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…DG, ASURI draw battle line
The crisis rocking the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) is far from ending. The Director General, Professor John Oladpo Obafunwa, seems to have drawn a battle line with the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI), following his insistence on implementing a controversial policy that is yet to be resolved.
The DG has been in the eye of the storm, following his insistence on implementing a retirement policy that had been nullified by a pronouncement of the National Industrial Court, under Justice Olufunke Anuwe and a policy statement from the Head of the Service of the Federation.
ASURI has maintained that the policy does not apply to Chief Research Fellows or Research Professors in research institutions. The Union argued that Chief Research Fellows or Research Professors are treated like their counterparts in the universities. It insisted that such a policy was a threat to the research component of Nigeria’s national development and that the matter had been conclusively addressed, negotiated and resolved.
In the beginning
Sometime ago, the Federal Government, through the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, issued a circular for the federal public service, mandating a compulsory retirement of Directors at grade level 17 after eight years in that position.
However, the circular exempted those in the academic institutions. So, ASURI took up the matter, arguing that research institutions should be treated as academic institutions and should enjoy the same exemption. Following its argument which was seen as valid and reasonable, another circular was issued exempting directors in the research institutions from such a mandatory retirement after eight years in that position except when the director involved had attained a retirement age or number of years of service for retirement.
Beginning of NIMR’s crisis
According to the National Secretary of ASURI, Prof Theophilus Ndubuaku, trouble started when a circular from the Head of Service earlier this year failed to categorically exempt research professors from the controversial eight-year tenure for directors of the federal public service.
He said: “The Head of Service issued a circular last; the same circular they have been issuing in the past but she did not issue the one she normally issues exempting directors in the research institutions. We wrote to the Head of Service, asking her to issue the exemption as usual so that people will know. But she has not replied to that letter for almost one year now.”
Professor Obafunwa was said to have latched onto that loophole to unleash terror on some NIMR directors. The failure of the Head of Service to respond was what gave the DG the nerve to want to retire some research professors after serving eight years as directors; a development Ndubuaku said runs contrary to even the law establishing the research institute. He insisted that chief research fellows or research professors are legally entitled to the same number of years in service or retirement age as their counterparts in the university system.
Obafunwa’s first salvo, according to Ndubuaku, was to serve three NIMR directors a notice dated August 7, to hand over all NIMR property in their possession and vacate their official quarters on or before August 31, 2026.
Before the quit notice, Ndubuaku said the union has had a series of reconciliation meetings with the DG aimed at making him understand that research institutions were excluded from the eight-year tenure policy, but lamented that the DG refused to listen.
He stated that the last attempt to resolve the matter was with the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour, who later advised them to approach the industrial court when the DG remained recalcitrant.
To buttress ASURI’s argument that Research Fellows are treated as their counterparts in the university and that they were exempted from the eight-year-tenure policy, he cited a case of a Grade Level 17 director in the Education Department of the Federal Ministry of Education, Rakiya Iliyasu, who approached the National Industrial Court to look at the matter and offer a definite and final clarification on it.
He noted that the Court, on Wednesday, July 10, struck down the policy requiring education directors to retire after serving eight years in office, insisting that teachers and education officers are entitled to remain in service until they attain 65 years of age or complete 40 years of pensionable service.
In her ruling, Justice Olufunke Anuwe, held that the circulars enforcing the eight-year tenure rule were inconsistent with the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022. She further declared that the circulars could not lawfully apply to teachers and education officers, who are protected by the 2022 Act. The eight-year tenure as director is not a retirement condition for teachers any longer,” Anuwe ruled.
The judge agreed that Section 3 of the Act exempts teachers from a Public Service Rule requiring retirement before the statutory age or years of service. The court found that the Act’s definition of a teacher expressly includes education officers, placing Iliyasu within the category protected by the legislation.
Justice Anuwe equally observed that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, in a 2025 correspondence, acknowledged that education officers covered by the Act were exempted from the eight-year retirement policy, making the government’s subsequent directive inconsistent with its earlier position.
