NSCDC officers beg Buhari not to reappoint CG Gana over alleged incompetence
NEWS DIGEST – Some officers and men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, have called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to reappoint the Commandant-General of the Corps, Abdullahi Gana, alleging that his incompetence has dampened their morale.
Mr Gana’s tenure will expire on July 17, having been appointed by the President in July 2015.
It was gathered that while political permutation for the reappointment of the C-G is on, there is a general atmosphere of disgruntlement among the Corps personnel over alleged stagnation, non-payment of arrears accruing from staff promotion and many others.
An Open Letter, written by a concerned citizen, Israel Abiodun, and published in The Nation on June 22, had noted that the morale of the NSCDC personnel was at its lowest ebb due to alleged incompetence of the commandant-general.
According to the letter, non-payment of arrears, lack of capacity building and relevant training and irregular promotions, among others, have contributed in lowering the performance of the officers and men of the Corps.
The letter read in part: “There are backlogs of arrears ranging from the promotion of personnel that are yet to be settled.
“For instance, officers who were elevated from level 7 to 8 due to the policy of the Federal Government on the abolishment of dichotomy are yet to be paid their full entitlement.”
“No relevant on-the-job training or capacity building for officers and men of the corps, thereby crippling the potentials of officers.”
Continuing, the letter noted that the promotion of officers is now based on who-knows-who, saying: “It is not based on merit. It is being abused by the top echelon.”
“In addition, the dichotomy between the holders of HND and BSc graduate that was abolished in 2017 by the Federal Government has not been fully implemented.”
Rising to the defense of the C-G Gana, a civil society organisation under the auspices of Peace and Anti-Corruption Advocacy, had faulted the letter, describing it as a campaign of calumny against the NSCDC boss.
The national coordinator of the group, James Okoronkwo, in a statement, said the Muhammadu Gana-led NSCDC had been executing its mandate of protecting critical national assets and must not be distracted by fifth columnists envious of the achievements so far recorded.
According to the group, Mr Gana had recorded milestones in the areas of “staff welfare, capacity building, transparent management of lean resources and contribution to national food security through agro rangers program”.
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But one of the corps officers who spoke to Daily Nigerian on condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job said the security agency had never had it so bad than this time.
The source, who is a Deputy-Commandant, said: “Virtually, everything is dead. The promotion of officers and men is for the highest bidder. Our officers and men are barely trained.
“There’s no training and courses for officers and men, let alone retraining. The CG has never commissioned even a single N150 block, let alone building state commands.
“The corps has recorded and is still recording a high rate of casualties of officers and men due to lack of training.
“No state command can boast of having 10 functional operational vehicles/ Hilux, and about 90% of the assault rifles used by the Corps are obsolete and half dead.”
The staff described the success recorded by the Agro Rangers as a farce, lamenting that, “despite the huge funding from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, little can be shown for it”.
“However, only two sets of officers were trained for the program, and sadly their allowances had still not been paid.
“The recently promoted officers have still not received their letters, let alone its implementation.
In the area of administration, he said, Civil Defence is the worst run organization, saying: “senior officers are barely redeployed. A senior officer can stay in his preferred comfort zone as long as he wishes.”
“Civil Defence has no database and there is no uniformity in its operational guidelines. The last time verification was conducted, 30% of its manpower were either not qualified or had fake results.
“Illegal replacement is carried out at intervals,” the source alleged.
When contacted, the spokesman of the NSCDC, Emmanuel Okeh, described all the allegations as baseless and unfounded.
On the issue of stagnation, the spokesman said promotional examination is conducted every year and those who passed the exam were duly promoted.
He, however, said that the issue of the quota system is the only impediment that put some officers at a disadvantage over others.
He said: “Promotion in every service is every year. Exams had been taken this year. The exam is conducted every year by the board and if the marking is concluded, the board works on it and sends the list.
“And you should know that when we talk of promotion it involves a quota system. And one of the criteria that is being put in place before a promotion is done is the availability of vacancy.
“Secondly, the number of vacancies we have, and the number of persons qualified for such promotion. It is not the C-G who would come and determine who is given what position.”
On the withheld promotion arrears, Mr Okeh said no officer is owed promotion arrears.
