*Say he has derailed from authority’s purpose
The staff of Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority (LNRBDA) have written a strongly worded letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, reporting what they described as the Managing Director of the authority, Engr. Saheed Adeniyi Aremu’s derailment from the focus for which it is meant.
Acting under the auspices of Nigeria Union of Agriculture and Allied Employees (NUAAE), the staff in the petition titled, “ANTI-CORRUPTION DRIVE: A CALL TO SAVE LOWER NIGER RIVER BASIN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY FROM THE STATE OF DEVASTATION”, said:
“The Union has confirmed that the present Managing Director, Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority, Ilorin, Engr. Saheed Adeniyi Aremu has completely lost focus on the main goals of the Authority. The Managing Director who was a lecturer from the University of Ilorin, engineering department, was appointed in 2017 and he was reappointed for the second tenure in 2021.
“During his first tenure of office a lot of blunders were committed ranging from contract inflation, non submission of audited financial statement, the use of commercial banks to divert internally generated revenues meant for consolidated revenue funds (CRF), contracts awarded above the threshold of the Managing Director, keeping money illegally into the parent teachers association (PTA) account, awarding contracts not relevant to the mandate of the Authority, all of this and lots more were unveiled by the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation in the document attached as annex I,” they said in the letter.
Despite several sanctions from various monitoring agencies of government, the Managing Director, according to the Union, continued his heedless attitude, “but his action are more detrimental to the development of the Authority at this time as his only aim is the amount of money that will be accrued to him in the yearly financial budget.”
Detailing the MD’s alleged misdeeds in the six-page letter soft copy of which was obtained by The DEFENDER, the Lower Niger River Basin Authority staff said:
“He awarded the upgrading of the 0.5km road within the headquarters of the Authority to a dual carriage way with over ₦236,000,000.00 a contract that was shabbily implemented as weeds are already growing on the asphalt, he also awarded almost fifty million Naira (₦50,000,000.00) for the renovation of the club house within the headquarter and the construction of indoor sport centre while the offices at the Authority’s projects and stores were all dilapidated.
“The integrated farm scheme (Shongai model) was the initiative of the Honourable Minister, Federal Ministry of Water Resources to support quality food production in Nigeria, the scheme was introduced to River Basin Authorities 2018 and each Authorities were given same budgetary allocation to take-off but unfortunately the programme was muddled up in Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority as the project does not achieve the standard compared to the ones obtainable in other River Basin Authorities (e.g. Upper Niger River Basin Development Authority), at Upper Niger River Basin the project is functional and it was according to the design of the prototype.
“The Authority’s area of specialization (Irrigation Agriculture) is suffering a huge setback under the leadership of Engr. Saheed Adeniyi Aremu, no candid commitment to the development of area and project offices despite being the major area that speaks the existence of River Basin Authorities in the country. No commendable expansion was made to complement the existing irrigation facilities and the obsolete irrigation equipments are abandoned without a replacement. It is so sad that the master plan that monitors the pace of progress on the activities of the LNRBDA has been discarded but rather, every activities including the procurement processes is being made based on the interest of the Managing Director.
“The LNRBDA sachet and bottled water factory is another profit making venture that has the potential to generate huge returns on investments but unfortunately the factory has been abandoned under this administration. The water line that recently gulped over Forty Million Naira (₦40,000,000.00) from the national budgetary allocation has been abandoned and the building is already collapsing.
“Commercialisation of River Basin Development Authorities is the policy of the Federal Government to make River Basin Authorities more viable but if the commercialisation must take effect, the focus of River Basin Authorities should be on how to consolidate the effort by making sure that all available projects are upgraded to meet the targeted goals, but sadly in LNRBDA priorities has been misplaced. Our Union will no longer tolerate the nonchalant attitude of the Managing Director as his actions may put the jobs of our members on the line while he might still be able to return back to the university.
“Engr. Saheed Adeniyi Aremu is a university lecturer who is not trained for his present appointment and he is not ready to learn but only sees the position as an opportunity to acquire wealth for example within the first four years in office, he was able to rake more money from project padding to built a house worth over Three Hundred Million Naira (₦300,000,000.00) in Agric estate in Ilorin. He has also been making mockery of the procedures and hierarchy in the Civil Service while running the administration as a one man show.
“There is no doubt that the Federal Government has invested so much on him as lecturer and he is expected to give back to the university Authority by passing the knowledge down to the students but regrettably, his appointment as the Managing Director, LNRBDA has deprived the students and university to gain from his wealth of experience and on the other hand is the setback he has caused Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority over time,” the petition stated in details.
On what they wanted President Buhari to do, they said, “our prayer is that you should as a matter of urgency terminate the appointment of Engr. Saheed Adeniyi Aremu as the Managing Director, Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority, Ilorin based on the fact about his several corrupt practices, incompetency, lack of focus and poor management style. They say a stitch in time saves nine, the organisation must be saved from doom. We hope that actions will be taken as soon as possible in order to forestall the imminent industrial actions against the Managing Director.
“We also pray that the Federal Government should stop taking a grave risk over the appointment of Chief Executives / heads of government owned agencies because in most cases it’s always a square pegs in a round holes. Opportunities should be bestow on the staffs of all government owned agencies that may have rose through the ranks to manage the organisations as the top echelons as stated paragraph 2 of the circular released from the office of the Secretary to the Federal Government captioned “END OF TENURE PROCESSES FOR HEADS OF EXTRA-MINISTERIAL DEPARTMENT, DIRECTOR GENERAL, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF PARASTATALS, AGENCIES, COMMISSIONS AND GOVERNMENT-OWNED COMPANIES AND SUCCESSION GUIDELINES.
“Your Excellency we believe in you and your zero tolerance for corruption. We are also committed to support your administration and your quest to improve the Nigerian economy amidst all the challenges,” the Lower Niger River Basin Authority staff prayed in the petition to President Muhammadu Buhari.
