NDLEA Has A Secretary, Not Director-General By Tosin Smith

In view of recent activities bordering on the public image and integrity of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), it has become very necessary to set the record straight, even if only to avoid misleading unsuspecting members of the public. Specifically, this intervention is necessitated by recent actions and utterances of Mrs. Roli Bode-George, who is being portrayed in the public domain of late as the Director General of NDLEA. It started slowly but gained currency in recently months, as Mrs. Bode-George is busy taking positions and expressing her views on behalf of the agency, as if she is the boss. Instead of using the title of Secretary, she seems to enjoy taking the liberty to address herself in the media as NDLEA's Director-General – to the consternation of serving and retired officers of the agency who believe in decency. Besides the confusion this is fast breeding, Mrs. Bode–George's attitude in recent time is worrisome, especially given the fact that the Agency is known to have a substantive Chairman/Chief Executive. This position is presently occupied by ALHAJI AHMADU GIADE, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who was appointed from retirement into the position by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in November, 2005.
For avoidance of doubt, a recourse to the NDLEA Act, which created the Agency and its key offices, is enough to clear all controversies, if any. The NDLEA Act in section 5 provides as follows: "The Secretariat and appointment of Secretary and other Agency staff"(emphasis added). The following subsections of section 5 provide further that there shall be established a secretariat for the Agency. It adds that there shall be appointed for the Agency, a secretary whose rank shall be equivalent to that of Director-General in the Civil Service of the Federation and who shall be appointed by the President. And to avoid ambiguity, the said subsection says the Secretary shall be responsible for the administration of the secretariat, keeping the books and records of the Agency and shall be subject to the supervision and control of the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Agency.
From the above provisions, it is clear that the office created by the Act is that of the Secretary of the Agency, and not a Director-General. The comparison in subsection (2) that the Secretary shall be of equivalent rank to the Director-General in the Civil Service is not and cannot be an excuse for substituting one for the other. Historically, the phrase Director-General was used in this legislation as a consequence of the civil service reforms carried out in 1988 by the administration of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babaginda. One of the hallmarks of that reform was the change of the title of Permanent Secretaries in the Civil Service to Director-Generals. Coincidentally, the NDLEA Act was promulgated in 1989 and thus the reference to "Director-General in the Civil Service." It is common knowledge that the title of heads of Civil Service has since reverted to permanent secretaries.
In any case, it is unconceivable that the NDLEA Act could have created the office of a Director-General after having created the office of a Chairman/chief Executive. This is because the title of Director-General, which Mrs. Bode-George has continued to arrogate to herself in the media, presupposes the head or Chief Executive of a public organization. Unfortunately, by her general disposition, Mrs. Bode-George has expressly continued to portray herself as the Director-General of the NDLEA, even when she knows that she was never appointed as such by former President Goodluck Jonathan. At least no such office was created by the NDLEA Act, as a perusal of enabling laws has shown. Or how could a national agency be subjected to the hassles of having two political heads who will be drawing consolidated salaries?
Despite all this, it is disturbing and condemnable that Mrs. Bode George is busy riding in convoys with siren, enjoying all unmerited appurtenances of office as if she the Chief Executive of NDLEA. She has not stopped there. Of late, she has introduced a more worrisome dimension of speaking on behalf of the agency, sometimes issuing press releases and writing opinions in the newspapers in a non-existent capacity as NDLEA Director General. Pure and simple, all her attitude amounts to insubordination and usurpation of powers, which should be discouraged and punished. In this era of change, this impunity must stop as there cannot be two Chief Executives in one public organization. The Presidency, through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (which supervises the Agency, is hereby called upon to call Mrs. Bode-George to order) because she is only the Secretary of the NDLEA and no more.
•    Tosin Smith, a retired NDLEA Director, writes from Lagos.