NDA defends sacking of civilian workers
From Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna
AMID criticism in some quarters, the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, yesterday defended the pruning of its civilian workforce.
According to the institution, the retrenchment is to bring its total workforce, which it described as bloated, to a manageable size. It added that the NDA could no longer financially sustain some redundant workers.
The NDA Brigade Commander, Brig-Gen. Mohammed Sani Saleh, who addressed a press conference at the NDA Commandant office on Monday, stated that if the management had not embarked on the restructuring, the academy would have collapsed.
He noted that the institution had been engulfed in a financial crisis with mounting debts, inability to pay rents and other liabilities over the years.
Saleh said: "I am speaking on behalf of the commandant, and let me say that successive administrations in the NDA have been managing this unpleasant financial situation. Therefore, the current leadership resolved to address this issue once and for all.
"This exercise when completed will enable the NDA to meet its financial obligations to staff and also rise to the challenges of producing first-rate officer cadets as envisioned by its founding fathers."
Saleh disclosed that about 200 civilian staff had benefited from a recent promotion and about 10 academic staff had been released to proceed on sabbatical programmes.
He added that about 15 academic staff had been released and sponsored to pursue various post-graduate programmes up to the doctorate level. He stated that this move would help enrich the manpower base of the NDA.
Prior to the restructuring, Saleh noted, the NDA had a staff strength of over 1,600 of which the academic staff strength was 300.
The NDA spokesman noted that it was an irony that the staff population was to service the cadet population of 1,800 in the institution.
He stated that to ensure probity in the restructuring exercise a committee was set up headed by a civilian employee of the status of professor, while workers were placed in different categories before the rationalisation.
At the weekend, some affected civilian workers of the institution addressed the press saying that the restructuring was meant to victimise them.