The court, therefore, declared as illegal, null and void, the February 10, 2026 circular issued by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, alongside the February 24 and 26, 2026 circulars by the Federal Ministry of Education, as far as they applied to teachers and education officers.
The court also set aside the circulars and granted a perpetual injunction restraining the Federal Government and the Ministry of Education from implementing the eight-year mandatory retirement policy against teachers and education officers in a manner inconsistent with the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022.
“A teacher or education officer, whether he or she got to the post of Director or not, is entitled to retire from service after attaining 65 years of age or 40 years of service,” Justice Anuwe held.
The Union lamented that the FG’s eight-year tenure policy for Directors in the core civil service was being wrongly extended to Academic/Research Professors, who are covered by the 2022 Act.
The union argued that such a development was resulting in premature and forced retirement of highly specialised researchers and professors, disruption of ongoing research programmes, erosion of institutional memory and weakening of the country’s already fragile research ecosystem.
In a notice of an industrial action to the Ministry of Education as well as Ministry of Labour and Productivity, the Union reminded them that, “The matter is not novel and had been conclusively resolved by the FG. At a conciliatory meeting on November 13, 2014, convened by the Ministry of Education and attended by the Head of Service of the Federation, it was agreed that Academic and Research Professors in Research Institutions are exempted from the eight-year tenure policy.”
ASURI also demanded the immediate suspension of all ongoing and proposed retirements under the eight-year tenure policy, formal reaffirmation of the exemption of Academic/Research Professors, full restoration of all affected officers where retirement had occurred, recognition and enforcement of retirement at 65 years, as well as urgent convening of a conciliation meeting under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity.
However, in spite of the foregoing court pronouncement and all the reconciliatory moves, the NIMR DG still went ahead to issue a notice to the three directors to vacate their official residences and surrender all NIMR property in their possession.
The notice written on August 7 and titled, “Re: Disengagement from service – Notice to handover all government properties and vacate your office and apartment,” was signed by the Director of Administration, Mr Bitrus Nelson Nimlyat for the Director General of NIMR, Professor Obafunwa.
Part of the statement read: “I am directed to refer to our earlier communication with you in respect of your disengagement from service effective December 31, 2026.
“The Institute noted that despite the letters written to you, no action on your part has been taken to hand over government’s properties in your possession, neither have you vacated your office nor your apartment. You have also not made any efforts to pay the rent for the apartment you are occupying, which is the amount accruable to the institute for the maintenance of the facilities.
“Consequently, you are by this notice required to hand over all the government’s properties in your possession, including the office, as well as the apartment by August 31, 2026.
“Please, note that if you fail to comply with the dateline, the Institute would be left with no option than to take all necessary steps to recover government properties in your possession. Please, endeavour to treat this memo with all the courtesy and seriousness it deserves.”
According to Ndubuaku, when ASURI got wind of Obafunwa’s latest plan, it decided to contact its lawyer. He noted that the Union decided to return to the industrial court to report the DG and wait for the court’s action. He also said if the court fails to call him to order, the Union would resort to industrial action.
However, when August 31 passed and the directors were not ejected from their residences, the Union thought that the DG was willing to wait for the final resolution of the matter in court before further action.
Surprisingly on October 19, the DG issued a reminder, titled, ‘Handover of government properties/vacate your office and apartment.’
The memo signed by the Director of Administration, Mr Bitrus Nelson Nimiyat, for the DG, read: “I am directed to refer to our earlier letter on the above subject dated August 7, 2026, in which you were expected to have complied as of August 31, 2026.
“It is unfortunate that you have not deemed it necessary to either hand over the government’s properties in your possession or vacate your official quarters as requested.
“You are by this letter reminded to effect the handover immediately to avoid any administrative action by the Institute. Please endeavour to treat it as urgent.”
Apart from issuing the notice to the directors to vacate their offices and apartment and hand over NIMR properties in their possession, the DG was also said to have stopped the salaries of the three directors since April 2026.
