By Stephen Ubanna
As a career staff of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and now the maritime regulatory agency Director General, Bashir Jamoh, appear to have realised that the only way to get the agency staff’ committed and dedicated to do its ideals as professionals and move the nation’s maritime sector to the next level is to take interest on their welfare, particular, in the area of promotion.
Given what he and some his contemporaries had passed through in the agency in the past, stagnated promotion, he did not want other staff coming behind them to suffer the same thing. It was therefore, not very surprising that he has effectively used his position as the agency Director General, which qualifies him to be a member of the Board of Directors to the advantage of the workers by ensuring their promotion as when due over the last three years.
Signs emerged that it was a dawn of a new era in the Organisation when he got the Asita.O.Asita , led Board to approve the promotion of no fewer than 586 staff to various levels including nine Directors barely five months in office in August 2020.
He may have used the first promotion exercise of the staff in 2020, to water the ground and to tell the staff of the good things to come in the years ahead. Many had seen the first promotion exercise in NIMASA, under his Leadership, as an indictment on Dakuku Peterside, a Rivers state born politician and former Director General of the agency who was supposed to have carried out the promotion exercise but failed to do so.
The latest of the promotion exercise was said to have been carried out by the NIMASA Board at the instance of the ever-smiling Jamoh, to coincide with his three years in office, fueling speculations why the staff and the industry stakeholders are routing for the incoming Administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of the ruling All Progressive Congress , APC, to retain him for a second term in office because of his outstanding contributions to the nation’s maritime sector, which is unequaled in the nation’s maritime domain by the records of any former CEO, of the agency.
This time around, he was aid to have got the Asita led NIMASA Board of Directors to approve the promotion to a little over 500 staff, comprising of the promotion of 22 Assistant Directors to Deputy Directors, 86 Chief to Assistant Directors, and 400 other staff to their next grade levels as their Easter and their Ramada. Presents. Note that this is the fourth Promotion exercise to be carried out by the Jamoh’s Administration in NIMASA, in three years.
Jamoh, the NIMASA , boss may have sent a message to the Deputy Directors , wishing to move to the next level, which is the enviable Director’s position, that they need to work hard for it as there is no short –cut to promotion ,except on merit.
This is evident with the recent elevation of Mrs. Olubusola Obasanjo-Akande, the younger sister of Senator Iyabo-Obasanjo both daughters of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Christopher Amakulo as Directors, which now makes them members of the agency management team.
Until the recent promotion exercise in the agency was made public, Jamoh, the agency Director General was said to have taken to his official Twitter on Tuesday, April, 4, 2023, to make the announcement that the Board has promoted 510 workers of the agency. Sharing the cheery news on his Twitter, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, he had said that the affected stated comprise 110 Management-level staff and 400 non-management –level employees.
The agency Public Relations Department under the close watch of Edward Osagie, an Assistant Director, may have been encouraged to issue a Statement on the approved promotion list by the Board when he got the approval of Jamoh to do so.
Informed sources told The Value News that the agency governing Board had ratified the new promotion list during a recent meeting in Lagos, the nation’s Commercial nerve centre. The NIMASA boss, may have unbarred his mind when he noted that ‘’the Board’s determination to boost the morale of staff by ensuring that their promotion exercise takes place as when due’’, deserves commendation , urging them ‘’to see it as a call to duty on the higher task’’.
An elated NIMASA Director General had said that that he is glad that the Asita led governing Board of the agency has ‘’kept faith with the promise to boost staff morale through the annual promotion exercises’’, which he had said is aimed at ‘’ensuring that the staff remain committed to the ideals of the agency , while helping the management to actualise its mandate’’.
The release of the list of promoted staff was said to have thrown the agency office at Apapa into a of sort festival as the staff move from ne Department to another to felicitate with the beneficiaries while those who were not promoted are hoping to be part of it in the next promotion exercise.
