By Felix Khanoba
The staff union of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has given nine major reasons for its decision to embark on strike.
The union, which began the industrial action last week Thursday, said the Executive Secretary of NIPC,Yewande Sadiku, allegedly erred on several grounds in running the affairs of the Commission, prompting the strike.
A statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday by the staff union President, Comrade Yusuf Mustapha, accused the NIPC boss of disloyalty to higher authority, favouritism, sabotage, among others.
The statement read: “The NIPC Staff Union embarked on an industrial action on Thursday 9th of July to protest against the Executive Secretary/CEO on issues including; Disloyalty to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; casting aspersions on innocent staff of the Commission;
deviation from NIPC’s core mandate by the ES and wastages of scarce resources on frivolous foreign trips.
“Negative publicity on the NIPC tantamount to economic sabotage; Favoritism in career progression by creating service based departments around personalities; double standard and deliberate tardiness on all issues of staff welfare; favouritism manifested; bias in lopsided posting of staff (with ethnic coloration) and poor understanding of Public Sector Financial Management.”
The union expressed its regret that interventions by the NIPC’s Governing Council and other relevant stakeholders to address the identified grievances failed to yield positive results “due to the Executive Secretary’s unwillingness to resolve tabled issues especially those surrounding staff welfare.”
Comrade Musapha warned that the industrial action is a serious cause for concern that must not be brushed aside by the
Federal Government.
“At a time when the COVID-19 has caused havoc on economies
around the world, the last thing government needs is the nation’s foremost Investment
promotion agency going on strike.
“The NIPC is the face of the nation as far as promoting
and attracting investment into the Nigerian economy is concerned,” he said.
But the NIPC Executive Secretary had in a statement issued by the Commission picked holes in the issues raised by the staff union.
Sadiku said NIPC has continued to accord priority to staff welfare even as the Commission has been repositioned for better performance.
She said the evidence of NIPC’s commitment was an increase in the expenditure on staff welfare from N28.46 million (5.91percent of IGR) in 2016 to N500 million (45.45percent of IGR) in 2020.
“NIPC has always made staff welfare and development a priority. Major welfare improvements were initiated by Management without being prompted, to stimulate productivity and ensure staff job satisfaction,” she said.
The NIPC boss also added that a now vacated ex-parte order obtained by a member of the NIPC’s Governing Council prevented the Commission from spending its Internal Generated Revenue (IGR).
“While the order lasted, NIPC was unable to pay for all the welfare items which are funded from IGR. It was disconnected for non-payment of electricity bills and was unable to pay for diesel to power generators and to pay the salaries of outsourced service providers,” she said.
