Segun Awolowo Jnr., the Executive
Director/CEO, Nigerian Export
Promotion Council (NEPC), sits atop
a government agency brimming with
corruption, mismanagement, tribalism as well
as flagrant indifference to public service
regulations and due process. Documents
exclusively obtained by SaharaReporters show
that Awolowo, a grandson of the revered
administrator, the late Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, along with some senior staff of the
council, run a profoundly rotten agency.
The situation has provoked some insiders to
call the attention of the Minister of Industry,
Trade and Investment, Mr. Mike Enelamah;
and the Head of Service of the Federation,
Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, to the reign of
impunity in the council. In letters of
complaints separately addressed to the
Minister and the Head of Service, the
disaffected insiders are also demanding
investigations into process abuse and the
institution of genuine reforms to forestall a
recurrence.
Awolowo, who, years back, was a famous
figure on the Lagos social circuit, is living
large at the expense of the NEPC. His life of
immodest opulence as a public servant has
further exposed Mr. Awolowo is a corrupt
public officer holder. As Executive Director/
CEO, Awolowo has a six-car fleet, including a
siren-blaring pick-up van. However, officers
on assignment at the headquarters are left to
depend on car hire services. Also, only five
out of 15 zonal offices of the NEPC have
operational vehicles.
According to SaharaReporters sources,
Awolowo runs a corrupt fund allocation
system. He is said to allocate single-handedly
funds, a disregard for the federal financial
rules, given the responsibility to the Fund
Allocation Committee. This has resulted in
inappropriate and lopsided allocations to
departments. For instance, SaharaReporters
learnt that the Trade Information Department,
which is the biggest department, received
N10 million in May 2015 while N20 million
was allocated as a contingency.
Awolowo is also said to be fond of ceaseless
overseas trips at the detriment of execution
of operational duties. A travel agency ALML
Travels & Tours, with the address. 25
Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja, Lagos,
has so far been paid over N60 million for
flight tickets issued. He has also been found
to have collected monies for trips not made.
Information made available to this medium
show that Awolowo received funds for travel
to AGOA Forum in Gabon between August,
24 and 28 2015, Trade Mission to Belgium on
May 26th, 2015, Non-oil Export Trade Hub
visit to Togo between October, 15 and
16 2014 and Export Warehouse Meetings in
Maradi and Konni, Niger Republic between
June, 16 and 17 2014 and May, 12 –
14 2015 respectively. For all of the trips,
payments were, made but trips were
reportedly not undertaken. He has also been
discovered to have developed a scheme
through which he creams off money via
frivolous projects. The 2013 Nigeria Solo-
Exhibition in Lome, Togo, gulped over N170
million. Insiders said it should never have
cost more than N15 million.
Another misdeed of the Executive Director is
the practice of paying Estacode and Duty
Tour Allowances, using the rates for officers
in the directorate cadre for his personal staff
who are not in the employ of NEPC. This is a
contravention of the provision in the Public
Service Rules rule as contained in Circular No
59729/T.1/154. Awolowo also paid
N3.1million as out of pocket expenses to
KPMG consultants to cater for their flight
tickets, local transport, accommodation and
feeding despite full payment of their
consultancy fees.
The Executive Director is said to regularly
brag about his family background and the
fact that he is an in-law to Vice President
Yemi Osinbajo. Two weeks to the release of
the now controversial results of the last
promotion exercise in the NEPC, Awolowo
was said to have issued an internal memo,
saying whoever is aggrieved should write a
petition. In another memo published on
October 28 2015 and titled “Decisions taken
on NEPC Examination/Promotion Exercises,”
Awolowo approved the abandonment of the
aggregate formula as enshrined in the Public
Service Rules that a pass in one section is
the only qualification to another round/
section. This action points to an abusive
unilateral changing of Public Service Rules to
suit personal interests.
A primary source of the complainants' anger
is 2012, 2013 and 2014 promotion exercise
conducted by the NEPC management between
July 27 and 29 2015 was its assault on
Public Service Rules and due process.
Awolowo, who was said to have repeatedly
told NEPC staff that he had never heard of
the NEPC until his appointment as CEO, is
said to be dependent on the council's most
senior Director, Mr. M. O. Ibrahim, for
direction. Ibrahim, who is said to have a
coterie of loyalists in the NEPC, is widely
viewed as a champion of ethnic interests, an
attribute that has promoted the institution of
impunity, and the CEO's sidekick.
Specifically, the complainants identified a
variety of abnormalities in the conduct of the
promotion exercise. First was the alleged
manipulation of the 2015 Establishment
Budget by the Senior Staff Committee (SSC).
This, said the complainants, was deliberately
done to hurt the promotion opportunities of
staff by reducing the approved establishment
budget. According to them, the arrangement
was hurriedly made on July 27, 2015, a day
before the promotion examination and
approved by the retiring Permanent Secretary,
Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and
Investment on July 28, 2015, which post-
dated the effective date of promotion of
January 1 2015.
Another source of disaffection was the delay
in the promotion exercise in the directorate
cadre for three years (2012,2013 and 2014).
This was said to have been done to
smoothen the path for some selected officers,
despite the existence of a circular halting
notional promotion after 2011.
The Senior Staff Committee (SSC) also
deliberately provided for accounting
examination to the directorate cadre, which
was not mentioned in the establishment
budget. This was construed as having been
done to accommodate and unduly favour
some staff. Somewhat bizarrely, Awolowo
included his Special Assistants (personal
staff) in the SSC that conducted the 2014
promotion exercise contrary to the Public
Service Rules as shown in circular No
B.63433/73
Another curious occurrence was the changing
of the Annual Performance Evaluation Report
(APER) scores and cut-off marks after the
conduct of the examination. The NEPC
management, in total disregard of the
stipulated provision in the Public Service
Rules, raised the pass mark to 70% as
against the 60%-after the conduct of the
examination and without informing
candidates who sat for the examination,
something akin to changing the rules after
the game.
