Confusion, Tension as Sacked DGs Defy Buhari’s Handover Directives
Five of the 26 heads of government agencies sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari Monday have failed to vacate office 48 hours since the directive was issued, Daily Trust has learnt.
The sacked chief executives were directed to handover to the most senior officers in their establishments pending the appointment of substantive chief executives.
Enquiries by Daily Trust have shown that some of the sacked officials have stayed put, while others that left did so in a controversial manner, handing over to officers other than the most senior ones.
This, according to our findings, led to serious crisis in some organizations such that riot police had to be called in to restore normalcy.
At the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF), sources said a formal handover is yet to take place.
The sacked executive secretary, Mrs. Asabe Asmau Ahmed, showed up for a meeting Tuesday during which she announced Alhaji Ahmed Bobboi as the acting ES instead of Hajiya Aisha Usman, who, sources said, is the most senior officer at the Fund.
“This is contrary to the directive from the government that the sacked CEO should hand-over to the most senior officer, who is Hajiya Aisha Usman” a source said.
Mrs. Usman, it was gathered, joined the board in 1997 as a manager and became a general manager in 2009 while Bobboi joined in 1998 as a deputy manager and was promoted to GM on February 1, 2016.
“The president could not have granted approval to counter a directive he issued. Some staff thought it was intended to create confusion as in the case of NIMASA,” the source said.
Mrs. Ahmed neither picked calls nor replied text messages sent to her mobile phone for comment on the matter.
At the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), sources said Mr. Ahmed Farouk has not handed over ‘for now’.
“He said there are still things to be sorted out; I don’t know what that means,” a source said.
Mr. Ahmed did not reply to text messages nor returned calls when our reporter contacted him.
Daily Trust learnt that the agency’s General Manager, Human Resources, Moses M. Mbaba, is the most senior officer at the agency.
At the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), the General Manager, Nigerian Content, Ms Jacklyn Guyil, has been acting as the ES but is yet to receive handover notes from Mr. Femi Ajayi.
When contacted, Mr. Ajayi said: “Somebody is already taking charge of PTDF; we are still working on our hand over notes. Before this recent development I went for a seminar on oil and gas in the U.S, somebody was already acting and on coming back this happened. So, the person continues to act while I prepare my handover notes.”
At the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) the feud over who should succeed Emeka Ezeh seems to have been settled.
Ezeh, it was learnt, handed over to the Bureau’s Director of Energy Infrastructure Babatunde Kuye on Tuesday, a move that didn’t go down well with some other senior directors.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Trust the Bureau’s Head of Media, Thomas Odemwingie, denied there was a tussle.
“There was no tussle. It was just that someone needed clarification on the criteria, which was validly given by the former DG. It was amicably settled,” he said
On how Kuye emerged, he said, “All the contending directors were employed the same day. So, the criteria he then used were to say that Kuye had been acting for him each time he was not around.”
Odemwingie said the first management meeting after Ezeh’s exit was held yesterday to confirm that nobody was laying claim to the post of the DG as the position was now in Kuye’s grip.
Drama as Onwenu hands over
At the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), a mild drama ensued during the handover ceremony by the former Director General, Onyeka Onwenu yesterday.
The former DG was said to have angered the staff when she sought to hand over to Mr Sadiq Umar, the director, Planning, Research and Statistics instead of Mr Abdulmalik Dauda, the director, Human Resource Management, who is said to be the most senior.
At about 2pm yesterday when the handing over ceremony began, staff blocked the DG’s car as well as the entrance to the venue, shouting at the top of their voices that she would not leave the premises until she did the right thing.
Chairman of the Nigerian Civil Service Union, the NCWD chapter, Musa Muhammed, said the staff used the occasion to express their grievances.
Fearing that the situation will turn violent, mobile policemen were called to calm the situation.
The acting director general, Mr Abdulmalik Dauda, told Daily Trust that the situation was quite unfortunate but that some level of calmness had returned to the centre after the exit of Onwenu.
He said he joined the centre in 1993, and had worked as acting DG on three occasions and that he was the one who handed over to Ms Onwenu, adding that he was taking over in acting capacity again.
“This handover was quite challenging because there was a lot of tension, and the minister had to intervene because the staff wanted to do some nasty things,” he said.
Chairman of the association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, NCWD chapter, Mr Emmanuel Omilearo, said the former Director General had deprived them of their rights to training, saying, “Since she came on board no staff had been trained, how can we improve in our performances?”.
ITF: Between Jos and Abuja
At the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), the two workers’ unions insisted the handover must take place in Jos, headquarters of the fund, not Abuja.
The former DG, Mrs. Juliet Chukka-Onaeko, was yet to hand over as at 3pm yesterday.
The leadership of the Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transportation and Corporations (SSACTC), and that of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Technical and Recreation Employees (AUPCTRE), by close of work on Tuesday, met with management staff at the headquarters in Jos, where they voiced concerns against the uncertainty prevailing over the transition, Kayode Alakija, president of the senior staffs union told Daily Trust yesterday.
Alakija said the unions raised concerns against the possibility of the outgoing DG handing over in Abuja. “Jos is the headquarters of the fund, and it is supposed to take place in Jos.” He said the outgoing DG cited security concerns, as reasons for her not to hand over at the headquarters, but he added: “We are not thugs, nobody will attack her.”
Also, sources at the headquarters told Daily Trust that Mrs. Juliet arranged for the hand over to take place in a popular hotel in the Wuse II area of Abuja yesterday, citing security concerns.
On Tuesday, Barrister Ifeoma Ihezue, the Deputy Director for Public Relations confirmed to Daily Trust that the former DG would handover to Mr. Dickson Onuoha, the Director of Procurement, but Daily Trust learnt that workers are poised for protest if she did not hand over to Mr. Ari.
In a reaction, the former DG told Daily Trust on phone that she had no idea of who to hand over to, and when and where, adding that members of the management had not told her what to do at about 1pm when she spoke with our reporter.
“The management is having a meeting with the minister (of Industry, Trade and Investment); they will decide when and where I will do that. All the handing over notes are coming from the departments, not from me,” Mrs. Juliet said.
Na’iya to oversee TETfund again
At the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), the former ES, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, endorsed the letter from the federal government and briefed the Director in Executive Secretary’s office, Malam Aliyu Na’iya, to oversee the affairs of the office from Tuesday, a source told Daily Trust yesterday.
The source said proper briefing for the hand over was in progress and would be completed soon.
He said Na’iya had assumed the position of overseeing the agency already and had convened the Executive Management meeting to brief members on the development.
Malam Nai’ya handed over the position to Bogoro after acting as the Executive Secretary of TETFund from
September 2012 to April 2014 at the exit of Prof Mahmood Yakubu in 2014.
Now he is to oversee the affairs of the agency as the most senior director not as an acting Executive Secretary pending the appointment of a new one.
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