President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday sacked the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA, Engr. Mustapha Y. Maihaja, just as Air Vice-Marshal Muhammadu Alhaji Muhammed was named as the new Director General.
A statement to the effect of relieving him from office was however, silent over the reason for his abrupt sack.
Maihaja’s four-year tenure would have elapsed by April 2021, but his time at the disaster management agency had been dogged with series of controversies.
The sacked NEMA DG had been embroiled in crisis with his local chapter of the All Progressives Congress APC as well as the House of Representatives which accused him in 2018 of mismanagement of resources as well as inefficiency.
A parliamentary committee was put in place to investigate the release of N5.9 billion Food Intervention in the North-east, N3.1 billion Food Intervention in the same region, release of N1.6 billion for Libyan returnees, release of N1.6 billion Flood Intervention for 16 states and donation of 6,779 Metric Tons of rice by the Chinese Government.
Maihaja’s tenure at NEMA left a sour taste in the mouths of Staff and management of the agency as he operated as a sole administrator, characterised by intolerance and high handedness.
Virtually, his tenure witnessed series of strikes and protests by the staff over lack of welfare and secrecy of his mode of operations as most key staff were sidelined and uncertain of the agency’s direction in discharge of its mandate.
The inefficiency of the NEMA under his tenure in reaction to disaster and emergency situations snowballed into the recent creation of Ministry of humanitarian affairs under which NEMA was subsumed.
Maihaja’s immediate sack may not unrelated to the present emergency situation and need for definitive action of battling Coronavirus pandemic nationwide.
A statement issued by Willie Bassey, the Director of Information in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), said “President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of AVM Muhammadu Alhaji Muhammed (Rtd.) as the new Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA)”.
According to the statement, the appointment took effect from Thursday, 30th April 2020, for an initial period of 4 years in accordance with Section 3 of the National Emergency Management Agency Act.
“The erstwhile Director General, Engr. Mustapha Y. Maihaja has been directed to handover all official matters to AVM Muhammadu Alhaji Muhammed (Rtd.) immediately.
“The President thanked the out-gone Director-General for his services and charged the new appointee to serve with diligence and commitment”.
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