BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA
In a move to ensure his unjust exclusion from attending the interview for the appointment of a new substantive rector for the Kaduna Polytechnic is addressed, an academic with the Kaduna State University, Kafanchan Campus, Professor Mohammed Yahaya, has approached the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) to wade into the matter.
In a notice of motion filed on Monday 14, March 2022 and listed for hearing on March 21, 2022, the don has taken the Kaduna Polytechnic Governing Council, Registrar, including six others as defendants in a case poised at ensuring his exclusion from list of those interviewed for the position of rector of the polytechnic is redressed.
According to the notice suit number: NICN /KD/09/2022 and signed for the Chief Registrar of the Court: “Take notice that the above Mohammed case will now be listed for motion before the National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting at No.21/23 Swimming Pool Road, Kabala-Doki Kaduna on Monday March 21stDay of March, 2022 at 09:00AM.
“And further take notice that this notice shall be sufficiently served on you if it is left at the your address for se4rvice or sent by registered post to that address and in any case where the date of service by post is material Section 25ofthe interpretation Act 1964 shall apply.”
In an open letter to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, by a stakeholder of the polytechnic, Mallam Abdullahi Mohammed, the minister was called upon to frustrate attempts by the Kaduna Polytechnic Governing to appoint a favoured candidate in the person of the current Acting Rector, Dr Suleiman Umar, whose six-month illegal extension as approved by the Council in gross violation of the Polytechnic Amendment (2019) ACT.
“Honourable Minister, the deliberate exclusion of a university don from Kaduna State University (KASU), Professor Muhammad. S. Yahaya, is a clear pointer that the Governing Council is determined at all costs to pave the way for Umar’s appointment as substantive rector. The exclusion was aimed at arriving at a predetermined outcome of ensuring better candidates than Umar are excluded from the interview process. Where in the world was it ever heard that a professor was excluded from an interview conducted to appoint someone to head a polytechnic on account of their being a professor?
“The university don, who has already written to your office to prevail on the Governing Council to rescind its decision in the interest of fairness, justice and the rule of law, lamented: “I have been illegally excluded from the interview for the post of Rector Kaduna Poly in a gross violation of my unalienable right and out of four other candidates that rose to the rank of Chief Lecturers from same institution. Three, including the current acting rector, were called for an interview while I was deliberately excluded which is very unfair. I believe I was also discriminated against on purpose in favour of selected and favoured candidates for the post, while we are all equal in the sight of the law”.
The Professor of Agriculture, who is now on secondment to KASU, from the Kaduna Polytechnic, wrote letters to the Minister of Education, Governor El-Rufai, Emir of Zazzau, Executive Secretary of NBTE, Chairman House Committee on Tertiary Education and the Senate, among others, to prevail on KadPoly Governing Council to rescind its decision in the interest of fairness, justice and the rule of law.
“I have been illegally excluded from the interview for the post of Rector of KadunaPoly in a gross violation of my inalienable right and out of four other candidates that rose to the rank of Chief Lecturers from the same institution,” he declared.
In the wake of what the don described as a deliberate ploy by the Kaduna Polytechnic Governing Council to frustrate him out of the bid for the position of the rectorship, he alleged that he was justifiably excluded from attending the interview for the appointment of a new substantive rector for the polytechnic.
Professor Yahaya accused the institution’s Governing Body of defying the Polytechnic Act by disqualifying a candidate who applied for a post of the Rector of Kaduna Poly on the ground that he was a Professor teaching in a university.
