The Nigerian Ports Authourity(NPA) has said that, appointments into the managerial positions in the agency are not in favour of employees from the northern part of the country.
In a statement issued on Tuesday and signed by its General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications; Jatto Adam, the NPA said, that contrary to a report in an online platform which alleged favoritism in its top echelon and northernizing the agency, appointments into the top hierarchy in the NPA are based on certain criteria.
In the statement, NPA denounced the report, saying that “the allegation is unfounded and riddled with untruth”.
“The management would like to inform stakeholders and the general public that the appointment and promotion of General Managers and Asst. General Managers are routinely guided by vacancy, exigencies, seniority, competency and strict application of Federal Character Principle in order to ensure equity and even distribution of positions in the organisation”.
In an official table, which was a part of the press statement, NPA showed that, out of the 302 managerial positions, ,179 positions are occupied by senior personnel from the southern part of Nigeria, while northerners occupy 123 managerial positions.
According to the NPA, “General Managers are usually appointed from the pool of Assistant General Managers who would ordinarily have been in the service of the Authority for long enough to have acquired significant experience in every aspect of the NPA’s operations”
Explaining further, it said “records at the moment, show that while some zones may have fewer representation in General Manager cadre, they have higher representation in the two other most senior roles of Assistant General Manager and Principal Managers”.
In the table presented by NPA, while the south has 179 managers, the north has 123.
Further breakdown according to geo-political zones, shows that, the south-west has 75, south-south 54 managerial positions; south-east 50. Similarly, north-central has 45, north- east, 44 and north-west 34.
According to the NPA, out of a total 228 Principal Managers the southern region leads the pack. With 60 positions occupied by the south-west as the highest; south-south, 43; south-east, 36.
The NPA also added that while north-central has 36 positions; north-east 27 and north west 26 positions.
Explaining further, NPA said: In the Assistant General Manager(AGM) cadre, the south-west again leads with13 positions; south-south,10; south-east,10. Again, the north only 19 positions. In the pack, the north-east leads with 10; north-central,6 and north-west, 3 positions.
It however added that, in the General Manager cadre, the north -east leads with 7 positions, followed by north west,5; north central 3 respectively, while as south east leads the table of GMs from the southern part of the country. It accounts for 4 positions; south west,2 and south south,1 position respectively.
The NPA urged stakeholders and the general public to “also kindly note that while the General Manager, Finance is from the South East, the offices of General Manager, Seaview and General Manager Accounts do not exist, contrary to the reports being circulated”.
“On allegations that some retired General Managers have had their tenures extended on contract in order to stop their “potential successors” from succeeding them, management asserts that this is totally untrue”
It explained that, “the two cases that were mentioned, General Manager, Human Resources Mr. Yahaya Bukar (Aug.2018-Aug 2020) and General Manager, Engineering, Engr Ahmed Rufai Mohammed(Feb 2020-2021) had their tenures legally extended for the specific reason of the completion of some of the very important projects that were started within the period of their services as General Managers. This situation also applied to the immediate past General Manager, Finance, Mr Simeon Aniobi, whose tenure was extended between Oct 2017 and October 2019”.
