NDLEA Chairman, Chief Ezecutive, Col. Muhammed Mustapha Abdallah
Frustrated by lack of promotions and transfer, the workers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have started agitation against the management, which may threaten the fight against illicit drugs throughout the country.
Since the past three years the workers of the agency have mounted a campaign against the failure of NDLEA management to promote the workers and also transfer the workers, as many of them have not been promoted since the last eight to 12 years.
The workers also said that some of them have served in one place for 10 to 12 years and many of the personnel who are serving in “arid areas” like Maiduguri, Kebbi and Yobe for the this long time want to leave to other parts of the country.
THISDAY learnt that this has frustrated the workers to the extend that it has started affecting their dedication to duty and many are “tempted to connive with drug suspects because their disenchantment with their work has made them gullible.”
But recently the workers of the agency had taken promotional exams and some of them had been transferred but the workers who spoke to THISDAY alleged lack of transparency in the whole exercise and a seeming unwillingness by the NDEA management to actually effect the promotion.
They argued it was to calm restive nerves that the promotion exam was allowed to take place after it was postponed many times and so much money was expended on the conduct of the exams throughout the country.
THISDAY learnt that some of the officers of the agency recently transferred by the Chairman, Col. Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (retd) have threatened to ignore the posting if the management failed to pay them transfer allowance.
According to Musa Ahmed Yusuf who spoke on behalf of concerned officers, the persistent and endless agitations of officers over administrative witch-hunt and sundry allegations of corruption are all rooted in the faulty management foundation.
“The current face off between the officers and the management has to do with a national posting by Abdallah without the necessary transfer allowance. When officers die on active duty there is no money for burial expenses, when officers are transferred, there is no money; yet, there is money every month for irrelevant foreign travels by Abdallah. This is not only insensitive and an abuse of public office but also an outright leadership failure. Where will officers get money to proceed on such transfer?
“The issues are simple and straight forward but Abdallah is trying to make them appear insurmountable due to lack of interest in staff welfare. First is the issue of lack of promotion for over 10 years. After series of agitations by officers over the criminal neglect of their welfare and career stagnation, Abdallah in a circular dated April 3, 2018 with reference number NDLEA/ALS/ADM/100/V/90, admitted his failure and inaction. He also promised to correct his mistakes,” he said.
But speaking on behalf of the management, a senior official of the agency admitted that there are two key factors that are responsible for the agitation; one is lack of promotion of NDLEA personnel over the years and the second is lack of transfer, as workers have stayed in one place for several years.
“The truth of the matter is that some people are aggrieved for some reasons. One is promotion. For a long time officers have not been promoted but this is not deliberate. The truth is that past management of the agency did not take promotion of the staff as priority. So promotion accumulated and when the new management came it has to study the situation well and it needed to establish vacancies from the Head of Service before it effects the promotion. This is because if it promotes people on his own there may not be money to pay them.
“The process of promotion has been completed. The promotion exam, which has taken place, is being marked now and whoever passed the exam will be promoted. I however, admit that some people have been in one rank for eight to 12 years; but you don’t hold the new management that just came in responsible. The new management inherited this problem. All of us are affected in this but I know the effort the management is making in order to address the problem; that is why some of us do not go about complaining,” the official said.
THISDAY
