Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Gen. Mohammed Marwa (rtd.), has commenced the re-engineering of the agency for optimal performance.
This followed the inauguration of a seven-man harmonisation committee to address distortions hampering the smooth running of the agency.
In a statement yesterday, the Deputy Commander of Narcotics and Principal Staff Officer, Public Affairs, Jonah Achema, noted that the agency could not meet its objectives without raising the morale of the personnel.
Marwa was quoted as saying: “One of my early findings is that the morale of the officers and men has dropped to the lowest ebb. I have noticed distortions in the seniority roll of the agency. This has made the personnel to become poorly motivated. We need highly motivated personnel to win this war, which we must, by the grace of God.
“The first thing is to resolve the issue of low morale. We need to develop a proper, accurate and credible seniority roll for the personnel. We have officers in the various commands whose promotion has been delayed for no just cause, whereas the vacancies are there. Others have been overtaken by their juniors; this is an error that must be addressed.”
Terms of reference for the committee headed by the Special Adviser to the NDLEA Chairman, Col. Yakubu Bako (rtd.), include receiving memoranda from aggrieved staff members and analysing them in line with set criteria, taking into account service progression and vacancies, successes in the prescribed promotion examinations and disciplinary issues, and to make appropriate recommendations that would address the agitation for harmonisation.
Others are: to critically examine posting stagnation and address the issues of restoration of correct ranks and seniority to those who are wrongfully denied, restore correct seniority roll and develop guidelines for career path as well as examine structural expansion of the agency.The committee is expected to submit its report in six weeks.
