By Sylvester Thompson
Dr Bashir Gwandu, newly appointed Substantive Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer (EVC /CEO) of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), assumed duty on Monday.
This is contained in a statement issued and signed by Mr Olusegun Ayeoyenikan, Director, Information and Protocol of NASENI and made available in Abuja on Wednesday.
The effective date of Gwandu’s appointment as the new NASENI helmsman was May 12, 2023.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as the Chairman, Governing Board of NASENI, appointed Gwandu to take over from Mrs Nonyem Onyechi, an Officer who was overseeing the activities of the agency.
The statement disclosed that Gwandu’s appointment was conveyed in a letter dated May 19, 2023 from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
Ayeoyenikan said the appointment was subsequent to the expiration of the 10-year tenure of five years each of erstwhile EVC of the agency, Prof. Mohammed Haruna in April, 2023.
Accordingly, Haruna was directed by the SGF to handover the affairs of the agency to the most senior officer pending when a substantive EVC/CEO would be appointed.
“Dr Gwandu holds a BSc and a number of Masters degrees as well as a PhD in Electrical Engineering from prestigious Universities around the world.
“He has designed many devices that are used in the telecoms, oil/gas, power, defense and aviation industries, some of which were patented in Europe and the United States.
“He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and one of the Fellows of the prestigious Institution of Engineering Technology (IET) UK since 2010,’’ Ayeoyenikan said.
He added that Gwandu is one of the few Engineers of African origin to attain the IET Fellowship ranking.
Ayeoyenikan further said that while in academia, the newly appointed NASENI boss published over 40 electronic and electrical engineering journals and conference proceedings, with his technical publications cited internationally.
Gwandu, who served as acting EVC/CEO of the NCC in 2010, was the Executive Commissioner for Engineering and Technical Standards in the NCC, supervised all directors/staff concerned with national spectrum planning among others until June 2002.
He said that Gwandu was part of a number of Nigerian Presidential/Ministerial think-tank committees including Vision 20-2020 and the Nigerian ICT Roadmap, among others. (NAN)
