Hajiya Saratu Umar‘s appointment as the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) has been terminated with immediate effect by President Muhammadu Buhari, amid allegations of mismanagement.
In a directive to the honourable Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Otunba Richard Adeniyi Adebayo CON, the President also directed the Commission’s most senior director to take over in the interim.
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Hajiya Saratu Umar was appointed to the position for the first time in July 2014. She was fired as the Chief Executive Officer of the Commission by then-President Goodluck Jonathan less than a year later, in May 2015. Buhari reappointed her as NIPC Chairman in July 2016.
The NIPC directors petitioned the minister of industry, trade, and investment over Ms. Umar’s alleged continuous maltreatment and violation of the existing laws governing the federal civil service, pleading with him to act quickly to prevent the Commission from collapsing.
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In a petition dated March 7, 2023, made available to this medium, Hajja Gana Wakil, Mr. John Oseji, Mr. James Akwada, Mr. Abubakar Yerima, A. P. Okala (Esq.), and Mr. Umar Bello, all NIPC directors, addressed it to the Federation’s Head of Civil Service, Minister of Labour and Employment, National Security Adviser, Mr. President’s Chief of Staff, Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practises and
“Another allegation is that she failed to appoint a director to oversee the Commission during her most recent trip to Japan on January 24, 2023.”
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Instead, she appointed a deputy director to oversee the Commission, removing the petitioners’ names from the list of NIPC staff for the 2023 management and senior cadre training.
Umar was also said to have failed to hold promotion examinations in 2022, despite the fact that management’s preparations for the 2021 and 2022 promotion examinations were well underway prior to her re-appointment.
Other notable actions by the ES that have had a negative impact on the agency’s fortunes, according to the petitioners, include a delay in treating correspondences (regarding requests for critical business information and NIPC’s intervention on issues affecting investments) from all stakeholders.
