Rumpus at NIPOST Over FG’s Succession Plan

Fri, Sep 11, 2015

By publisher

5 MIN READ

– 

Staff and analysts say appointing a new postmaster-general outside the Nigerian Post Service may bring about bad blood as well as disruption of existing plans to turn the service around

THE federal government appears to be heading for a showdown over the appointment of new postmaster-general of the federation. According to information making the rounds, the federal government is believed to be shopping a successor to Ibrahim Mori Baba, who retired from the service last month after eight years in the saddle.

Irked by the development, the 12,000-strong workforce at the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST, is said to be warming up for a confrontation with President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue of appointment of a new PMG.

Enoch Ade Ogun, a deputy post-master general, DPMG, who is currently acting as the PMG, it is feared, may be sidelined when Buhari is appointing a substantive person for the position. Although there are other six other DPMG’s and no fewer than 45 senior assistant post-masters general eligible for the post, it is however, believed that the ministry of Communication Technology, has got President Buhari’s permission to advertise the position.

Irked by the development, the Senior Staff Union of the NIPOST said the decision to open the door to all-comers would invariably eliminate the top managers of the service from holding the position and reverse all the gains made by the establishment in recent years.

According to the staff, there is a plan in place to boost revenue generation of the service through the strict enforcement of the Stamp Duties Act, a scheme capable of earning an excess of N3 trillion for the federal government in a year.

“The drive for improved revenue in fact is part of the NIPOST’s financial inclusion plan and strategic co-operation with the Central Bank of Nigeria,” a director at the ministry of Communication Technology disclosed. The plan is expected to re-position the Service in line with the challenges posed by ICT and increasing global competition.

To buttress the importance of the plan, Baba Mori at his valedictory talked about the adoption of new technologies by the NIPOST for its operations with the advent of ICT. He also disclosed that 70 percent of post offices across the country had been equipped with ICT facilities.

It was learnt that the former PMG actually recommended that his successor be picked from among the crop of well-trained top managers he left behind.

The NIPOST union warned that the possible distortion of the succession plan could have an adverse effect on Nigeria’s status at the Universal Postal Union should an outsider be appointed the PMG. “A new head at the NIPOST will require about four years to learn the norm and to understand the workings of the global body,” a management consultant said on Thursday, September 10.

In same vein, Gabriel Imafidon, president, Senior Staff Association of Communication, Transport and Corporations, NIPOST chapter, in a statement signed on behalf of the union on Thursday, said sourcing for PMG outside the service would be ill-advised and also have a negative effect on the operations of the NIPOST.

“We plead that the president should drop this idea and work with the National Assembly to ensure the passage of the Postal Reform Bill. This is the real impetus needed by our workers to achieve a complete turn-around of the NIPOST,” the statement said. According to the union, the service had already started re-positioning of the agency and that all indices indicated that the workforce had worked very hard to move it forward.

Imafidon statement disclosed that NIPOST had a crop of well-trained and committed staff who could work out the survival of the agency. Besides, he said if postal industry could survive in the United States with all available technologies, it would survive in Nigeria.

He added: “For instance, NIPOST revenue last year was in excess of N5 billion. On Stamp Duty alone we made N870 million in 2013, rising to N1.03 billion in 2014. Once the Postal Reform Bill becomes law, we can hit N3 trillion a year on revenue from Stamp Duty alone.”

Bringing an outsider to the NIPOST, he argued, would dampen staff morale warning that it would take an outsider for some time to understand the intricacies of the job and the challenges of the system.

Analysts also advised the president to avoid generating another political ‘bad blood’ by unwittingly sidelining other ethnic groups in the appointment of new heads of government agencies.

“The uproar on the recent high-brow appointments that seemingly favoured one ethnic group is yet to die down. President Buhari must not do anything to suggest that he does not want to confirm a Yoruba man as the next PMG. After all northerners have held the post since 2005 till now,” Adewale Olaposi, a member of Afenifere Young leaders, a Yoruba cultural group, said.

It is recalled that the late Abubakar Argungu had occupied the seat before he was succeeded by Baba Mori, both from Kebbi State.

— Sep 21, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT

|