of things at the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN). There was never a time the activities of the Council were paralysed or comatose, and the entire contents of the article were twisted and false. For […]

We wish to state that this is a clear misinformation and misrepresentation of facts relating to the true situation of things at the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN). There was never a time the activities of the Council were paralysed or comatose, and the entire contents of the article were twisted and false. For example, the Management of the Council went on field trips to two of our Agricultural Research Outreach Centres in Kiyi, Kuje Area Council and Karshi, AMAC of FCT yesterday.
Today, Thursday, 4th September, 2014, ARCN met with all the Executive Directors of our Agricultural Research Institutes and Provosts of the Federal Colleges of Agriculture. It is also surprising that your reporter claimed that Daily Trust made several attempts to see the Executive Secretary without success and formal letters requesting audience with him were not replied to. There is no record of the purported letters or visits to the Executive Secretary’s office.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to put on record that ARCN has taken necessary steps to implement the directives of the Head of Service both at ARCN and at the level of our research institutes. For instance, ARCN met with all the institutes and directed them to provide the list of Directors who have spent eight years on the position and the date of retirement of the other serving Directors accordingly. In addition, ARCN has already compiled the necessary information regarding Directors that are to retire from the Council between now and next year. Furthermore, we confirm that ARCN wrote an appeal to the Head of Service on the issue of retirement of ARCN research staff to be 65 years rather than 60 years with all the necessary supporting documents to justify the request provided.
The key issue is that ARCN research staff members have similar conditions of service relating to academic requirements such as acquiring higher degrees and minimum number of publications for them to advance to the various cadres of research officers. This differentiates the Council from other Administrative/regulatory bodies that fall within the purview of the Civil Service structure.

A.M. Ataja, for Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), Abuja