The Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi, herein referred to as FIIRO, is Nigeria’s foremost and indigenous Research Institute.
Established in the year 1956, the early leadership of the institute was provided by the then colonial masters before formally handing over power to Nigeria.
The Federal Character Act No 34 of 1996 prescribes fairness and equity in the distribution of public posts and socio-economic infrastructures among the various federating units of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Act states that, “Each State of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory shall be equitably represented in all national institutions and in public enterprises organizations.”
But since the formal take over of the FIIRO, the Federal Character Act cannot be said to have come to play. The first indigenous Director of the FIIRO was Dr. Akinreola from the South-West. He was succeeded by Dr. Koleosho also from the South-West region.
Dr. Koleosho was succeeded by Professor S.A Odunfa who handed over to Dr Olatunji, both from the South West region.
Dr Olatunji at the expiration of his two tenures as Director-General handed over to Dr. Mrs. S.O. Akinola who later after a few months handed over to the immediate past DG, Professor (Mrs) G.N. Elemo who though not of South-West extraction but is married to a man man of South-West extraction. Her appointment was initially resisted by the Yoruba community in the institute but was however, reluctantly accepted because of her marriage to a Yoruba man.
It is possible that the fact that all the past indigenous DGs of this great institute were of Yoruba extraction and could have been accidental. It should however, be noted that inadvertently, an erroneous belief that the leadership position of the institute (a Federal Government Establishment) is the exclusive right of the people of South-West appears to have been laid. This could explain why the first appointment of Professor Elemo was initially resisted.
One may be persuaded to belief that it was by accident that all the past DGs of FIIRO have been from a particular region of the country, it is however, very difficult to accept that the current composition of the management of the institute is by accident and not by design. It is therefore, apparent that the current travails of the Acting DG of the institute is a grand design of a group of people who feel that he (the Acting DG) is not from the chosen tribe and geopolitical region and therefore should be stopped by all means.
Current management structure of FIIRO
FIIRO currently runs an organizational structure that constitutes eleven (11) Departments/Directorates with each Department or Directorate being headed by a Director.
The Departments and their Directors are as listed in the table below;
Name of Dept. Director (Year of appointment)
Ethnic extraction
Chemical, Fibre, and environmental Technology
Dr Chima Igwe (2010)
South East
Food technology
Dr. Mrs. O.B. Oluwole (2015)
South West
Biotechnology
DR A.K. Lawal 2019)
Yoruba
Production, Analytical & Lab.Management
Dr.Mrs A.E. Asagbra (2015)
South West
Human Resources Management
Mrs O.A Akinfere (2019)
South West
Finance and supply
Mr J.O Oderinde (2015)
South West
Planning, technology transfer and information management
DR (Mrs) B.O Oyedoyin (2019)
South West
Project development department
Engr. Dr. W.B Asiru (2019)
South West
Procurement department
Mr Segun Omotade (2019)
South West
Extension and linkage
Mr Dele Oyeku (2015)
South West
Directorate, Special Duties Abuja
Mrs O.O Layode (2019)
South West
A casual look at the above information reveals that only one out of the eleven directors so far is non-Yoruba. There is apparently an obvious violation of the Federal Character policy of the federal government in the constitution of the current FIIRO management.
This is, therefore, an open call on the relevant authorities to take immediate steps to correct this anomaly.
Trial of the Current Acting DG: Its Genesis
The trials of the current Acting DG (Dr Chima Igwe) is a calculated attempt to destroy his image and reputation so as to, not only deny him the opportunity of aspiring to serve as FIIRO DG, but to ultimately forcefully exit him from service and complete the all-South-West Management structure agenda.
Dr. Igwe’s trials started towards the end of tenure of the immediate-past DG, Professor G.N Elemo.
Existing government regulation states that at the point of exiting of CEO of any Government Agency/Parastatal, if there is no substantive appointee to take over, the headship of the agency should be given to the most senior Director on acting capacity. As the immediate past DG was about to exit, realizing that the most senior Director in the institute is Dr. Igwe (the most senior and only non-South West Director in FIIRO Management) who will therefore assume the headship of the institute albeit on acting capacity, a group of staff of South-West extraction with alleged implicit support of the immediate past DG embarked on campaign of calumny and character assassination of the person of Dr. Chima Igwe.
The first issue raised by the group against Dr Igwe was that the university that he got his PhD is not recognised by Nigerian government. It should be noted that in the referred issue raised by the group, that Dr Igwe has a PhD certificate was not in in doubt to them at this point. Their contention was that the issuing institution is not recognized by the Nigerian government. The matter was referred to Nigerian Universities Commission who replied that the school is recognised by Nigeria.
The first attack having failed, the second issue raised by the same group was that the letter of attestation submitted by Dr Igwe was forged. It should be noted again that the group acknowledged that the attestation letter submitted by Dr Igwe conveyed the information about his acquiring his PhD. The bone of contention was that it was forged and not that the fact the information contained therein does not convey the fact that he has a PhD. Letters were written to the Nigerian Embassy in Benin Republic and to the school for authentication of the document. Replies came from both sources authenticating the document.
Thirdly, having failed in their last two attempts, the current issue of not completing the PhD programme is raised. The question now is, how come they doubt a PhD certificate they acknowledged he has in their first allegation. The attestation letter acknowledged by them as in content, a certification of his PhD degree in the second accusation, suddenly lost its contextual meaning. The information contained therein in the same attestation letter, no longer convey the fact that has a PhD degree.
The issue is not about Igwe’s PhD certificate; the real issue is that Igwe will not be DG FIIRO because of where he comes from. If one may ask, where has FIIRO management been since 2001 when he submitted the now contentious letter and has used same to rise to the position of a Director? If Igwe is not aspiring to become the DG of FIIRO today, will this issue of fake PhD certificate have been raised? It is most unlikely
The Man – Dr Chima Igwe that we know is an erudite scientist of local and international repute. He graduated from the University of Nigeria Nsukka in 1988 with first class honours degre.
He obtained his master degree in from the University of Lagos in 1990 with a Cummulative Grade Point Average of 3.46. Dr Igwe obtained his PhD in 2001 from the university of Abomey-Calavi, Benin Republic.
He is a well published scientist with over a 100 publications in Peer Reviewed Journals, monographs, Scientific magazines, Books, book cntributions, etc. He has to his credit nine (9) numbers of patents.
He belongs to so many professional bodies, most of which he is a Fellow.
It, therefore, beats anyone’s imagination how a man of such academic pedigree could be said by any sane person to be incapable of commencing and completing a PhD programme.
