NEPAD  CEO, Mgt Sent AWOL By Workers

by Tony Icheku

At the New Economic Partnership for African Development,  NEPAD, its a tug of war between a chief executive officer/ management team with lackadaisical attitude to duty and angry labour unions.

Thus for two days, the two labour unions, namely, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN and Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations,  Technical and  Recreational  Employees, AUPCTRE, FCT Council have shut down business at NEPAD and sent   its National Coordinator/Chief Executive Officer, Gloria Akobundu and management staff on forced leave.

Today is the third day, and there are no indications, NEPAD management are communicating to resolve the impasse.  Comrade Joel Umar who spoke to this reporter Wednesday described the attitude of Ms Akobundu and her management team as lukewarm and indifference to developments at the establishment, except on matters of appropriating funds. He explained that even after a notice was served the CEO, the only reaction  they got was to hear she has hopped on a plane to present papers on conflict resolution somewhere. "Can you imagine the irony? Someone with her house virtually on fire pursuing rats", he pondered.

The unions who have accused Ms Akobundu of perpetrating a cocktail corrupt practices, sundry abuses of office and deterioration of staff welfare under her watch, staged a similar protest in the second week of November this year.

The labour leaders added that they are determined to sustain the current protest until their demands are met.

The ASCSN chairman, Comrade Umar speaking during a rally inside the establisment's premises  alleged that "The administrative procedure is upside down in NEPAD, and Comrade Aliyu Abubakar, chairman of AUPCTRE in his own remarks spoke along similar lines. "We want a turnaround in NEPAD, lets make NEPAD work again", he affirmed.

A member of the management who refused to disclose his names told this reporter that only Ms Akobundu could react to the issues raised by the workers. He added that she may not be in Abuja presently.

NEPAD, conceived by Nigeria and the Republic of South Africa and adopted by African leaders at the African Union summit in Lusaka, Zambia, in July 2000 was set up to eradicate poverty in Africa and to place African countries both individually and collectively on a path to sustainable growth and development to halt the marginalization of Africa in the globalization process. 

NEPAD is  the African’s response to the Millennium Development Goals now Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  In other words, it is the Africa framework to achieve the MDGs (now SDG).