JUBILATION IN MINISTRY OVER EWA’S SACK

President Goodluck Jonathan, in his first major cabinet shake-up since his inauguration on May 29, 2011, sacked nine ministers last Wednesday. The sack of the ministers which came to many as a surprise was received differently at their various ministries. At the Science and Technology Ministry, where Prof. Ita Okon Bassey Ewa held sway, it was jubilation galore for the staff of the ministry.
An analytical nuclear physicist and university teacher,Ewa, 61 was appointed the Minister of Science and Technology in July 2011. The excitement of the staff of the ministry at the news of his sack showed that the former minister’s relationship with the staff was anything but cordial. LEADERSHIP gathered that immediately the news filtered in, many of the staff of the ministry broke into songs, thanking President Jonathan for relieving the former minister of his job.
A source at the ministry said the minister was unpopular with members of staff because of what he said was his (minister’s) high-handedness and inability to carry people along.
“Members of staff have no personal vendetta against the minister but we are happy with his removal because of his inability to carry officials of the ministry along. He lived completely in his own cloud and ran the ministry as if it was a personal business.
“What most of the political appointees fail to understand is that when you come to any office or organization, there are rules, regulations and guidelines that guide the place. When an appointee comes into office and starts running the office as if it’s a mafia it is unacceptable and you will lose the support of the staff. It is just unfortunate that he failed to make impact on the lives of the people he worked with. He never considered the wellbeing of the staff and most of all he failed to make meaningful impact in the science and technology sector,” the source stated.
Another staff of the ministry who spoke on the condition of anonymity, however, contended the removal of the minister was not as a result of his inability to perform but as a result of unresolved political issues.
According to him, “there is a political undertone to the removal. It is alleged that the minister has the ambition to contest for governorship in Akwa Ibom State in 2015. There are allegations that the governor of Akwa Ibom State may have recommended the removal of the minister because it was gathered that he has been secretly oiling his political machinery to run for the governorship election.”
LEADERSHIP recalls that the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy was tabled before and approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) under the watch of the former minister.
The Triple Helix Concept, which has the Ward Based Cluster Concept (WBCC) as its driver was also set in motion at the six geo-political zones of the nation under Ewa. The WBCC is a project that promotes technologies developed in the urban areas n the local communities so that the people can be impacted by them and make good use of their raw materials to create capital investment. It basically aims at imparting the required skills to residents at the ward level- which is a cluster of villages- to draw people from different localities to acquire and develop entrepreneural skills.
Ewa was also at the vanguard for the creation of a science park under the Silicon Valley Project at the Sheda Science and Technology Complex (SHESTCO) in Abuja, which was his last major public function before his removal from office.
The minister’s last outing was a stakeholders meeting to persuade the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to partner Nigeria in the development of the SHESTCO Silicon Valley project in Abuja.
Source: Leadership