NIWA MD warns staff against sabotage, indolence amidst poor revenue drive
The Managing Director (MD) of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Mr. Bola Oyebanji, has cautioned staff against indolence and any acts of sabotage that could undermine the organization’s revenue generation efforts.
Oyebanji handed down the warning at the authority’s 2025 2-Day Management Retreat held at the Headquarters Conference Hall in Lokoja, Kogi State Capital
He explained that the warning became necessary in view of the fact that many of the NIWA Area Offices performed below expectation in terms of revenue generation and collection in 2024.
The MD revealed that the management chose to continue to offer the big carrot rather than the stick, “basically to offer equal opportunity to every senior officer to prove him/herself.”
“Unfortunately, the results from this experiment were not encouraging. Consequently, the Management is left with no choice, going forward, but to wield the big stick to command performance.
“For instance, it is unfortunate that many of the Area Offices didn’t perform optimally revenue-wise. In a recent Audit Report, many Area Offices were indicted for failure to act professionally on matters affecting their jurisdictions, he said.
He cited a situation ,” where some Area Offices recorded as low as One Million Naira or Two Million Naira as revenue for a whole year is simply unacceptable, ” he stated .
The MD said that the Authority is expected to remit a substantial part of its receipt from the Port Development Levy in addition to the 50 per cent of its revenue deducted at source.
He fumed as: many of the Area Managers failed to cooperate with the debt recovery consultant appointed sometime in 2024 to help recover all outstanding monies owed to the agency, while in many cases, the supposed debtors were simply untraceable and where available, figures were grossly inconsistent.
He therefore warned the shameful and negative negative attitude will henceforth not be acceptable or be tolerated.
According to him, this year’s retreat is meant to provide an avenue for a broader review of performance in 2024.
He disclosed that in 2025, new performance parameters have been added to authority’s performance indicators in line with the charge of President Bola Tinubu, to the Honourable Minister, His Excellency Gboyega Oyetola.
In their good will messages, Mr Suleiman Danjuma, Chairman, Senior Staff Union, NIWA and Zakari Idris, Chairman, Maritime Workers Union.Zakari Idris, pledged to up their games in the area of performance and revenue drive.
The duo acknowledged the concerns of the MD and the entire NIWA management team towards the welfare of the staff and their contributions to economic development of Nigeria. Quick