It wasn’t all smooth sailing for me during my working career at the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC; I’ve had my high and low points.
Some of my low points which stand out included when I was excluded from promotion list simply because I happened to come from a different ethnic group from the Director, Human Resource and Administration of the time. The second low point was when the then Director General, DG, at the time denied us promotion for ten years just because, according to him, he didn’t want NBC to be “top heavy”, meaning he didn’t want too many senior officers at the top.
The first episode occurred after I had returned from secondment from Katsina State Government where I served as the General Manager, GM, Katsina State Television, KTTV.
It so happened that a promotion exercise was scheduled a few days after I had rejoined NBC. I checked the list of those to attend the promotion exam and found that my name was omitted even though I was overdue for promotion by two years. Thinking that it was a simple error, I went to the then Director Human Resource and pointed it out to him. I didn’t know that it was premeditated until he refused to include my name, telling me to wait till the following year. I patiently told him that the Public Service Rule indicated that since I had resumed after secondment, I was supposed to be promoted together with my colleagues, but he was adamant.
Not knowing what to do, I went back to my office and considered my next move. I again pulled out the promotion list and went through it. Then I discovered that two or three of those invited were actually on sabbatical leave outside the country; one in the US and two in the UK. All of them were of the same ethnic extraction as the director! Upon investigation I found that the director had arranged for them to travel from their destinations and attend the interview at NBC’s expense! And here was I on the ground but denied the opportunity even though their attendance was against the Public Service Rule. They were supposed to wait until they resumed after the leave.
I was so dejected, I decided to go and tell my immediate boss. I explained everything to him while he listened without interruption. He didn’t say anything at the time. He only consoled me without promising to do anything about it.
As it happened, a meeting of the Expanded Board of Management, EBOM, was scheduled in Maiduguri before the day of the promotion exercise. And my boss was a member of the EBOM. Although I wasn’t a member, I later learned that my boss and two other members met and discussed my issue just before the meeting. At the meeting, they exposed all the planned anomalies and several others being perpetrated by the director. There and then, the then DG, Dr. Silas Yisa, cancelled the approval to invite those on sabbatical leave and those on secondment to attend the promotion exam until they resumed duty as stipulated in the Public Service Rule.
On the day the promotion exam was to be held, another meeting took place where the Board of Management decided that I should be allowed to take the promotion exam.
I was sitting in my office that day, having given up all hope of taking the exam because I didn’t know what transpired in Maiduguri at the time. Then my door swung open and one of the members of the BOM, who later became DG, NBC, came in and told me to get ready to take the exam. It was this same guy that denied me and several others promotion for ten years, some even twelve, when he later became DG.
That was how I took the exam without having read anything and being away from NBC on secondment for more than two years! And as God would have it, I passed.
The same director that omitted my name from the promotion list, came to my office when the results were out, extended his hand to me and said, “My friend, you’ve passed. You’re now an Assistant Director”!
But that wasn’t the end of it. While drafting the promotion letter, he demoted me by one year. I took the letter back to him and drew his attention, thinking it was a mistake, but he refused to correct it. I went and complained to the DG, who told me to put it in writing. So I wrote, quoting the relevant section of the Public Service Rule. But before he could act on it, the DG was removed and an Acting DG was appointed. I wrote a petition to him too. He didn’t do anything about it up till the time he was removed and a substantive DG appointed. I then took my case to him too, but it took several years for him to correct it, with a caveat.
Before correcting it he removed me from where there was a vacancy for me to progress to the next level and posted me to where there was no vacancy. So, every year I and several others were told that there was no vacancy. And he refused to create the vacancies because he didn’t want NBC that was “top heavy”!
So we marked time on the same grade level for ten years, some twelve! We were not promoted until he was removed and another DG appointed. One of the first things the new DG did was to create vacancies. And he promoted us.
And guess what? The DG that promoted us, Emeka Mba, is from the same ethnic group as the director that discriminated against me on account of my ethnicity! It goes to show you that there are good and bad people in all ethnic groups.
My boss who fought for my promotion case at Maiduguri EBOM was no other than the erstwhile DG, FRCN, Ladan Salihu, together with my other bosses, Awwalu Salihu and Mujtaba Sada.
Those are the low points I had in NBC which I can never forget. And do you know that after he had retired, the director who nearly denied me promotion often came to elicit my help at NBC? And I obliged!