He was also alleged to have tampered with the directors’ official email addresses such that they no longer receive mail through their official addresses.
Speaking on the latest notice by the DG to the directors, Ndubuaku said: “One thing is very clear. A leopard cannot change its colour. The DG cannot change and he doesn’t have any humanity inside him.
“When he came to NIMR, we approached him because we worked harmoniously with his predecessor. NIMR is very important to us. It is serving more than 250 million Nigerians, so we try to take care of it. Even when we go on strike, we allow it to function because of its importance to the nation’s health.
“So, because of that, when the DG came, we visited him and we told him how we worked with the former DG and our expectations of him. He started shedding tears and I looked at his eyes and they were red. And I was surprised but I didn’t know that he was shedding tears because he knew he was going to cause trouble and we would come after him. It was later at the Ministry of Labour that it dawned on me why he was shedding tears.
“On the last day of the reconciliation meeting at the Ministry of Labour, the Permanent Secretary called us and told him to leave the directors because the matter had not been resolved. He even reminded him that they were his colleagues and he should know what it takes to attain the position of a director. He told him that he can’t throw them in the street. He begged him to give them time and leave them since the matter was still being resolved. He told him that if at the end of the day, the matter is not resolved in their favour, then they would have had time to plan how to move their families.
“But from what he is doing now, he is not giving any iota of respect to the Permanent Secretary. What is he going to gain if he drives them away if not wickedness?” he said.
ASURI’s next step
On what the Union intends to do with the latest move by Obafunwa in spite of the legal procedure that is ongoing, he said the Union had written to its lawyer. “It is so surprising that the man is defying the wise counsel of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour. He told him that he can’t just throw them out in the street since the matter is already a subjudice.
“Under the labour law, when a matter is reported to the Ministry of Labour, that is the beginning of a legal procedure and that can go from the Ministry of Labour to the Industrial Arbitration Panel, Industrial Court and then to appeal. So, it is a process that starts from the Ministry of Labour.
“And as a lawyer, since the matter is a subject of legal procedure, the DG should have stayed action because if at the end of the day, the matter is resolved in favour of the directors, it will be difficult to reinstate them to their various houses which would have been occupied by other persons.
“He should have been patient but he wants to cause a higher destruction of the system than he did in the Lagos State University (LASU) as the Vice Chancellor and that is why he is not bending. He is not following the rule of law. He is not ready to listen to anybody. He is on a vendetta mission against people who never did anything to him.
“Even after we thought we had resolved certain things, what we are seeing is that he is creating more problems,” he said.
It should be noted that NIMR, alongside National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency (NBRDA), Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) and National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), is among the research institutes that are pushing to implement the eight-year tenure policy.
However, it is also instructive to note that it is only NIMR that has issued a notice to its directors to vacate their offices and quarters, others are still waiting for the final outcome of the legal process.
“The entire Ministry of Education is not with NIMR. We know that NBRDA is pushing this same matter and we have dragged them to court. ASCON and NIPRD are also pushing it and we have also taken them to court. But out of the lot, Obafunwa is the only one giving quit notice, others are trying to obey the law,” Ndubuaku stated.
Obafunwa had been accused of alleged highhandedness, total disregard for established law and an attempt to treat academic/research directors as mere civil servants.
When contacted to respond to the alleged victimisation and the ejection notice to some research professors, Obafunwa denied having any problem with any director.
He instead referred our correspondent to the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation or the Ministry of Health for answers, saying, “I am sorry, there is no problem with the directors. If you have any concerns, you can get in touch with the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. I don’t have any problem with the directors, please sir.”
When reminded about the allegations that apart from serving the directors notice to vacate their apartments and offices, he has also stopped their salaries since March and equally suspended their official e-mail addresses, he cut in, saying: “Excuse me sir, I have no issues with the directors. If you have any concerns, get in touch with the Head of Service or get in touch with the Ministry of Health, please.”
