General Manager, Agency for Community and Social Development (CSDA), Enugu, ThankGod Onoja, has issued a 24-hour ultimatum to online publishers to withdraw malicious publications on their social media platforms against him or be ready to bear the consequences.
Onoja gave the ultimatum on Tuesday while reacting to allegations of gross misconduct and high high-handedness against staff of the agency published on some online media platforms
He fumed that the reporters never asked for his own side of the story before going to press. In the said report titled, “Enugu State CSDA on brink of collapse”, the reporters asserted that the new General Manager, Onoja, who resumed duty in February 2021 is incompetent in managing the affairs of the agency and is always at loggerheads with the staff.
It also alleged that the General Manager approved funds above one million naira, contrary to CSDP PIM appendix 8, section 2.1, 2.2ii
But in a swift reaction, a media consultant to the GM, CSDA Enugu, Chukwuma Ene, described the allegations against Onoja as false and misleading. He said Onoja is bent on putting things right on track according to laws establishing the agency.
Ene added that the Enugu State Agency for Community and Social Development law No. 8, 2020 is very specific on who does what and section 2.2 of the law specifies the functions of the General Manager adding “the position of the General Manager is further re-enforced in greater details in the operational manual and staff condition of service.
“The trite allegations levelled against the CSDA General Manager when considered vis-a-vis the functions of the General Manager, who is the chief accounting officer of the agency and who also performs the functions of the agency brings out vividly the fact that there are those who constituted themselves as institutions within the agency”, he said.
When contacted, Onoja refused to comment on the crises within the agency and simply maintained his ultimatum of 24 hours to the online platform to retract their publication or be ready to face the consequences, stating there was never a time the online publisher approached him for his own side of the story.
It was gathered that the crisis bedevilling Enugu CSDA which caused a division between the Board has made some statutory members of the board to boycott meetings, on claims that the board is not an executive board instead an ad-hoc board which should provide policy direction as instituted by law and not to implement the policies. Some staff also are accusing the Board of acting as if there had not been Boards in the past.
It was also gathered that some of the management staff are working with some civil society elements in the board against smooth operations of the CSDA which to a large extent has continued to generate crisis between the Board and the Management of the agency.
It was learnt that the board has met up to twenty times within four months, against prescriptions of CSDA law which stipulates a maximum of four meetings in a year by board of the agency.
A junior staff of the agency, who does not want to be quoted in print, revealed that some of the board members are worried over the General Manager’s commitment to ensure nobody bends the rules. Therefore, they are pressing hard for his removal.
Onoja’s Media Consultant, Chukwuma Ene stated, “They stand in the way of any decision by the management and become angry when such roles are re-assigned for efficiency and effectiveness of the agency”.
