By Lillian Okenwa
It all started in November 2022 with a written examination. Eight vacancies for the Director cadre were duly declared and budgeted for in the exercise. Twenty-two Deputy Directors competed for the 8 vacancies. The Examination and Appraisal were all concluded. The exercise was 80% concluded and remained Oral Interviews which carries 20% of the exercise. The new Registrar-General (RG), a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji sought and obtained Ministerial approval to conclude the exercise.
Then without consultation with the Commission’s Examination Committee/Management, although he is the Exams Committee Chair, the RG unilaterally and without the management’s approval reduced the declared vacancies from 8 down to 5.
The Exams Committee, a standing Committee of the Management responsible for conducting promotion exercises in the Commission is said to be responsible to Management and not to the Office of the Registrar General.
The cut-off mark for promotion was pegged at 75%. Upon conclusion only 5 Candidates were issued letters of promotion. Three of the Deputy Directors who all scored over 83% and above and were ranked 6th, 7th and 8th in order of merit felt cheated.
They believed that the RG’s unilateral action amounted to shifting the goalpost while the match had commenced. They appealed to the RG to revisit his baseless and unilateral decision and release their letters of promotion, but the RG has not been forthcoming.
The appeal has been escalated to the supervisory Ministry– Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment of Nigeria; Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), and Head of Service of the Federation for necessary intervention.
Meanwhile, Law & Society Magazine made several attempts to hear the CAC Management’s version of the account but the management was not forthcoming.
The decision to reduce the declared vacancies has been faulted even by other Management Staff including Directors.
Not too long ago the erstwhile RG of the CAC was removed on a similar account of highhandedness and abuse of office. The new RG is barely 6 months in office. The Commission cannot afford to be embroiled in such a crisis, as it is yet to recover from the loss of quality human capital that followed the 3 and half-tortuous years of the immediate past RG.
As of Press time, the Supervisory Ministry had not intervened to get the issue resolved. Law & Society Magazine reached out to the Ministry of Trade & Investment but could not confirm the steps so far taken on the matter as the Minister’s Chief of Staff who promised to revert to the magazine’s inquiry on the matter failed to do so despite efforts to get the ministry’s view.
This unfortunate development has created a lot of uncertainty as many more members of staff are overdue for promotion and another promotion exercise cannot be proceeded with until the last exercise is concluded.
Meanwhile, Law & Society learnt that more vacancies exist at the Director’s cadre as between 2022 to date more Directors had either retired or resigned from the Commission.
At the Management level decisions like this have far-reaching implications for the future of the Organisation because if not well handled, Management Staff may not put in their best.
Curiously, after issuing promotion letters to only 5 successful candidates in the Directors cadre contrary to the 8 vacancies declared since 2022,the RG again unilaterally, increased the vacancies of other cadre as follows:
- Deputy Directors from 10 to 15 (Additional 5)
- Assistant Directors from 12 to 20 (Additional 8)
- Principal Managers from 23 to 35 (Additional 12)
- Senior Managers from 34 to 40 (Additional 6)
The new CEO and RG of CAC, Hussaini Ishaq Magaji, SAN appears to have gotten entangled in a promotion scandal that has left many wondering how a member of the inner bar could allow such injustice.
