Disengaged employees of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), have called on the leadership of the institute to review the manner they were sacked. The ex-staff, who converged on the Centre for Management Development (CMD), Shangisha, Lagos, office of NIMN recently, staged a peaceful demonstration to protest what they described as unfair treatment and the refusal of the institute’s council to remit their pensions to the relevant authorities.
The protesting staff, who displayed various placards and co-ordinated by three of the institute’s former principal officers, Mr. Archibong Duke, the institute’s former Assistant Director, Membership Services; Mr. Tunde Oyeyode, Director, Corporate Affairs and Procurement and Mr. Abiodun Okunade, the institute’s erstwhile Assistant Director, Training and Examination, accused the council of not being fair over the disengagement process.
While venting the group’s disagreement to the media, Archibong had accused the incumbent president of the institute of not honouring his campaign promises regarding training and re-training the institute’s staff.
“One of the campaign promises of the president was that the institute’s staff would be re-trained in tune with the 21st century challenges. He said this severally during his campaign, but we were shocked when he decided to do away with 28 out of the 31 staff of the institute immediately he resumed office,†he stated.
He also accused the council of non-remittance of the staff’s pensions to the appropriate government quarters, despite being deducted from their salaries.
“God forbid, if any of us should dies tomorrow, there are no records at the pension office that we were actually active with our pension payment while alive. What we are saying is that besides paying us our remaining entitlements, the institute should also release unremitted pensions to the relevant agencies and make available statement of such remitted pensions to us,†he added.
Corroborating the above arguments, another protester, Tunde Oyeyode described the present council as being insensitive to the plight of the disengaged staff.
“When the letters were handed over to us, we told them that the language employed in the letter could be a disincentive to any of us, the disengaged staff that might to seek appointment elsewhere. We told them there was no way such letter could be tendered and the person would be employed because of the language employed.
“The council agreed to write a new letter, but what they did was just to re-caption the letter. The contentious wordings still remained,†Oyeyode stated.
Reacting to some of the allegations, the institute’s Registrar, Mr. Sydney Ogodo, argued that the issue of non remittance of pension, predated the present council, arguing that the institute had, however, been prompt in remitting staff’s pension since 2016.
He however disagreed with the argument that the council refused to issue a new letter, while insisting that it was the disengaged staff that refused to pick the letters up.
