Former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); Sir John Patrick Egesi has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to scrap the posts of Executive Director in the agency and also look in the direction of Directors and Assistant Directors in the agency for the appointment of a substantive Director General for the agency.
Former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); Sir John Patrick Egesi has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to scrap the posts of Executive Director in the agency and also look in the direction of Directors and Assistant Directors in the agency for the appointment of a substantive Director General for the agency.
Speaking exclusively with Shipping Position Daily last week, Sir Egesi who headed NIMASA (then National Maritime Authority) tasked President Buhari to discontinue political appointments at the apex maritime agency, saying that political appointees created what he called existing rot in the agency.
He stated succinctly that top hierarchy of NIMASA has been polluted by unqualified political appointees who are given positions for which they are not qualified.
He described the situation as "giving job to the boys" a situation which he argued, is killing the morale of career staff.
He described employees of NIMASA as the best trained that any organisation could have, but lamented that many of them have not been promoted in 12 years.
In his words: "NIMASA has the most trained staff you can ever think of in any organization, apart from their first degrees, most of them are trained at the Maritime University in Sweden, but the staff are not properly used, particularly when the Federal Government wants to appoint Executive Directors, they go somewhere else and bring in somebody who does not know anything about the place and this has damaged the place".
Pointedly, he said: "I would expect the President to think very deeply of sourcing the next DG from the Chiefs upward; Assistant Directors, and Directors, because these are the core trained staff"
"Government should do away with Executive Directors, these are political appointments and giving jobs to the boys, the boys don't know the staff, they just come there, it is like putting a stopper and destroying the ambitions of the staff and killing their motivation"
"When you see your junior being placed on top of you, for no reason other than tagging along with the political party or politician, you can’t be happy".
"I am a fan of (ex-President) Babaginda, but that aspect of his policy I did not agree with, he was the person that started appointing politicians into these places" he recalled.
He stressed that NIMASA is a technical organization and for it to move forward, the top echelon must know what the place is about, otherwise it would not grow.
"For years now the staff have not been promoted, it is the saddest thing you can ever do to a staff, he worked for 12 years, some for 13 years, some of the people they trained are now their boss", he added.
Sir Egesi also observed that the Directors General that have stayed longest at NIMASA are those with taproot in Aso Rock, Abuja.
"NIMASA has suffered a lot because of bad government perception, they only see the dollars they don't see the staff, most of the staff we left behind are almost getting old at a lower ranks with powerful political people sitting at the top, this hurts, because I consider myself as a father in that agency"
"The executive directors should be scrapped, the Directors should advise the DG and when the board is called upon, he will give account of his departments" he said.
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