When the call came on Sept 13, 2013, to
serve the Nigerian people as DG
National Center For Women
Development, I took it as a call from
God, and I answered in the
affirmative.
I served for 2years and five months and did my
best under very difficult conditions. We hardly
had money to operate, and the place was badly
run down. Worst, there was low morale and lack
of commitment among the Staff.
Most spent the
day loitering and gossiping. Many would not
show up for work or arrive 11 am, only to leave
before 3 pm. Some were absent for months, and
we're just collecting their salary at home.
My administration changed all that.
Most Staffs
were turned around and became passionate
about the work, appreciating also the changes
they thought were not possible but were
happening right before them.
There remained, though, a remnant who felt that
the Center was their personal preserve and that
the position of Director General should only go to
someone from their part of the country. I was
initially dismissed as just a Musician.
When that
did not work, I was targeted and abused for
being an Igbo woman who came to give jobs to
and elevate my people while sidelining them.
When these detractors could not provide answers
to the spate of improvement we were bringing,
they resorted to sabotage and blackmail. The
first such salvo was fired when a Senate
Committee visited on an oversight mission a few
months after my arrival. All three Generators at
the Center were cannibalized, overnight, just
hours to the visit.
We got over that incident and trudged on. The
rest of our activities and accomplishments,
modest as they is public knowledge.
I have never
in my life been an unfair person. I never favored
any group I carried everybody along. But I did
not put up with deliberate incompetence and a
refusal to learn, an attitude of entitlement which
some people displayed. We brought back a level
of professionalism and commitment to deliver on
our mandate. Without these attributes, the
Center would have fallen apart.
When the call came for me to disengage from
the Center, I took it in good faith and with
thanksgiving to the Almighty, Yes some
stakeholders were upset and tried to make a
case for me to continue. Their effort was a
testimony of God's grace on my administration,
but I also knew that it was time to go. God, who
sent me, there was taking me to a higher level of
service. His infinite wisdom is unassailable. That
is my faith. Besides, I was exhausted and had
abandoned many personal projects to devote
myself, 200% to the Center. The abuses and lack
of cooperation from a mother Ministry, from
those who felt that the Center overshadowed
them, to the extent that they tried to discourage
others from working with us, were just a bit
much for my comfort. I did not lobby for the job
in the first place, and I was not going to lobby to
keep it. I actually looked forward to leaving. But
some people were going to exact their pound of
flesh.
They organized some staff, mostly Northerners
invited the Press and set about to disgrace
themselves. By mid-afternoon, while the Heads
of Departments were putting together the
handover notes, they seized the keys to my
official car, even with my personal items still
inside. Threats began to fly. "That Ibo woman
must"we will disgrace her." Their Chief organizer,
the Acting DG, went about whipping up ethnic
sentiments against me. Late 2015, the same
officer had gone to the Center's Mosque to ask
for the issue of a Fatwa against me, claiming
that I was working against the interest of the
North. We nipped that in the bud by calling a
town hall meeting and asking that proof be
provided. The Fatwa was denied and peace
reigned for a while.
Police were called into the Center to escort me
out and avoid bloodshed as I disengaged.
Eventually, in the midst of insults and name
calling, with an angry baying crowd, some of
whom were brought in from outside, I entered
my official car and left. At no time during this
melee did I threaten to sue Mr. President for
asking me to disengage. Why would I? Is it not
within his authority. Even if it were not, is the
Center my personal property. I had done my
best, and if it was time to go, it was that
simpleLife continues. I had a thriving career
before my appointment. The Center did not make
me. I have so much to do. I am a multitalented,
multifaceted and multitasking child of God. By
His grace, the future is greater. So what is the
problem?
Let me say here that The Federal Government
should really look into the Parastatals and take
note of the fact that many people who work on
them do not have the requisite qualification.
Many contribute nothing, and many see their job
as a personal entitlement. They are owed
because Nigeria belongs to them and them
alone. Somehow, these people were given the
impression that they could attempt to do what
they did to me, and nothing would happen. That
is very sad indeed. The Ministry also has a case
to answer. They helped to create that
impression. A situation where the Ministry could
invite a Management Staff to a trip abroad
without informing the DG, and the Staff would
only inform her principal via txt message, from
the Airport as she is leaving the country, creates
an atmosphere of indiscipline, and anything
goes. The Ministry should restrain itself to its
spelt out function and not undermine the
authority of the DG.
Finally, I declare that I am a Nigerian citizen who
should enjoy the rights attendant to that
privileged. I am Oyingboand proud of it. I respect
myself, and I love and respect all for who they
are. We are all God's children. No one has the
right to insult or abuse me or deprive me of my
rights. Nigeria will not hold unless and until we
all come to that realization.
Thank you and God bless.
Onyeka Onwenu
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