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APRIL 2, 2007 VOL. 20. NO 25

Squabble in the Boardroom

**Mfon Usoro**

Issues of bad leadership, corruption and dissension take centre stage at the National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NAMASA), as its divided staff rise against the Director-General, Mfon Usoro
By Innocent Chukwu
It was, perhaps, not without a definite purpose that she had planned to be at Abuja last Tuesday, March 20, 2007. Nevertheless, Mfon Ekong-Usoro, the Director General of the National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NAMASA), hurriedly jetted out of Lagos to Abuja without a moment’s hesitation as she got to the office the same morning, ostensibly to attend to a more urgent, and controversial paper among the heap of documents in her portfolio: “ vote of confidence list” otherwise referred to as “a solidarity campaign list.”
The contentious list, allegedly containing names of a handful of staffers of the agency who are solidly behind Usoro in her travails as the DG, The Source learnt, was compiled that same morning (March 20) by pro-Usoro elements who were alerted by mumurings which indicated that a more organised group of staff was seriously scheming to influence the Federal Government to relieve her (Usoro) of her job because of perceived high-handedness and logger-heads with some key officers of NAMASA.
Convinced that their benefactor (Usoro), was up against a determined group which is capable of using their “Abuja connections” to bring about the sack of Usoro, the pro-Usoro camp, according to The Source’s investigations, alerted her and instantly the solidarity campaign list became an option to counter the moves of the anti-Usoro group which had allegedly taken its case before the appropriate authorities.
Investigations show that in the DG's entourage to Abuja were 35 management staff from the Lagos headquarters of NAMASA, who are loyal to Usoro, and their main tax on that day was to convince the transport ministry that the management staff of the agency was solidly behind her. On their return to the Lagos office the following morning, Wednesday, March 21, The Source gathered that the 35 management staff who accompanied the NAMASA boss to Abuja and a sprinkling of pro-Usoro staffers proceeded to chant victory songs, Usoro you don win, winner, kpata kpata you go win for ever, winner," to celebrate her perceived victory.
Indeed, the vote of confidence list was necessitated by a rancorous management meeting two days earlier, on Monday, March 19, which The Source learnt, allegedly ended in a near free-for-all exchange of fisticuffs because of “some clash of interests.” At the said meeting, The Source was told that dissension ensued when a list of workers who were indicted by a Joint Staff Disciplinary Committee (JSDC), was brought up. These consisted of workers who had had several queries in their files and were subjected to face the committee before their eventual disengagement.
The workers include, Odeleye A. Paul (13), Julius Falomo (12), John Okokon (12), S. A. Hong (12), Engr. B. M. Bello (12), Umaru Aliyu (10), Olaitan Osobu (10) and Halim Anthonia (9). Others are Mohammed A. Sadiq (9), Sarah O. Omowunmi (9)Okpala I. Ethel (8), Yusuf D. Aliyu (8) and Chinelo S. Ogu (8).
Although the number of the workers that faced the JSDC was more than 13 initially, The Source learnt that it was trimmed to 13 names due to vested interests. In the first place, majority of the workers are said to come from the former Joint Maritime Labour Industrial Council (JOMALIC) and are also of northern extraction, consequently, Alhaji Tijani Ramalan, board chairman of NAMASA, refused to endorse the list, allegedly accusing Usoro of duplicity.
Notedly, Ramalan was not a lone ranger in the squabble that brought the management meeting to an inconclusive end. The Source was told, for instance, that Oliver Ogbuagu, an engineer and an executive director in charge of operations, also castigated Usoro for sparing her protégés and wanting others to be sacked. For example, the case of Bolaji Kehinde, Director of SERVICOM, is remarkable. Ogbuagu, at the meeting, was quoted as saying that Kehinde’s case which the DG defended was a case of AWOL (Away Without Official Leave). Inside sources alleged that the servicom head while at JOMALIC, was used to traveling without official authorisation, or staying out of office for about a month or two which earned her several queries. In fact, The Source learnt that she has about six or seven of such cases in her file. The Source learnt also that Ogbuagu, a member of the disciplinary committee, had insisted that if those staff with one or two cases should go, then Kehinde should not be spared. This, sources alleged, was the point of disagreement in the boardroom meeting as Usoro allegedly tried to shield Kehinde. Ogbuagu, sources alleged, had been a sworn enemy of Usoro who at several meetings, had allegedly cast verbal aspersions on the ED for his (Ogbuagu) alleged plot to remove her from office.
These and several other alleged unpopular policies of Usoro piqued many of the management staff, forcing an alliance of sorts among the various anti-Usoro groups, who allegedly vowed to incite majority of the staff against her. However, in a swift move, the pro-Usoro workers adopted a unique vote of confidence method, which Usoro hurriedly took to the authorities in Abuja to buttress claims that her leadership is widely supported by the NAMASA staff, even though it was said that many staffers declined to put down their names.
The Source’s investigations reveal that the NAMASA boss had hired a consultant to conduct a research on the agency in a bid to determine how popular her person, policies and leadership methods are within the NAMASA.
A questionnaire was thus handed to all the workers wherein they were requested to answer questions about the former Women in Shipping and Transport Association (WISTA) president’s reforms in the agency.
However, some aggrieved workers who faulted the initiative, told The Source that it was an act aimed at revealing Usoro’s enemies so that they would either be sacked or posted out of Lagos. “This plot failed completely. She is not smatter than anybody. We really gave her the response she wanted,” one staffer volunteered.
Instructively, moves by some groups of NAMASA senior staff to frustrate the DG out of office have been on since February 2007 when they claimed that Usoro’s six-month probationary period and that of the NAMASA interim board (six-months too) had expired. The Source gathered that the board of directors of NAMASA has only six months interim period to work as well as the new director general, after which they would either be confirmed by the appropriate authorities or relieved of their appointment. Competent sources from the transport ministry stated that the interim board was appointed to hold brief for at least a period of six months pending when the agency’s bill would be passed. “That is why the board has only about six persons, instead of having a larger number of people,” the source said.
