The crisis rocking the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, NIMR, has taken a new twist, as the Director-General, Professor John Oladapo Obafunwa, has refused to abandon his push to retire some research professors after they have served eight years as directors in the institute.
He has, therefore, drawn the battle line with the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions, ASURI, which has opposed the move, insisting that the policy exempts research professors.
The DG is hell-bent on implementing a retirement policy that has been nullified by a ruling of the National Industrial Court, presided over by Justice Olufunke Anuwe. However, 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 and Research Professors are treated like their counterparts in the universities. It insisted that extending the policy to them would threaten the research component of Nigeria’s national development and that the matter had been conclusively addressed, negotiated and resolved.
In the beginning
The Federal Government, through the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, once issued a circular mandating the compulsory retirement of directors at Grade Level 17 after eight years in that position.
However, the circular exempted those in academic institutions. ASURI subsequently 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 considered valid and reasonable, another circular was issued exempting directors in research institutions from mandatory retirement after eight years in the position, except where the director concerned had attained the statutory retirement age or completed the required number of years in service.
Beginning of NIMR’s crisis
According to the National Secretary of ASURI, Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, the trouble started when a circular issued by the Head of Service earlier this year failed to categorically exempt research professors from the controversial eight-year tenure policy for directors in the federal public service.
He said: “The Head of Service issued a circular last year; 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 would know. But she has not replied to that letter for almost one year now.”
Professor Obafunwa was said to have capitalised on that loophole to unleash what the union described as terror on three NIMR directors.
The failure of the Head of Service to respond was what gave the DG the impetus to seek to retire some research professors after they had served eight years as directors, a development Ndubuaku said ran contrary to even the law establishing the research institute.
He insisted that Chief Research Fellows and Research Professors were legally entitled to the same retirement age and length of service as their counterparts in the university system.
According to Ndubuaku, the DG’s first salvo was to serve the three NIMR directors a notice dated August 7, directing them to hand over all NIMR property in their possession and vacate their official quarters on or before August 31, 2026.
Before the quit notice was issued, Ndubuaku said the union had held a series of reconciliation meetings with the DG to make him understand that research institutions were excluded from the eight-year tenure policy. He, however, lamented that the DG refused to listen.
He stated that the last attempt to resolve the matter was made with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, who later advised them to approach the Industrial Court after the DG remained recalcitrant.
To buttress ASURI’s argument that Research Fellows were treated like their counterparts in the university system and exempted from the eight-year tenure policy, Ndubuaku cited the case of Rakiya Iliyasu, a Grade Level 17 director in the Education Department of the Federal Ministry of Education, who approached the National Industrial Court to seek a definitive clarification on the matter.
He noted that the court, on Wednesday, July 10, 2026, struck down the policy requiring education directors to retire after serving eight years in office, insisting that teachers and education officers were entitled to remain in service until they attained 65 years of age or completed 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 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 any Public Service Rule requiring their retirement before attaining the statutory age or completing the prescribed 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 also observed that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, in a 2025 correspondence, had 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 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 issued by the Federal Ministry of Education, insofar 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 Federal Government’s eight-year tenure policy for directors in the core civil service was being wrongly extended to academic and research professors, who, it argued, were covered by the 2022 Act.
The union argued that such a development was resulting in the premature and forced retirement of highly specialised researchers and professors, the disruption of ongoing research programmes, the erosion of institutional memory and the weakening of the country’s already fragile research ecosystem.
However, despite the court’s pronouncement and the various attempts at reconciliation, the NIMR DG has remained adamant. He went ahead to issue a notice directing the three directors to vacate their official residences and surrender all NIMR property in their possession.
The notice, dated 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, on behalf of the Director-General of NIMR, Professor Obafunwa.
Ndubuaku noted that when ASURI became aware of Obafunwa’s latest moves, it decided to contact its lawyer.
He said the union had decided to return to the Industrial Court to report the DG and await the court’s action. He added that if the court failed to call him to order, the union would resort to industrial action.
However, when August 31 passed without the directors being ejected from their residences, the union thought the DG was willing to wait for the final resolution of the matter in court before taking further action.
Surprisingly, on October 19, the DG issued a reminder titled, “Handover of Government Properties/Vacate Your Office and Apartment,” warning the directors of the consequences of failing to comply with the directive.
The memo, signed by the Director of Administration, Mr Bitrus Nelson Nimiyat, on behalf of 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 directing the directors to vacate their offices and apartments and hand over NIMR property in their possession, the DG was also said to have stopped the salaries of the three directors since March 2026.
He was also alleged to have tampered with the directors’ official email addresses, leaving them unable to receive messages through their official accounts.
Speaking on the latest notice issued 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 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.
“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 alone because the matter had not been resolved. He even reminded him that they were his colleagues and that he should know what it takes to attain the position of a director.
“He told him that he couldn’t throw them into the street. He begged him to give them time and leave them alone since the matter was still being resolved. He told him that if, at the end of the day, the matter was not resolved in their favour, they would have had time to plan how to move their families.
“But from what he is doing now, he is not showing any iota of respect for 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 about Obafunwa’s latest move despite the ongoing legal proceedings, Ndubuaku said the union had written to its lawyer.
He said: “It is so surprising that the man is defying the wise counsel of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour. He told him that he couldn’t just throw them out into the street since the matter is already sub judice.
“Under the labour law, when a matter is reported to the Ministry of Labour, that is the beginning of a legal procedure, which can proceed from the Ministry of Labour to the Industrial Arbitration Panel, the 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 the subject of legal proceedings, 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 respective houses, which would have been occupied by other persons.
“He should have been patient, but he wants to cause greater destruction to the system than he did at Lagos State University, LASU, as 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 the National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency, NBRDA, the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, ASCON, and the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, NIPRD, is among the research institutions pushing to implement the eight-year tenure policy.
“The entire Ministry of Education is not with NIMR. We know that NASDA is pushing this same matter, and we have dragged them to court. ASCON and NIPRD are also pushing it, and we have taken them to court.
“But out of the lot, Obafunwa is the only one issuing quit notices; the others are trying to obey the law,” Ndubuaku stated.
Professor Obafunwa had been accused of alleged high-handedness, total disregard for established laws and an attempt to treat academic and research directors as mere civil servants.
When contacted to respond to the allegations against him, Prof. Obafunwa denied having any problem with any director, referring our reporter to the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation or the Ministry of Health for answers.
“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,” he said.
On the alleged stoppage of the salaries of the affected directors since April and the suspension of their official email addresses, the DG also said:
“Excuse me, sir, I have no issues with the directors. If you have any concerns, get in touch with the Head of Service or the Ministry of Health, please.”