Former acting Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development
\nCorporation (NTDC), Mrs Mariel Rae-Omoh, has sent a petition to the
\nMinister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, protesting her
\ndemotion to the position of deputy director after her removal as acting
\ndirector general.
\nRae-Omoh contended, in the petition titled: \u201cRe: Implementation of the
\nReport of the NTDC Staff Records Verification Committee: Petition on my
\ndemotion to the post of Deputy Director, GL.16,\u201d dated March 13, 2017 and
\nsent through the permanent secretary, that she should have justifiably
\nreverted to her last position of director from where she was appointed as
\nacting director general on December 28, 2016 for being the most senior
\ndirector.<\/p>\n
Copies of the seven-page petition, which was obtained in the National
\nAssembly, were sent to the Office of the First Lady of the Federal
\nRepublic of Nigeria, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head
\nof Service of the Federation, Chairman of the Committee on Public
\nPetitions (National Assembly), Director General, National Human Rights
\nCommission, Chairman of Senate Committee on Culture and Tourism and
\nChairman of the House Committee on Culture and Tourism, among others.<\/p>\n
In the petition, in which she alleged gross injustice in the decision of
\nthe minister to approve her demotion via a March 10, 2017 letter, Rae-Omoh
\nprayed the minister to \u201crevisit the verification exercise at NTDC to
\nensure that justice is not only done but seen to be done to all concerned\u201d
\nand to \u201cgraciously take a look at my career progression chart indicated on
\npage 4, and direct my reinstatement as director.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to her, \u201cI joined this Corporation on Grade Level 12 on 2nd
\nMarch, 1992 while Mr Boniface Eboka (Director of Administration, who was
\nfirst appointed before her as acting director general of the Corporation)
\nwas on Grade Level 10 at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin the 25 years of my career in NTDC, I was denied upward movement
\nfor 5 years because of the conversion I made (see my career progression
\nchart): 1st promotion- 1995 (GL.13)-3 yrs; 2nd promotion- 1st January 1999
\n(GL.14)-4 yrs; 3rd promotion- 1st January, 2003 (GL.15)- 4 yrs; 4th
\npromotion- 1st January, 2009 (GL.16)- 6 yrs; 5th Promotion- 1st January
\n2015 (GL.17)- 7yrs (Rather than 4 years each, 6 and 7 years respectively,
\nwere spent before I was promoted).\u201d<\/p>\n
She claimed in the petition that her current travail was masterminded by
\nMr Eboka and a few staff members in his department who, according to her,
\nbusied themselves writing petitions against her for the two months or
\nthereabouts that she was in the saddle as acting director general.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Honourable Minister may wish to note that Mr. Eboka was appointed
\nacting Director General within the first week of December, 2016.\u00a0 After
\ninvestigation was carried out by the Director (Human Resources), I was
\nadjudged the most senior and was appointed acting Director General on 28th
\nDecember, 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since I assumed office, the Director of Admin., Mr Eboka with a few
\nof his staff, was never in the office.\u00a0 For two months, they were either
\nin his residence or in a cyber cafe writing petitions against me.\u00a0 The
\nfirst thing they came up with was that I have problem with my certificate
\nfor which they went to press.\u201d<\/p>\n
She queried, \u201cHow can someone whom the Federal Government of Nigeria
\ngranted a scholarship from the Federal Ministry of Education since 1980 to
\nstudy abroad be told in 2017 (37 years later) that her certificate is
\nquestionable, just because some elements who are mediocre wrote
\npetitions?\u201d and cried:\u00a0 \u201cHon. Minister Sir, my integrity has never been at
\nstake!\u00a0 Please right the wrongs.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also suggested that her investigation into a questionable purchase
\nunder Eboka\u2019s short stint as acting director general was one of the
\nreasons she became a target of petition writing.<\/p>\n
According to her,\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cDuring the few weeks Mr Eboka acted as Director
\nGeneral, he claimed to have bought a bus from Coscharis Motors at the cost
\nof N27.750m but a refurbished bus was supplied to the Corporation.\u00a0 I set
\nup a five-man committee to investigate (investigation report is attached
\nherewith).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was discovered that Mr. Aliyu Mohammed \u2013 the Transport officer, the
\nman who signed the petition to the Hon. Minister, negotiated with the
\nsalesman at the rate of N18m (see pages 8 and 9 of the committee report).<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as this investigation began, Mr. Eboka, with some members of his
\ndepartmental staff who were equally absenting themselves at a time from
\nwork, came up with another petition to the Honourable Minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result of the pressure mounted on the Honourable Minister by the
\npetitions, Mr Eboka, through the Transport Officer, petitioned the
\nHonourable Minister to set up a committee to probe me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same Director (Human Resources) who recommended that I was the most
\nsenior Director in the first instance was coerced into writing that I
\nshould be demoted from my position as Acting Director General to Deputy
\nDirector.\u00a0 This is unfair!\u201d<\/p>\n
Rae-Omoh said: \u201cWhereas I graduated in 1983 and finished my NYSC in
\nNovember, 1984, having worked in the private sector from 1985 to 1992, I
\nwas engaged in NTDC 25 years ago after due processing of my application
\nfor employment and consideration given to my year of graduation and
\nrelevant cognate experiences in placing me on Principal Tourism Assistant
\non GL.12 Step 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, it is on record that officers have been employed into
\nthis Corporation based on the same criteria in which I was engaged
\nab-initio. It has become worrisome why my own case had become different.
