{"id":46607,"date":"2016-02-18T12:26:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T11:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=46607"},"modified":"2016-02-18T12:26:04","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T11:26:04","slug":"disengagement-national-centre-women-development-onyeka-onwenu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/disengagement-national-centre-women-development-onyeka-onwenu\/","title":{"rendered":"My Disengagement From The National Centre For Women Development-Onyeka Onwenu"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the call came on Sept 13 2013, to serve the Nigerian people as DG
\nNational Center For Women Development, I took it as a call from God and I
\nanswered in the affirmative.
\nI served for\u00a0 2years and five months and did my best under very difficult
\nconditions. We hardly had money to operate and the place was badly run
\ndown. Worst, there was low moral and lack of commitment among the Staff.
\nMost spent the day loitering and gossiping. Many would not show up for
\nwork or arrive 11 am<\/span><\/span>, only to leave before 3 pm<\/span><\/span>. Some were absent for
\nmonths and we’re just collecting their salary at home.
\nMy administration changed all that. Most Staff were turned around and
\nbecame passionate about the work, appreciating also the changes they
\nthought were not possible but were happening right before them.
\nThere remained though, a remnant who felt that the Center was their
\npersonal preserve and that the position of Director General should only go
\nto someone from their part of the country. I was initially dismissed as
\njust a Musician. When that did not work, I was targeted and abused for
\nbeing an Igbo woman who came to give jobs to and elevate my people while
\nsidelining them. When these detractors could not provide answers to the
\nspate of improvement we were bringing, they resorted to sabotage and
\nblackmail. The first such salvo was fired when a Senate Committee visited
\non an oversight mission a few months after my arrival. All three
\nGenerators at the Center were cannibalized, overnight, just hours to the
\nvisit.
\nWe got over that incident and trudged on. The rest of our activities and
\naccomplishments, modest as they is public knowledge. I have never in my
\nlife been an unfair person. I never favored any group I carried everybody
\nalong. But I did not put up with deliberate incompetence and a refusal to
\nlearn, an attitude of entitlement which some people displayed. We brought
\nback a level of professionalism and commitment to deliver on our mandate.
\nWithout these attributes, the Center would have fallen apart.
\nWhen the call came for me to disengage from the Center, I took it in good
\nfaith and with thanksgiving to the Almighty, Yes some stakeholders were
\nupset and tried to make a case for me to continue. Their effort was a
\ntestimony of God’s grace on my administration, but I also knew that it was
\ntime to go. God who sent me there was taking me to a higher level of
\nservice. His infinite wisdom is unassailable. That is my faith. Besides, I
\nwas exhausted and had abandoned many personal projects to devote myself,
\n200% to the Center. The abuses and lack of cooperation from a mother
\nMinistry, from those who felt that the Center overshadowed them, to the
\nextent that they tried to discourage others from working with us, were
\njust a bit much for my comfort. I did not lobby for the job in the first
\nplace and I was not going to lobby to keep it. I actually looked forward
\nto leaving. But some people were going to exact their pound of flesh.
\nThey organized some staff, mostly Northerners, invited the Press and set
\nabout to disgrace themselves. By mid afternoon, while the Heads of
\nDepartments were putting together the handover notes, they seized the keys
\nto my official car, even with my personal items still inside. Threats
\nbegan to fly. “That Ibo woman must” “we will disgrace her”. Their Chief
\norganizer, the Acting DG, went about whipping up ethnic sentiments against
\nme. Late 2015, the same officer had gone to the Center’s Mosque to ask for
\nthe issue of a Fatwa against me, claiming that I was working against the
\ninterest of the North. We nipped that in the bud by calling a townhall
\nmeeting and asking that proof be provided. The Fatwa was denied and peace
\nreigned for a while.
\nPolice was called in to the Center to escort me out and avoid blood shed
\nas I disengaged. Eventually, in the midst of insults and name calling,
\nwith an angry baying crowd, some of whom were brought in from outside, I
\nentered my official car and left. At no time during this melee did I
\nthreaten to sue Mr President for asking me to disengage. Why would I? Is
\nit not within his authority. Even if it were not, is the Center my
\npersonal property. I had done my best and if it was time to go, it was
\nthat simpleLife continues. I had a thriving career before my appointment.
\nThe Center did not make me. I have so much to do. I am a multitalented,
\nmultifaceted and multitasking child of God. By His grace, the future is
\ngreater. So what is the problem?
\nLet me say here that The Federal Government should really look into the
\nParastatals and take note of the fact that many people who work on them do
\nnot have the requisite qualification. Many contribute nothing and many see
\ntheir job as personal entitlement. They are owed because Nigeria belongs
\nto them and them alone. Somehow, these people were given the impression
\nthat they could attempt to do what they did to me and nothing would
\nhappen. That is very sad indeed. The Ministry also has a case to answer.
\nThey helped to creat that impression. A situation where the Ministry could
\ninvite a Management Staff to a trip abroad without informing the DG and
\nthe Staff would only inform her principal via txt message, from the
\nAirport as she is leaving the country, creates an atmosphere of
\nindiscipline and anything goes. The Ministry should restrain itself to its
\nspelt out function and not undermine the authority of the DG.
\nFinally, I declare that I am a Nigerian citizen who should enjoy the
\nrights attendant to that privileged. I am Onyigbo and proud of it. I
\nrespect myself and I love and respect all for who they are. We are all
\nGod’s children. No one has the right to insult or abuse me or deprive me
\nof my rights. Nigeria will not hold unless and until we all come to that
\nrealization.
\nThank you and God bless.<\/p>\n

Onyeka Onwenu (MFR)
\nFormer DG NCWD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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