The work atmosphere at the nation’s capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is troubled by the frosty relationship between the commission and its workers with fear, it could snowball into an industrial crisis any moment from now.
Underlining this is a May 23, 2023 letter from the Commission’s unit of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria notifying SEC of the impending crisis, and also seeking the final resolution of issues of concern to staff.
The commission’s spokesman Bagudu Mohammed Waziri faulted the allegations by the workers, stating that unions globally, peddle what is not the truth whenever they want things from the management of an organisation.
In the letter addressed to the Director-General and signed by Mamman Ali Abba, the Unit’s chairman, David Oyelami, the secretary, Nelson Oleghe, an Ex-officio, and Musa Dakup, the vice chairman, the union is angered by the commission’s stance on gratuity, citing the peanuts given to both Salihu Mohammed and Auwalu Muhammad, two staff of the commission that had just exited after 21 years of service.
“It is equally unfortunate that despite decimating staff gratuity, management is set to pay itself hundreds of millions as a severance package upon exiting after serving for less than four years” as the signatories warned that the union will vehemently resist and reject the humongous severance package. They stressed that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.
The union also expressed concern about the commission’s recruitment exercise which they argued is a departure from the age-long Young Professional Programme (YPP) overseen by the hitherto director-general, Aruma Oteh during which the best crop of employees are recruited.
During Oteh’s administration, they recalled the commission’s history of advertising its vacant positions which are filled via a highly competitive process that involves written tests, in-tray exercises, presentations, interviews, and group exercises.
The union who feared that what currently obtains is far from what it used to be stated that “The union is aware that management is currently undertaking a secret recruitment exercise and has appointed a questionable committee to oversee the kangaroo exercise”.
It went on, ” The union is not unaware that management has bribed the Federal Character Commission (FCC) with money and employment slots to obtain an illegal waiver of the requirement to advertise the recruitment exercise”.
They supported their arguments with section 4b of the Commission’s employee handbook which explicitly provides for how recruitment exercises are to be conducted.
Section 4b provides that “Employment shall be need-based, open/competitive, and restricted to positions where vacancies have not been filled by existing employees or where special skills not immediately available in the commission are required. The principle of Federal Character shall be taken into consideration in all recruitment”.
The union warned that management can’t set a low bar for the commission’s recruits, stressing that any recruitment exercise undertaken by the management must be advertised, competitive, and strictly comply with the employee handbook, public service rules, and international best practices. anything short of this, the union warned that it will resist and reject any exercise that contravenes this position.
In conclusion, the union expressed worries about the disposition of the D-G, Yuguda Lamido to his duties and responsibilities, stating that he is hardly ever in the office to attend to his duties.
“The union has it on record that the D-G has made over 10 foreign and several local trips this year at great expense to the commission and to the detriment of his duties and responsibilities.”
They said a lot of files have piled up in his office and are unattended, a situation which the union said exemplifies a lack of leadership in the commission and the capital market.
Bagudu, in defense of the commission, stated that recruitment exercises are based on need-assessment and relevant approvals ahead of the commencement of the exercise.
While he said the commission did not carry out any recruitment exercise and nobody was recruited, the SEC’s Spokesman said, “The secret recruitment they are talking about is the one to fill up vacant positions by people that were disengaged and those that left voluntarily in 2021”, adding that approvals are not required for such from either the Federal Character Commission or the Civil Service.
On gratuity, he stated that the National Pension Commission (PenCom) formulated the laws guiding gratuities adding that the “SEC is currently at PenCom to clarify some issues that are unclear”.
Regarding the alleged numerous trips by Lamido, Bagudu stated that the SEC is a member of some international organisations in the capital markets which have scheduled meetings that must be attended.
“The D-G must attend these international meetings on behalf of the commission, failure of which the SEC will be rated poorly globally if he is absent at such meetings where decisions on the markets are taken”.
The SEC spokesman also added that the D-G does not travel without the approval of the Minister of Finance who supervises the commission, adding that other allegations about the N7 million for the procurement of flight tickets to a meeting in Malaysia which they alleged the D-G did not attend are all untrue.
“Lamido did not collect estacodes to Malaysia”, Bagudu stated.
