A league of Civil Society Groups has said purveyors of malicious petitions within the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) were behind the ordeal of its Director-General, Alhaji Modibo Kawu.
The group in a statement jointly signed by its national president, Mohammad Baasah and Secretary, Amb Akoshile Mukhtar, Tuesday stated that the NBC should rather change its name to National Petitioning Commission (NPC) since many of its workers have acquired better skills in petition writing than contributing to the Commission’s efforts at delivering on its mandate.
“While petition writing is not new and unknown to the Commission since inception: in fact one would not be wrong to assume that the staff of the Commission take special lessons in petition writing: the practice has been taken to new height since the coming into office of the current Director-General, Alhaji ls’haq Modibbo Kawu, it observed.
It added that “As Human rights activist, we observed that this practice is as a result of interconnected factors involving both internal and external actors driving voices of dissidents against the Commission and its Chief Executive.
According to the group “it is not particularly unexpected that enemies will rise against any Chief Executive in Nigeria especially when the latter is one who stands to jettison past wrong ways of doing things. This is in view of the comfort of many Nigerian public servants with status quo and readiness to battle any new order meant to alter face of things.
Continuing, the statement reads “In addition, there are many others always lurking in the corner waiting or precipitating the downfall of the man at the helm of affairs. This latter group usually belongs to categories that felt that they are more deserving of the position or felt that they were cheated out of the position or wrongly sidelined. Many are mere instruments being used to tight battle they are not privy to.
“In unrelenting efforts to encourage decorum and integrity in Public offices. All these categories are involved in the current state of affairs at the NBC in their varying degrees. But as stated above: Is it not time the purveyors of malicious petitions against Alhaji ls‘haq Modibbo Kawu back down and return to their shell? After numerous failed attempts to sink the man into the canal, would they not desist? These are legitimate questions begging for answers.
“The sole authority imbued with the power of appointment has appointed Kawu as the head of NBC. He is not only confident in his competence to deliver on the mandate of the Commission, he is so far satisfied with the performance of the man. We would rather think that masters of mendacity should recoil and allow the Director General to concentrate on his duties for the good of the broadcast industry in Nigeria.
“It is pertinent to note and set the record straight that the administration of Is’haq Modibbo Kawu is not only competent and focus. It is effective and efficient. This is the right way to go.
“We therefore urge the Chief Executive of NBC to remain firm and committed to discharging the onerous tasks of his office in line with the next level mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. The petition writers may continue. Their bubble of lies will continue to bust Into their faces”.
