An over view on women appointments

No right thinking man would kick against women being put in positions of authority, so let it not be misconstrued here that this is a voice against women empowerment. But the appointment of some of these female chief executive officers leaves much to be desired.Given that as it may be, a few examples may suffice […]

No right thinking man would kick against women being put in positions of authority, so let it not be misconstrued here that this is a voice against women empowerment. But the appointment of some of these female chief executive officers leaves much to be desired.
Given that as it may be, a few examples may suffice here of controversial women appointed as chief executives of pivotal agencies of the economy.  The one that readily comes to mind and has refused to go off the memory of Nigerians is that of the director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Records and experience have shown that due process was not followed in her appointment, which drew the anger of the honourable members of the House of Representatives and distinguished senators.
Staff of SEC and other stakeholders had vehemently objected to the appointment of ArunmaOteh as the SEC director general, reason being that she has not gotten the basic qualification and cognate experience for the job. The National Assembly stood stoutly behind the staff and stakeholders in the stock exchange world, as the federal lawmakers not only refused to grant approval for her appointment, but made sure budgetary provisions for two years were denied the SEC as a result.
Well, she sat there still, and those who have been following events in the stock market allege that due to gross mismanagement, occasioned by inexperience and weak management, the fortunes of the capital market have almost eroded. The concomitant effects of this, according to stock brokers, is the steep fall of shares of companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as well as the loss of confidence by investors in quoted companies. We need not be told that all these are counter-productive to the federal government’stransformation agenda.
As if the SEC case was not a bad lesson to be learnt, we are again about to be treated to another similar misadventure. As it is now, the acting director general of the Pension Commission (PENCOM),ChineloAnohu-Amazu, is about to be confirmed as the chief executive of PENCOM that has accumulated over N4.3 billion pensioners’ fund. Before her nomination was submitted to the National Assemblyfor approval, objection had been raised in view of the suspicion that she was not only unqualified, she is said to lack the required cognate experience to head the organisation. In tandem with that, when federal lawmakers got down to business on the matter, they found that by years of experience on the job, the acting director general has not met that.
So, why all the clandestine move to lower the bar for her to scale through? Our concern here is that given the sensitive nature of pension matters, why must she necessarily be the one to manage such huge senior citizens’ fund? As it is today, there are millions of senior Nigerian citizens who have retired and are yet to access their pension money. While we appreciate the need to amend the 2004 Pension Act, we are however, disappointed by the new clause which has lowered the bar to favour a particular candidate. Are we saying in a population of about 170 million, that Nigeria has, there are no better qualified men and women to man that position? Nigeria’s interest – and very important, the interest of our suffering senior citizens – should be above any consideration. We can state authoritatively that our senior citizens’ welfare has still not dramatically improved as desired even with the current pension administration system because retirees are still spending long time to access their funds. And those who finally get are saying they are not getting enough as they were made to believe.
It is hoped that the leadership of the senate having refused to lower the bar, shall remain steadfast and not allow the PENCOM acting director general to benefit as that would portray the upper chamber and its leadership in bad light. It is our considered opinion that there are men and women with the right qualifications from any part of the country who can do all these jobs better both morally and professionally.
Again, of recent, after the tenure of Dr. Mustapha Bello as the executive secretary of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), another woman with the least qualification and experience has taken over. No sooner had she taken her seat than the NIPC workers rose against her. There is now tension at the organisation as a result, which has led to a petition by the workers’ union to the minister of trade and investment, Dr. OlusegunAganga.
The NIPC workers, who said in their petition to the minister that they welcomed the new executive secretary, added that they were shocked “seeing something unusual including the exclusion of directors on approved policies as exemplified by the council’s passage of the staff severance package.” The workers are also alleging that “files entering the ES/CEO’ office spent up to one or two weeks without directives, … was working alone (without consultation with officers with officers familiar with the tasks) while continuing to allow official mails and files to pile up in her office …” Now, all these smack of incompetence, as pile up of files, among others, according to labour experts, is not a sign of hard work.
There are other complaints the workers have made against the new chief executive, including alleged snubbing of NIPC directors and making derogatory remarks against workers. Given all these, the workers have demanded urgent intervention to prevent internal industrial action, particularly. If this is the case, it portends danger for the organisation and government must act fast and decisively to save our face locally and before the international community.
For the avoidance of doubt, nobody is losing sight of the tremendous efforts other female appointees such as Dr. NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, minister of finance, Justice MayramMukhtarAlooma, Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice ZainabBulkachuwa, President of the Court of Appeal,Mrs. Sarah Alade,immediate past acting governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and HajiyaAmina Al-Zubair, former special assistant on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the President. They are/were marvelous.
Unconfirmed sources have it that the petition has been copied to the senate president, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and governing board of the NIPC, which probably means that the NIPC case is before the relevant arms of the government for appropriate action to be taken to save the agency from drifting into industrial crisis.
But these other ones are sour tastes on the transformation agenda of the present administration. Let the appointment of these chief executivesnot create the impression that this administration has contempt for due process. It is strongly advised that if this administration is desirous and committed to its transformation agenda, the time to review the appointments of the heads of the agencies in question is now!
Kayode wrote in from Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State