The Nigerian presidency has refuted reports that Akintunde Akinwande, a Nigerian professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, rejected President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment as the regulatory body for the power industry.
A statement issued by Femi Adesina, the president’s spokesperson on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 quoted the professor as saying that he didn’t reject the appointment as the chairman of the Nigerian Energy Regulation Commission, NERC, but was waiting clearance from MIT.
“Professor Akinwande said he will honour an invitation for screening by the Nigerian Senate after clearing with his current employer,” the Facebook statement said.
“In a letter, dated 26th October, 2016, to the chairman of the senate committee on power, steel development and metallurgy, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, sent through the special adviser to the president on national assembly matters, Senator Ita Enang, Prof. Akinwande said he did not turn down the offer by President Muhammadu Buhari,” Adesina wrote.
The statement quoted the professor of electrical engineering and computer science as saying:
‘‘News reports in Nigeria that I have rejected President Buhari’s nomination to be Chairman of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission have been brought to my attention.
‘‘I have the greatest respect for President Buhari. I am fully behind the change he has brought and is bringing to the way Government business is conducted in Nigeria.
‘‘I am deeply honored that Mr. President and his team thought me worthy for this important national assignment and sought me out for it. I am a tenured professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
‘‘As such I am contractually constrained to seek formally the consent of the university for a leave of absence before presenting myself to the Senate for screening and if confirmed take on the assignment.’’
Prof. Akinwande apologised to the Senate Committee for not showing up for the screening process scheduled for Tuesday, October 25, 2017, noting that it was not out of disrespect for the institution, the presidential spokesperson said.
