One Centre, Two Chief Executives
Activities at the National Productivity Centre have ground to a halt following a power tussle between Dr. Faith Robert and Alhaji Yinusa Akor over who controls the Centre. Each gladiator is armed with a letter conveying the approval given by former Presid
In the mid 1980s, military president General Ibrahim Babangida began establishing numerous agencies. In 1987, he created the National Productivity Centre (NPC). The following year, Babangida created National Road Safety Commission (FRSC). In 1989, the military president founded Peoples Bank of Nigeria. At inception, National Productivity Centre was charged with the responsibility of “promoting productivity, improvement and consciousness in all sectors of the economy.”
Current events in the Centre, twenty-seven years after its creation, appear to promote everything but productivity. At the heart of the matter is a bitter power tussle between Faith Robert, who holds a Ph.D in metabolic engineering, and Yinusa Akor, who holds an MPA, over who is truly “Director-General.”
The ripple effect, THISDAY gathered, is that top management staff of the Centre are caught between taking directives from either Robert and Akor. Expectedly, activities at the Centre is beginning to grind to a halt.
The drama, THISDAY gathered, was spawned by the claim by Akor, who is a director at the Centre, that the immediate past president Goodluck Jonathan appointed him director-general.
According to Akor, the immediate past Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Joel Ikenya, had in a letter conveyed an approval by President Goodluck Jonathan appointing him director-general of the centre.
According to the director, the minister’s letter was dated 19th May, 2015, and bore reference number HMO/LAB/114/IV. Akor told a national television station that his appointment as DG took effect on the same 19th May, 2015.
Interestingly, Akor reportedly was among the several directors who trooped out on 19th May, 2015, when his appointment was deemed to have taken effect, to welcome Dr. Faith Robert as “the new director-general.”
A top management staff captured the mood thus, “It was our immediate past director-general who led Akor and some of us, directors, to receive Dr. Robert, and he heartily introduced him (Robert) as the new director-general.”
Continued the director, “Thereafter, we held a brief meeting with the new DG. At a brief hand-over ceremony that ensued, the new DG (Robert) promised to ensure that the Centre enjoyed tremendous growth under his tenure as DG.
”We all - Akor inclusive - congratulated him and pledged our support. Thereafter, my former boss, the new DG and some of us went to see our permanent secretary, Dr. Clement Illoh. I am aware the PS (Illoh) thereafter took the new DG to see the honourable minister, and that the minister even gave him some pep talk on how to advance the Centre.”
Continued the director, “The new DG assumed office and held a maiden management meeting with us. A few days later Dr. Robert held another meeting with the staff on our welfare. Everybody was happy that we got a round peg in a round hole, that things were beginning to get better.
“You, therefore, can appreciate our shock when several days after Robert assumed office, a member of staff asked me to tune to AIT. Lo and behold! here was Akor boasting that he has taken over the office as DG ala one who had just staged a military coup,” said the officer who didn’t want his name in print.
Another officer at the Centre told THISDAY that Akor couldn’t have forcefully taken over the office of DG without the connivance of some top officials in the ministry. He claimed that certain ministry officials may have exploited the opportunity created by maintained that he had no special interest in the matter.
He said, “Yes, what if we are related by marriage? What business has marriage or family got to do with the issue of appointment? And when did it become a crime to travel with a DG of a parastatal under one’s ministry? I am not the minister. I only interpreted what is in the letter so I don’t see what I did wrong,” argued the permanent secretary.
Ministry officials told THISDAY that by approaching the president with a request for the appointment of a DG, the minister overstepped his bounds.
Said an official, “The duties of a minister are clearly spelt out in the National Productivity Centre Act. There is nowhere in the Act where the minister is empowered to nominate a candidate for the position of director-general. The appointment is clearly at the pleasure of Mr. President.”
He stressed, “President Jonathan should have fired the minister for misleading him into approving an appointment fully aware the position had been filled via an earlier presidential approval. That the minister and permanent secretary refused to act on Anyim’s second letter clearly shows that some people have vested interests in the National Productivity Centre.”
He added, ’’from the look of things it is clear that some people in the ministry were out to embarrass former President Jonathan and the immediate past SGF, Pius Anyim,’’ however adding, “this is one move that may boomerang and cause several heads to roll.”
On his part, Dr. Robert, who has a doctorate from the University of Sheffield, declined to speak on the matter, preferring to, in his words, follow “due process.”
In a brief telephone chat, he said, ‘’With due apologies, I am a law-abiding citizen, following due process and taking all lawful steps to ensure that people don’t get away with such brazen act of lawlessness, so I urge the media to respect my right to remain silent.”
THISDAY investigations revealed that with President Muhammadu Buhari yet to appoint an SGF and ministers, it may be difficult to unravel how President Jonathan came to approve the appointment of two persons as chief executive of one organisation.
Until a new SGF clears the air on the government’s choice as chief executive, Robert and Akor are likely to in the weeks to come continue to parade themselves as director-general, National Productivity Centre, Abuja.