\nThe concluded verification exercise in NTDC and the demotions that were a
\nfall out of the exercise appear selective.\u201d<\/p>\n
She cited extant cases of recruitments on high grade levels in other
\nparastatals to question why she had been singled out for demotion in a
\nCorporation she has worked diligently in the last 25 years.<\/p>\n
She stated: \u201cEvidence abound in other parastatals that people are still
\nbeing recruited on high grade levels.\u00a0 \u00a0At the National Gallery of Arts
\nfor instance, a school mate of mine, Mrs Evelyn Otaigbe-Ikuenobe, who
\ngraduated six years after me is a full-fledged Director as at today.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe joined that parastatal four years ago.\u00a0 She had never worked in
\ngovernment and the former Hon. Minister of Culture, Tourism and National
\nOrientation, Chief Edem Duke, approved her appointment into National
\nGallery of Arts on GL.17.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother instance is that the present Director of Marketing & Promotion,
\nNTDC, Mrs. Fibi Ikilama, transferred her service from her state to NTDC on
\nGL 09 in 1992.\u00a0 Instead of going a grade level lower than GL.09, she was
\ngiven a GL.10.\u00a0 Meanwhile, she did her NYSC in 1986 while I served
\n1983\/1984.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pointed out that the present Director of Entertainment in the Ministry
\nof Information and Culture, Miss Grace Gekpe, whom Chief Edem Duke
\npromoted and created that Department for, was on Grade level 08 when she
\n(Rae-Omoh) was already on GL12 in the service.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother case in question is that one of the former Confidential
\nSecretaries here in NTDC, Miss Etima Akpan of Admin Department, was not
\naffected by this demotion perhaps because she is very close to her
\nDirector, Mr. Boniface Eboka. There are several other cases too many to
\nexhaust on this page,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Rae-Omoh said that in her twenty five years of working in NTDC, various
\ndirectors general had recruited people into the system on GL.17, listing
\nsuch persons to include Mr. J. Onifade \u2013GL.17 (Director, Finance); Prof.
\nS. Monye \u2013 GL.17, (Director, M&P); Dr. Kweku Tando, GL.16; and Barr.
\n(Mrs.) M. Utande, GL.15.<\/p>\n
Explaining that these were people who never had any stint in the Civil
\nService before such appointments, she declared: \u201cI see my demotion as a
\nmere witch-hunting and an agenda of interested parties to bringing me
\ndown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Describing the move against her as conspiratorial, she said the letter of
\ndemotion did not say she should revert to her former position of director
\nbut down as deputy director, which she was supposed to have been to since
\n2007 but which she was denied and eventually promoted to in 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cHon. Minister, Sir, is it fair for me to rise from GL.12\u00a0 to GL.16 in 22
\nyears, having laboured so hard, and as a professional to the core and a
\nhard worker\u2026?\u201d she lamented and pleaded \u201cplease revisit my career
\nprogression and place me right.\u00a0 I am supposed to have been a Deputy
\nDirector since 2007 and a Director since 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former acting Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Mrs Mariel Rae-Omoh, has sent a petition to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, protesting her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n