Northerners In NEPC Gang Up Against Segun Awolowo - Politics

http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2016/04/03/northerners-in-nepc-gang-up-against-segun-awolowo/

There is a gang up against Segun Awolowo, the CEO of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), and grandson of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, by powerful group in NEPC, a Federal Government agency.

According to findings, the lawyer is being victimised for seeking to ensure that a high level of professionalism is achieved in NEPC, an agency like most other government establishments bedeviled by tribal brawling, crass ineptitude, and corruption.

The group in the NEPC opposed to his reforms is said to bee largely constituted by Northerners who see NEPC as their personal preserve, and that the position of NEPC CEO should only go to someone from their part of the country.

Sources said Segun Awolowo’s tenure has been marred by intrigues and problems. Within three months into his assumption of office as ED/CEO of the NEPC in November 2013 following his appointment by former President Goodluck Jonathan, four directors in the institution retired. Three of them are said to be from the Northwest.

The vacuum created by the exit of the four Directors upon Awolowo’s resumption posed a lot of challenges. It was said that he had to direct the available substantive directors, M. O. Ibrahim, H. O. Otowo and Sidi Aliyu to play supervisory roles for departments that didn’t have substantive directors.

A directive he later overturned to test the capacity of the Deputy Directors in handling their respective Departments.

Sources further stated that the group of Northerners is playing ethnicity card unabashedly, alleging that promotion in NEPC has tilted in favour of “Yorubas” under the leadership of Segun Awolowo, whereas the situation suggests otherwise.

According to an insider, “Segun Awolowo met Mr. M. O. Ibrahim, one of the Southerners they complained about as the Director, Office of the CEO/Incentives when he assumed office in 2013. He was placed in that position by the previous CEO and later by the Governing Board.

“It is a coincidence that Mr. M. O. Ibrahim is from the South-West, and he happens to be the most Senior Director after the retirement of the four (4) other Directors. From NEPC records, Mr. A. L. Ako was the most Senior Director when Mr. David Adulugba was the CEO from 2008 –2011. They were both from Benue State. Mr. A. M. Lawal, who handed over to Awolowo became the most Senior Director from 2011. He is from Zamfara State. These are mere coincidences.

“Mr. H. O. Otowo, was the Director OCEO/Incentives from 2009 to 2013, when the Governing Board brought in Mr. M. O. Ibrahim. If the aggrieved staff had this in mind all along, why didn’t they complain then and why now?

“The claim that Mr. Ibrahim falsified his age is ridiculous and untenable. The information from his personal file and International passport indicate that he was born on 9th September, 1956.

“So also the allegation that three out of the four existing Directors, Mr. H. O. Otowo, Mr. Sidi Aliyu and Mohammed A. Ibrahim were promoted at the time when there was no vacancy for the promotion of Director (2009) was not true. In fact, it was the NEPC Governing Board that conducted and approved their promotion.”

The insider who is in the know of the raging intrigues against Segun Awolowo, further revealed that “It is not true Mr. Tijjani K. Zakari was deliberately denied writing promotion exam for the year 2011. This is a ploy to destabilise NEPC. Tijjani K. Zakari was employed in 1998 and placed on Grade Level 12 when he transferred his Service from Katsina State while on Grade Level 10.

“The regulation is that he should have been employed one step lower i.e. GL. 09, in which case he might not have been an Assistant Director now. (And nobody petitioned against him for this undue advantage). He was promoted to the post of a Chief Trade Promotion Officer with effect from 1st January 2005, and subsequently promoted to the post of an Assistant Director with effect from 1st December, 2010.