The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Tuesday denied the allegation of lopsided appointment in the agency, stating that while some zones may have fewer representation in General Manager cadre they have a higher representation in the two other most senior roles of Assistant General Manager and Principal Managers.
Recall that report of lopsided appointment among General Managers level in the NPA surfaced on Monday when news filtered in that out of 23 General Managers currently in the agency, 17 are from the North while only six are from the southern part of the country, a situation that contravenes the Federal Character Principle, which is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
However, responding on Tuesday, the NPA in a statement signed by its General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications, Adams Jatto explained that the allegation is unfounded and riddled with untruth.
According to the NPA, “Management would like to inform stakeholders and the general public that the appointment and promotion of General Managers and Assistant 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.
“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.
“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.
“Among the pool of 22 General Managers in the agency as at present, three are from the North Central, seven from the North East, five from the North West, four from the South East, one from the South-South, and two from the South West, making it a balance of 15 General Managers from the North and seven General Managers from the South.
“For the 52 Assistant General Managers in the agency, we currently have six from the North Central, 10 from the North East, three from the North West, 10 from the South East, 10 from the South-South and 13 from the South West, making it a balance of 19 Assistant General Managers from the North and 33 Assistant General Managers from the South.
“For the 228 Principal Managers in the agency, we currently have 36 from the North Central, 27 from the North East, 26 from the North West, 36 from the South East, 43 from the South South and 60 from the South West, making it a balance of 89 Principal Managers from the North against 139 from the South.
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“Stakeholders and the general public should 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.
“The two cases that were mentioned, General Manager, Human Resources, Mr. Yahaya Bukar (August 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.
“The management of the Authority is confident to say that it is guided by principles of fairness, equity and the law of the country in all its operations.”