Few
days ago, President Muhammadu Buhari sacked veteran Nollywood actress,
Onyeka Onwenu as the DG of National Center For Women Development. She
has now written an open letter to tell the public of how some people
ganged up against her. An interesting piece.
Onyeka Onwenu
She writes:
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.
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