http://www.newsportng.com.ng Civil society organization under the umbrella of Coalition of Arewa Civil Society Groups, (CACSG) has demanded the immediate sack of the Director General, Nigeria Leather and Science Technology, (NILEST) Zaria led by prof. Mohammed Kabir Yakubu.
The Arewa group in a world press conference, held in Kaduna on Friday passed a vote of no confidence on the DG, said he could not make positive impact despite all high opportunities of economic diversification in the leather industry.
According to the Spokesperson, CACSG Comrade Abbas Aminu, the leather industry has failed in all ramifications, adding that instead of the management to think outside the box toward harnessing the leather as a product for national development, they choose to use tax payers money to personal luxury.
The Arewa coalition added that key actors in the leather industry have lost confidence in the leadership of Prof. Mohammed Kabir Yakubu, and as such, they will not keep quiet as stakeholders and an organization poised to defend the interest of their region and it’s people.
He said, “over time, authorities in Nigeria has alluded to the fact that the leather industry remains the second major viable foreign exchange earner after oil, this is also in tandem with the report of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). Also, the 2019 macro-economic outlook report placed the contribution of domestic leather production at 24 per cent of the total agriculture GDP in Nigeria.
“However, despite all these indices of high possibility of economic diversification through the full utilization of the leather industry, the only institute saddled with the responsibilities of transforming this trajectory into absolute reality has not been achieved. Could this be due to the lack of knowhow, lack of capacity to drive the institute, or the will to ensure we meet up and overcome the challenges associated with the sector?
“We want to emphatically state that the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST) under the stewardship of the Director General, Prof. M.K Yakubu has failed in all ramifications, rather than thinking out of the box toward harnessing the leather as a product for national development, he chose using tax payers money to attend jamborees across the globe and nation and making purely insincere statements and instituting centres without manpower and Infrastructure in the name of boosting the capsizing old leather industry.
“We challenge him to present the number of hides and skin the institution has been able to produced or products for the hides and skin since his assumption into office as the helmsman of leather research institute.
“We also want to ask him to provide or make public the contract files for the development of effluent treatment for Daura, in Katsina state from 2016-2022. Hence, we call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Crimes and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to invitigate the account of the institute.
“It is obvious that despite clocking 2years in office and the huge budgetary allocation to the institute, the Professor has no meaningful development in the institute to his credit especially in the areas of infrastructure and human capacity development for members of staff.
“We are worried on the level of the DG’s eye service visit to President Muhammadu Buhari’s hometown Daura to establish a 350m tanner, this visit is nothing but a prove of high level sheer incompetence displayed by a supposed academic juggernaut. We urge the DG to tell the world, the number of Youths he has trained for self sustainability in the area of shoe making and other products from leather, as a way of giving back to the society, Nigerians are informed now, the era when chief executives run to the community of current president to execute projects all in the name of eyeservice is over.
“Key actors in the leather industry have lost confidence in him, and as such, we as stakeholders and an organization poised to defend the interest of our region and it’s people PASS A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE on his personality. We see him as an enemy of our region and Nigeria at large.
The Arewa coalition also stressed that there is enough skin considering the number of rams, cows and others being slaughtered daily during festivity but because of Lack of engagement and collaboration the hides are not being properly utilized for quality locally made products such as bags and shoes.
They said that the DG ought to have been working on partnerships with leather producing factories in Nigeria to see how the research experience in NILEST is been transformed to quality production locally and for export purpose, noting that since it is a research and training institute, they expected a periodic training of young men and women by the institute for self reliance and sustainability in a bid to cub unemployment.
The group demanded that the DG should be sacked and replaced with someone with technical know-how and network to annest the potential in the lnstitute and the leather industry. Arewa Coalition
