Disquiet at NSC as staff grumble

Disquiet at NSC as staff grumble

By Mike Ndidi, Abuja

A considerably high number of staff at the National Sports Commission (NSC) are now grumbling over what they termed "the high-handedness" of both the commission's Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko, and the Director-General (DG), Bukola Olapade.

Several members of staff of the Commission revealed under the condition of anonymity that they have been marginalised and rendered redundant at the national sports governing body.

"Both the Chairman and the DG now prefer to work with only the staff they brought along with them from outside.

"They are even the only ones they take to major sports competitions, leaving us behind whenever there's a competition.

"The Chairman has also gone on to label most of us as saboteurs, thereby accusing us of sabotaging him and divulging vital information to the public," one of them told www.sportsunlimited.com.

Another staff pointed at the incident at a recent media event organised by the office of the National Youth Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), "Evening with Dikko", where Dikko threatened the staff with dismissal.

He said Dikko did this while speaking on the Act which established the NSC.

"He (Dikko) stated that the Commission has the mandate to hire and fire, whereas the scrapped Federal Ministry of Sports Development lacked such powers.

"He also said the Sports Commission has the power to employ core professionals that will drive the vision of the commission and when such employee fails to meet their expectations the commission can sack him," the member of staff said.

He disclosed that this has led most members of staff at the Sports Commission to start seeking the transfer of their services and redeployments to other ministries and parastatals to avert possible sack or dismissal.