By Omachi Ibrahim.
In response to SaharaReporters’ media article of 19th October, 2016 with the title “How Aisha Buhari’s Friend Exploited Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria for Her Personal Benefit” and ”Salamotu Umar on Job Raketeering” of on 2nd November, 2016, I penned this rejoinder.
Usually for me, I avoid reading sad writings, but you can’t help it when people shamelessly appear on the social media typing delusions. On these two dates 19th October 2nd November, 2016. I spent a good deal of time reading SaharaReporters’ very depressing piece of fiction on Hajia Salamatu Umar-Eluma, with unfounded allegations against the Director of Human Resources, FAAN and the poison it has effortlessly generated. This is a satanic attempt to implode FAAN and pollute the name of Hajia Salamatu Umar-Eluma and to cause the FAAN atmosphere to become corrosive and wrongly assume she’s to blame. It has become a common practice for mischief makers to use the online media to draw attention to themselves by publishing falsehoods and misleading information against well-meaning and respected Nigerians like Hajia Salamatu Umar-Eluma whose status, achievements, contributions to the growth of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria remains very lofty and outstanding.
Let me make it clear that I have no intention of joining issues online with anyone other than to clear certain misunderstanding in the said article which maybe intentional or accidental. While you’re entitled to your own opinion you must not also paint people bad with it.
In that article, SaharaReporters is creating a terrible evil. Rather than being honest, they were more comfortable accusing the Director of Human Resources, of injustice and doctoring the list of the sacked directors with the following delusions:-
“The recent restructuring exercise carried out by the Federal Government at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) was characterized by deep injustice. This manifested in the heavy doctoring of the original list of Directors, General Managers, Deputy General Managers and Assistant General Managers to be either sacked or demoted by the Director of Human Resources, Hajia Salamatu. The Human Resources Director was earmarked for transfer to another ministry and on a lower salary grade level, as recommended by the Winnifred Oyo-Ita Committee on the restructuring of FAAN. Curiously, she is the only Director unaffected by the exercise. Some of the staff she and the former Managing Director, Mr. George Uriesi, brought into FAAN escaped being demoted. FAAN insiders are convinced that she is angling for the position of the Managing Director and may succeed. Insiders continue to ask why she has been retained while other Directors were recruited because of their allegiance to the PDP were sacked”
This is rather laughable!
Recall that, the Federal Government of Nigeria did a major shake-up of FAAN recently wherein about 21 senior officials were sacked. No fewer than 10 general mangers were demoted. Many of them have earlier been placed above their qualification. And the Federal Government had been worried about the issue at FAAN such as the engagement of about 40 general managers, the creation of so many directorates that brought duplication of responsibilities and raised the FAAN’s monthly overhead to an estimated N800m or so. The organization had established that many of the general managers do not have the requisite qualifications for the position they held as a number of them (even deputy general managers) left the university barely 10 years ago and couldn’t have qualified for the offices they held. They came in midstream as political appointees. Over the years the lamentation has been that where ministers employ medium and high-cadre manpower from outside the organization with such inexperience to occupy managerial position, it impedes the progression of those who started on level 08 as university graduates rising through the ranks and garnering experience to become managers of the agency in future. Many of the top officials sacked were political appointees of the then minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah. They didn’t come through the supposed ranks.
I am sure SaharaReporters would agree with me that, Hajia Salamatu Umar-Eluma does not belong in the above category, having been employed as an Assistant General Manager, Training in the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria in the year 2000 following an astutely contested recruitment drill. In acknowledgment of her superlative performance and outstanding contributions to the development of the department she was elevated Deputy General Manager, Training three years later and eventually, General Manager, Training and Manpower Development in 2006, until her appointment as Director, Human Resources in 2012. Hajia Salamatu has displayed management intellection and patriotism over the years. One wonders how SaharaReporters came about their irresponsible, mean-spirited, ignorant falsehood about this lofty woman and give other like-minded people license to do the same.
Does SaharaReporters know that one of the ways to sanitize an organization is to let people know and see that justice will be done if workers and heads are not properly placed? If the sacked officials are guilty of the yardsticks used for their removal, does SaharaReporters has a problem with them leaving?… They can hire the best lawyers to defend them and they will get a chance to defend themselves, which is very imperative.
In regards to the action of the ministry, palpable fear and tension have gripped top management staff of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) over planned demotion of senior management staff that benefited from lopsided promotion over in the last administration.It was gathered that after the technical committee setup by the Federal Government to investigate the alleged lopsided promotion turned in its reports, it recommended that the demotion should start from FAAN.
The demotion exercise followed a petition written to the then Ministry of Aviation by the industry unions, who complained that personnel were unfairly placed in the agency.Prior to the demotion exercise, a letter was issued from the Ministry of Transport a week ago for the demotion of some of the personnel to levels 10, 12 and 14. According to information gathered, some of the affected General Managers who were demoted graduated in 2008 and 2010 and were placed on Levels 16 and 17 when they were brought into the system by a former minister of aviation about five years ago.
The demotion exercise at FAAN was as a result of a petition written to the then Ministry of Aviation by the industry unions who complained that some personnel were unjustly placed in the agency.The petition led to the formation of a committee headed by the Head of Service while the President of Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Comrade Benjamin Okewu was a member and has no connection with the Director Human Resource Hajia Slamatu Bewa.The committee which carried out what it termed ‘Operation show your certificate’ in the course of the exercise discovered that several personnel who were brought into the system did not have the required certificates and experience to hold the critical positions they were given. After the exercise, it was gathered that the committee recommended “proper placement of staff ” and also found out that some of them had no letters of employments, but rather, were absorbed into the system by “ordinary notes from some highly placed people in government.”
