By Ebitonye Akpodigha
Nominee for the Chairmanship of Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Prof Akintunde Ibitayo Akinwande, has denied reports that he turned down President Muhammadu Buhari’s call to him to serve his fatherland.
A statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, disclosed that Prof Akinwande failed to honour Senate screening on Tuesday, October 25, 2016, because he did not get approval from his present workplace to go for the exercise.
The NERC chairman designate was quoted in the statement to have said he would honour an invitation for screening by the Senate after clearing with his current employer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.
“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 honoured 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,” he was quoted to have explained in the letter dated October 26, 2016.
According to Mr Adesina, the letter was sent to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, Mr Enyinnaya Abaribe, through the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Mr Ita Enang.
Prof Akinwande, however, apologized to the Senate Committee, emphasising that his absence for the screening was not out of disrespect for the institution.
