NGIGE AND THE ABUSE OF POWER

NGIGE AND THE ABUSE OF POWER

Monday letter2

Political power is all around us, visible and invisible. It is demonstrated in the everyday social relations, in people ideologies and their actions. The concept of political power is enshrined in ‘power over’, ‘power to’, and ‘power of.’ We refer to ‘power over’ as authority, ‘power to’ as right, and ‘power of’ as capacity. The Minister of Labour is exercising power over by witch-hunting Frank Kokori from ascending the chairmanship of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF). It is disheartening that Nigeria is a country where leaders can take sudden decision without a formal notification. Over 500 ministries, department and agencies of government committees for appointment of board of directors were inaugurated three years ago. Among them is NSITF.

Several meetings have been held in the last three years with board of directors appointed and Frank Kokori was appointed as chairman of NSITF and the presidency gave its assent. Why is it that it is only Frank Kokori that is being prevented from being inaugurated? Chris Ngige claimed that majority of the board of directors of NSITF were not technocrat and that there was a need for the chairmanship position to be occupied by a technocrat. Why is Ngige just noticing now? This action by the Minister of Labour is unacceptable. The presidency must call Chris Ngige to order and instruct him to inaugurate Frank Kokori as chairman of NSITF without further delay.

Pedro Ukokobili, Lagos

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