This, naturally, promoted the belief that APER
forms were not assessed. The belief is
strengthened by the failure of by Mr. Ibrahim,
the most senior director, to give forms back,
as expected, to most staff assessed for
countersigning. The affected officers were
awarded flat marks. A look at the Guidelines
for Appointments, Promotion and Discipline
issued by the Federal Civil Service confirms
the illegality of what was done by the NEPC
management. Tagged "Promotion Interview",
it states: " Interview/examination marks shall
be awarded as follows: a)Interview 70%, b)
APER 20 %, c) Seniority 10 % and d) Overall
pass mark is 60% respectively." While the
guidelines stipulate the presence of a
representative of the Head of Service at
promotion interviews to ensure fairness, the
NEPC promotion exercise was marked by the
absence of observers from the Civil Service
Commission (CSC) and the Office of the Head
of Service.
Similarly curious is the fact that the
examination questions were set days before
the exams, an action contrary to Public
Service Rules (PSR), and which made the
questions susceptible to leakage. The rules
provide that examination questions are to be
set at the point of writing the examinations,
while promotion exams will be conducted by
the relevant statutory committees and not by
‘external consultants’ which, in this case, is
the Centre for Management Development.
The infidelity of the exercise, said the
complainants, is evidenced by instances of
candidates scoring higher marks than the
maximum achievable and bizarre
coincidences in scores. They pointed to an
instance where two friends, Messrs Faleke
and Oyeyipo on one hand, and Lawal Fatima
B. (Nee Ibrahim), M. O. Ibrahim’s sister, and
her friend, Akande M. Ajibola, on the other,
scored same points in each section on a
written examination. This, they argued, puts
the fidelity of the exercise in doubt.
Equally dodgy was the deliberate addition of
five marks to the scores of candidates
aspiring to be directors. This appeared to
have been done to boost the chances of the
prospective ethnicity of candidates, an action
in disregard of the Federal Character
principle. The complexion of the results of
the exercise provides a confirmation of
ethnic/tribal considerations in its conduct. Of
the 16 officers promoted in the directorate
cadre, eight are from the same ethnic group.
While the promotion exercise may have
headlined the decay in the NEPC under
Awolowo, beneath it lies a raft of general
administrative malpractices. SaharaReporters
investigations reveal the NEPC as an ethical
free-trade zone characterised by falsification
of information as well as mutilation and
distortion of staff records.
In one instance, Mr Babatunde Faleke said to
have been employed on February 25, 1991,
and confirmed on February 25 1999, has no
letters indicating those milestones in his file,
including that of transfer.
Faleke, who was said to have absconded
from service, later pleaded to be allowed to
proceed on secondment but denied by the
former CEO. He was eventually granted
transfer of service to Lagos International
Trade Fair Complex. But surprisingly and at
variance with Public Service Rules, he was
later re-absorbed into the NEPC.
Even the most senior director, Mr. M. O.
Ibrahim, is a beneficiary of the widespread
malaise. Ibrahim, who should have retired by
now, apparently falsified his age. He claimed
to have been born in September 1956 and
started his primary education in 1960. His
current records, as SaharaReporters
investigations show, indicate that he started
school at the age of three years and four
months, something almost unheard of at the
time of his childhood when children started
school at much older ages. He was also
promoted to the directorate cadre in 2009
when no vacancy existed there. This gesture
was also extended to two other directors, Mr.
H. O. Otowo and Mr. Sidi Aliyu.
Down the ladder, it is the same. One Mr. R.
S. Durodoye was promoted from the
confidential secretary cadre to the officer
cadre without proper conversion as stipulated
by the rules. Also, an officer, Mr. A. G.
Ganiyu, who had earlier been issued a letter
that there was no vacancy for his promotion,
was arbitrarily promoted in 2015. The
promotion was back dated to 2011 when
there was no corresponding vacancy and in
bold disregard to the provisions of the Public
Service Rules. One Mrs. Opeyemi Abebe was
seconded illegally from the NEPC to work in
Canadian Embassy in Nigeria when her
functions had no relationship whatsoever
with activities of the council and the country.
Similarly symptomatic of the freak show at
NEPC is the case of Mr.Tijjani K. Zakari. In
2011, Zakari was denied the chance of the
writing promotion examination despite
meeting all the requirements and after being
invited for promotion interview. Another
officer, Mr. Hassan Bala, suffered a similar
fate, as he was excluded from being
considered in the 2014 promotion exercise
despite being eligible. He was also for the
invited interview and participated fully.
Within the council, Awolowo's integrity
continues to be questioned. For example, a
huge cloud of doubt hangs over the
authenticity of the letter of approval to
implement an institutional and functional
review of the NEPCl from the Federal Ministry
of Industry, Trade and Investment. The letter
is a litany of errors. One of these is the
designation of the CEO, NEPC, which out to
be known by the supervising ministry. The
letter, however, addressed him as Director-
General instead of the Executive Director/
CEO. Also, the letter was effective September
3 2015 and should therefore not be
applicable to exercises effective January
2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The doubts swirling around his integrity has
provoked loud and strident calls for full
investigation of his tenure, outright
cancellation of the last promotion exercise, a
probe of the role of the Centre for
Management Development in the exercise a
far-reaching reform of the NEPC.