Saratu Umar Sacked For Second Time As NIPC Executive Secretary

President Muhammadu Buhari has terminated the appointment of Hajiya Saratu Umar as the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), with immediate effect.

In a directive to the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Richard Adeniyi Adebayo CON, the President also mandated the most senior Director in the Commission to immediately take over in the interim.

The directive was confirmed in a statement issued by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity).

This is the second time Umar will be sacked as NIPC Boss.

Seven years after she was removed by former President Goodluck Jonathan as the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, Umar was appointed in July last year by Buhari to take over the helms of affairs of the Commission.

Jonathan had removed Saratu as the NIPC Boss in 2014 on the suspicion that she leaked information on the granting of questionable tax waivers estimated to be worth $20bn.

But President Muhammadu Buhari had in July last year reappointed her to take charge of the foremost Investment Promotion Agency in Nigeria.

Last July, seven years after the sack, the NIPC workers were stunned to hear that Buhari, known for his anti-corruption rhetoric, had reappointed Umar.

In her second coming,members of staff in the organisation say Umar has become even more brazen, allegedly reenacting the abuses that typified her initial reign at NIPC.

Hardly had Umar spent six months as a returning head of the NIPC that staffers of the institution started grumbling over her alleged abusive management of workers and official duties.

In December last year, a memo from all directors of the commission raised an alarm to draw her attention to pressing matters concerning the growth of NIPC which had been abandoned.

Since she returned to office in July 2022, Umar was said to have failed to treat files submitted to her, a lethargic attitude towards her duties hampering the growth of the commission, according to the memo.

“This delay, sometimes running into months, is having a likely unintended consequence on the commission,” the memo read in part.

In another part of the memo, the directors said Umar has failed to convey management meetings to discuss salient issues affecting the institution.

They said her lack of commitment “constitutes a big gap in the general administration of the commission as directors are not aware of happenings and are not given chances to contribute meaningfully to any activity of the commission.”

Also, since she came back to power, Umar was said to have refused to consider pioneer status applications in the past year.

She had ignored any memo on the subject matter against the directive of the Minister of Trade and Investment.

Meanwhile, the pioneer status incentive (PSI) is a tax holiday granting qualifying industries and products relief from payment of corporate income tax for an initial period of three years.