But while responding to the six- month probation issue, Usoro, through Ego Nwokocha, the image maker of the agency, told The Source that “there is nothing like a specific time (or probation period), but as long as the person who appointed her determines. If it (the appointment) will last for one day or 21 years, it is the president that would determine.”
Remarkably, NAMASA staff can be regarded as a stock that knows how to commend the commendable and condemn the condemnable. In effect, they have begun to congratulate Usoro for painstakingly approving the disbursement of the contentious car and housing loan, which according to Nwokocha, would be effective from April 1, 2007. Her words: “By April 1, everybody is entitled to the loans.” However, she outlined basic requirements any staff must meet before he or she is granted the loan.
But there is also the allegation, The Source gathered, that those under whose custody the funds are committed, are scheming to frustrate the issuance of the loan because of the interest the funds are yielding to their coffers. This, reliable sources hinted, is why there has been stringent conditions without which the loans would not be given so that at the end of the day, only a handful of workers who could boast of ownership of genuine landed property, would be given.
Indeed, the war of attrition in NAMASA appears to be raging like an inferno, allegedly splitting the agency into four different groups, with the fourth group loyal to Usoro, allegedly out to subdue the other camps. The Source learnt that in a calculated move to draw many to her side and turn them into loyal enemies, Usoro allegedly promised to reward those who wrote and signed their signature on the vote of confidence list, with immediate promotion. According to investigations, the promotion apple will be used to effectively deplete the camps of anti-Usoro staff.
However, it seems that while Usoro wrestles gallantly to free herself from the tenacious grip of her staff-detractors, her main albatross remains schemes to expose her alleged excesses in order to nail her. Based on the fore-going, several petitions have been written to the presidency and the transport ministry in order to stop the DG from further holding sway at the agency. Even though the petitioners acknowledge the fact that the NAMASA boss has some People’s Democratic Party PDP chieftains and one “Madam Bakassi”, a close ally of President Olusegun Obasanjo, giving her shield, they are not relenting in their quest to expose their boss' alleged inadequacies.
In one of the petitions titled: “Aid-memoir on the Appointment of Mrs. Mfon Usoro as Director General of the NAMASA and Some of her Observed Excesses So Far in the Running of the Agency…”, made available to The Source, the “concerned staff of NAMASA” alleged that Ferdinand Agu, an architect and a former DG of the defunct National Maritime Authority (NMA), is still a defacto director general of NAMASA as he is allegedly using Usoro as a proxy to run the agency.
According to the petition, at one time, precisely a few weeks after her appointment, Usoro on a particular day, “was sighted with the former Director-General, Agu and the former Director of Finance, Mrs. Ezeala, at the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja. “Our surveillance team confirmed that Mr. Agu, a very close friend of Usoro did not leave the hotel room of the new DG-NAMASA until 3.45am...”, the petition said.
The petition added: “Few days after, the reasons and conclusions of that meeting emerged. The DG-NAMASA obtained approval from the Honourable Minister of Transport to travel to London to change signature mandates, as well as reconcile the various foreign account... excluding the name of the Executive Director, Administration, Finance and Corporate services, Dr. S.A. Dosumu…”
Besides, they further alleged that at one time, Usoro approved the sum of £15,000 and £9,500 for medical treatments for Ezeala and a daughter of one Ajia Musa, both close friends of the DG. But whereas Musa’s daughter reportedly used the money for that purpose, Ezeala was allegedly seen around two days after her purported travel – an indication that the said amount might have been misapplied. But the petitioners’ main grouse is that the approval was hastily done and never passed through due process.
Contending that the liaison between Agu who was sacked in 2004 and Usoro, rubs off negatively on NAMASA, the concerned staff alleged that whereas Usoro pretends to be prudent with the agency’s funds, her frequent overseas trips have, in fact, turned out to be a drain-pipe for the maritime regulatory body’s funds.
Also on the list of the allegations is a call to the authorities to quickly order a probe into the N200million contract awarded to Usoro by the NMA before her appointment. The whopping sum, which they claimed was over- bloated, was paid to Usoro, “a 1998 Maritime Law graduate”, to draft the Cabotage Bill, Merchant Shipping Bill, Cabotage Regulation, Cabotage Bareboat and the NAMASA bill.
The petitioners, therefore want the Federal Government to investigate how Usoro won the N200million contract which the writers allege was not the least quotation inspite of the fact that it also did not follow due process.
According to the petitioners, if Usoro must be allowed to run NAMASA, she must be compelled to account for her past involvement in the NMA financial dealings, especially the bill drafting contract which saw the authority lose so much funds. In their view, Usoro is now in NAMASA to protect the N1.49billion Wreck Removal contract allegedly awarded by an out-gone minister of transport without due process been followed. NAMASA has since then paid 25 per cent of the said sum which amounted to about N339,481,437.50.
The image maker of NAMASA, Nwokocha, responded to some of the issues when The Source sough her reaction. But there were others she requested more time to enable her study in order to react appropriately. On the vote of confidence list, she said "it was a spontaneous reaction of the staff to appreciate the DG. If outsiders can congratulate the DG on her efforts, why can't insiders do so., she queried." Reminded that there was a division within the ranks of the staff, Nwokocha said: Everybody must not agree with you."
The NAMASA image-maker also confirmed the consultant's research, adding that "there is a management consultant to do staff auditing." On the Kehinde issue, Nwokocha said: "I'm not part of the board, so, I wouldn't know whether such happened. I will find out from the ED (Executive Director) who supervises issues of personnel."