Leadership crisis cripples FERMA operations

The leadership tussle currently rocking the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency in Abuja has virtually crippled the operations of the agency, investigations have revealed. The agency, established in 2002, is reportedly embroiled in alleged nepotism and lack of leadership due to the nonexistence of a substantive chief executive officer or managing director. The agency’s situation is also said to have been worsened as it had become incapacitated by an alleged health challenge confronting its acting chief executive officer. This health challenge faced by the acting CEO of FERMA is said to have created a situation where a lower cadre officer now steers the affairs of the agency. The media recently reported that the non-appointment of Chief Executive Officers for some national agencies and Federal parastatals had been responsible for their inability to discharge their statutory responsibility to the citizenry. Investigation by our correspondent revealed that FERMA is one of those national agencies whose operation is impaired by the non-appointment of a CEO or a managing director.
Since inception, more than five CEOs or MDs have, at various times, been appointed either in Acting or substantive capacity to pilot the affairs of the agency.
Further investigations revealed that things, however, took a different dimension with the appointment of Steve George Amuchi in 2011 as its MD.
Amuchi, it was learnt started his tenure on a good note by ensuring that Federal roads across the country were attended to in terms of prompt maintenance. But political intrigues allegedly stalled his giant stride.
Sources at FERMA said alleged disregarded for the directives of the parent ministry, the Federal Ministry of Works and that of the agency’s Board of Directors, may have eroded Amuchi’s achievement. He was alleged to be close to the corridors of power, resulting in alleged award of contracts to his cronies with impunity.
“When his tenure expired, he tried all he could to elongate his stay even when all other Executive Directors had
left,” a source said. Further checks revealed that the former FERMA CEO allegedly flouted the directives of the Federal Ministry of Works, stipulating that the most senior director should take over on his exit.
He was said to have handed over to one Engineer Peter Egbo, the Executive Director (South West Operations). Egbo, a retired officer from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, is over 70 years of age and is reported to be medically incapacitated for the position. “His health issue has continued to be of concern to the staff and it has been raised
at different fora,” the source said. Our correspondent gathered that at one of the sittings of the National Assembly during the defence of the 2016 budget, a member of the House Committee on FERMA openly expressed concern over the health challenge of Egbo as acting managing director of the agency. FERMA, according to findings, has been on its knees due to official stagnation of operations occasioned by the medical incapacitation of the acting MD and the subsequent take-over of executive duties by Egbo’s Special Assistant, (names withheld), a level 10 officer, at the agency.