AU Development Agency staff protest against CEO Gloria Akobundu, accuses her of abuse of office, mismanagement

Disgruntled employees of the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) in Nigeria took to the streets on Wednesday to express their anger and frustration over alleged misconduct by the agency’s Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Gloria Akobundu.

The staff accused her of a series of abuses of power and mismanagement, which they claim have plagued the organization under her leadership.

The protesters gathered at the NEPAD headquarters, calling for Akobundu’s removal from office, alleging that she has turned the government agency into her personal enterprise.

They further accused her of maladministration and financial misappropriation, charges they claim have persisted since she assumed the CEO position in September 2016.

Videos captured during the protest showed staff members blocking the entrance to the premises, holding placards, and chanting solidarity songs as they demanded better working conditions and an end to what they described as the misuse of power by the CEO.

Some of the captions read, “Enough of bad management, Charity begins at home, Princess Akinbogun must go, Our duties are being handled by her aides, she illegally placed her brother as a non-civil servant at the continental office (South Africa).

Other captions read, ” Our duties are handed over to her aides, all our departmental programmes have been contracted out Akobundu must go, NEPAD is a government office, not for family and friends,” among others.

Speaking in one of the videos, a member of staff, Aliu Abubakar, claimed that Akobundu has refused to allow workers to carry out official duties but rather employed the services of non-NEPAD staff members.

He also urged President Bola Tinubu to conduct an intensive investigation into the activities of the organisation in eight years.

He said, “The protest is all about maladministration and financial misappropriation that has been going on in this organisation for almost eight years now under the leadership of Princess Gloria Akobundu. We have been suffering and talking to her but she doesn’t want to listen. We have decided to make our grievances known so that the whole world will hear us, and we, by this protest, are calling on President Bola Tinubu to do the needful by sacking the CEO. We are also calling for an intensive investigation of this organisation.

“The organisation is being run like a family business. Staff are not being allowed to carry out their function. Some activities are supposed to be carried out by the staff of the organization. But unfortunately, what normally happens, instead of allowing the staff to participate in these activities, you see outsiders.

“Sometimes we will be in our various rooms. We just see on the television that some activities, some programs are going on. But to our greatest surprise, instead, we see other people who are non-NEPAD staff. So, she picks some persons outside to come and pretend as if they are NEPAD staff. Meanwhile, the real bonafide NEPAD staff are not the ones benefiting or participating in those programmes.

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“She has been the national coordinator and Chief Executive Officer for the past eight years because she was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari on the 26th of September 2016, and by the 26th of September 2016, it will be exactly eight years. NEPAD, Nigeria is a government establishment. But in a situation where somebody is running the affairs of the organisation, like a private or personal entity, is not allowed.”

Another staff, who gave his name as Abubakar said the protest is to let the president and Nigerians know that the organisation is under bondage and staff have been suffering in the last eight years.

“We want to make sure that the Federal Government knows what has been going on in this office. And I want to use this opportunity to call on President Bola Ahmed to bail us out because we have been in bondage in the last eight years,” he said.

Responding to the allegations on Wednesday night, the CEO, in a telephone conversation, denied all claims by the staff, stating that she had done her best for everyone working at the organisation.

Akobundu, who confirmed to our correspondent to be on a sick bed receiving treatment, added that the issue is a family matter and will be resolved adequately.

She said, “Thank you for reaching out to get my side of the story. But unfortunately, as I am talking to you now, I am standing before a doctor to take an injection. I wasn’t feeling well, but I had to go and address them because I learnt that there was some kind of unrest at the premises. I tried to find out who was sponsoring it, but nobody claimed responsibility. The major unions are not part of what is going on, so they said it’s just a group of staff. I asked what is the problem and everything boils down to small support for staff.

“The SGF sent a director to hear out what is happening because there are things I may be doing right that they think are wrong. At the end of the day, we found out that it is a family thing and a normal request to support them with more logistics and more welfare. I have assured them that we would do our best because welfare and training are well carried out in the organisation.”

The programme they talked about happened during the last protest, and I didn’t want to endanger anyone’s life. That is why all staff were not carried along. On welfare, I have done my best and I have ensured that we don’t owe any of them.”

AUDA-NEPAD, an organisation established by the African Union, is part of the global reforms geared at improving the Union’s impact and operational efficiency.

The mandate of AUDA-NEPAD is to Coordinate and Execute priority regional and continental projects to promote regional integration towards the accelerated realisation of Agenda 2063 and Strengthen the capacity of African Union Member States and regional bodies, advance knowledge-based advisory support, undertake the full range of resource mobilization and serve as the continent’s technical interface with all Africa’s development stakeholders and development partners.