I had just finished my weekly meeting with the Executive members of Ashaka Cement Factory Pensioners association, a weekly meeting that had been religiously attended by all the members to discuss on issues bordering on retirement benefits of the staff of the factory when Muhammed the office assistant of Gombe branch office of the NSITF brought my cell phone with a call in waiting. It is apparent I didn’t know the caller since there was no name attached to the number but it didn’t make any difference to me as with or without the name I would still take the call, as a marketer several calls from my clients do frequent my phone and majority of them without names attached. Immediately I took the phone, a voice just emerged My Name is Useni Elama I quickly realized my Executive Director was on the line. He called to request for me to see him the following week in his office that he wanted me to discuss some issues.
I waited for that encounter anxiously without having an iota of hint as regards to what was to be discussed. I picked up courage and inform Mohammed Sani the Kaduna State Branch Manager who immediately relieved me of my anxiety by telling me that Mr. Elama would want to work with you at the newly established Trustfund Pensions Plc. He told me that he had similar discussion with him, I was a bit skeptical about that but I just managed to controll my emotions and waited for the encounter which turned out to be exactly what Mohammed postulated. We were interviewed by Trustfund Staff mostly of NSITF extraction and eventually offered employment as Assistant Managers. We were employed to supervise the activities of Trustfund in the six regions.
Even if I didn’t take the Trustfund job I would still be unemployed as NSITF was moribund. So why don’t you take the job, I said to myself. I was initially posted to Benin Regional Office but for some reasons I was asked to go and head the Maiduguri Regional Office. We left for our various offices with full alacrity as we saw our appointments as a challenge. We tried our best to open as many Retirement saving accounts as possible and by extension broaden the revenue base of the company.
One of our high points was the stellar performance we put while registering Police recruits at Maiduguri police College in August 2007. We registered the 2000 recruits available. On the low side, one day when coming back from a presentation delivered by the Head of Business Development and the Company Secretary at Head of Service’s office, Bauchi I was attacked by armed robbers along Damaturu – Maiduguri road, I together with the other passengers had to pass the night in the bush. The following morning I was scheduled for another presentation at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. This is how our itinerary was as regional managers. I really didn’t have time of my own at Trustfund as you are supposed to work 24/7 and in the course of that spending all you have including your monthly salaries just to ensure the job is done. But our effort and sacrifice to increase the fortunes of the company at the Regions is not appreciated by the Head Office as promises made were reneged with vehemence and oversights committed were amplified and punished severely.
The first regional Manager to throw in the towel was Chris from P/Harcourt then followed by your sincerely in March, 2008 and recently Mrs Hassan. But the most recent retrenchment is the most surprising as the top guns, the most influential representatives ’OLD WAR HORSES’ of the NSITF were also put in the cooler. These are people who have wielded so much power and influence blended with such flair of arrogance. Nobody thought they would ever leave the company in such a circumstance and am saying this without any equivocation but – presto!!! - They are gone.
The exercise is in top gear now as the positions of the remaining Regional Managers have been advertised in the national dailies a prelude to disengaging some of them. One wonders why this situation has continued with such impunity. What is even more poignant is the way and manner many of us are chased out, it is really tragic for some of us who are not of pension age to wake up one morning and find out that they are not in the pension business for no cause of theirs. But the fact still remains – it’s our company, we initiated it, we set it up - we built it.
Some people have been insinuating that what is happening in Trustfund was a result of an administrative oversight made by the former NSITF management led by Alhaji Rufa’I by allowing Accenture to produce the pioneer staff of the newly established office. They opined that the management should have allowed us (NSITF) staff to manage the new company given our robust experience in the management of individual pension, an experience running to over four decades. They contended that having been exposed through the various aspects of Business processes Management the NSITF staff are rightly positioned and have acquired all it takes to manage the new pension outfit. I wouldn’t agree more with this opinion but then, what Rufa’i did was in good faith especially when you consider the solid foundation he set by appointing about six management staff all from NSITF. Just look at this line up:
• Mr. Oseni Elama - Managing Director/ CEO
• Ikechuwcku Chukwucha – Head of Business Development and Marketing
• P S Okodua - Head of NSITF Funds
• G. Onokwai - Audit
• Racheal CCO
• Musa Nasir- Company Secretary
• The six Regional Managers
• A host of other staff
This is one of the legacies the Rufa’I led management bequeathed to Trustfund, so for anybody to insinuate that the Management had made a mistake that person is either not being fair to Rufa’i or he is just being mischievous. However, something is definitely wrong and I think it is not unconnected with the way and manner the NSITF ‘old war horses’ handle the affairs of the company abinitio.
Oseni Elama’s departure from Trustfund was a big blow to the Regional Managers but it was celebrated with fanfare by some of the ‘Old war horses’ because they knew that some of them wouldn’t have survived in the company if he had stayed any longer. The calculation was that with him out of the way, they will take full control of the office; several attempts were made to coerce the other side into submission but proved futile. At this stage Pencom interceded by bringing Mr. Bakare to superintend over the affairs of the company as stipulated by the enabling laws. His tenure was silent albeit there were some underground maneuver by the old war horses to outwit the other side so as to enable them have an edge when Bakare’s tenure expires but has not come to fruition as the other side remained resolute.
At the end of it all, Bakare recommended that Bernand should be appointed as M/D on acting capacity until the appointment of a substantive CEO. I was told that the appointment was based on his seniority over the old war horses. Having lost the power game to the other side, they deployed a strategy of ‘survival of the fittest’. To prove your loyalty to the new order you must show disdain for the Regional Managers and anything NSITF. Caution was thrown to the dogs, the company ceased to be a formal organization - a bureaucracy - where things are done with civility. Where the name of the individual does not matter, what matters is, has he done the right thing? Stuff like that. We were totally emasculated and ridiculed, subjected to all sort of intimidating languages and sometimes uncouth. We really became accustomed to this insult, embarrassing as it was; none of us had ever demanded to know why we were so treated. But my only consolation had always been if only Mr. Elama had lived long in Trustfund and was able to implement the decisions taken at the 1st MPR that took place in Kaduna, 2007 things would have been different.
The other side spectated the drama with delight, while at the same time warming themselves into the hearts of the Board members and consolidating their positions with such a managerial brio. But for the Old war Horses they have to contend with the reality. The reality is the fact that they just succeeded in creating in themselves a Frankenstein Monster.
I was told that when their sack letters came most of them were on leave. One of them was cruising the Avensis in his village when it was demobilized, he thought it was a glitch that could be easily rectified but was astounded to hear from one of the Village mechanics that the car was turn off from the office. While the other one had his office’s locks changed an indication of ‘your services are no longer required’. This is the type of treatment you mete out to a common criminal. What a pity!!!
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