Gambari, Mustapha reportedly bicker over sack of TCN boss

- News coming out from the presidential villa suggests all is not well between the new chief of staff and the SGF

- A report is alleging that Professor Ibrahim Gambari and Mr Boss Mustapha are already at loggerheads

- This is reportedly due to the action of the SGF after the former boss of the Transmission Company of Nigeria was sacked

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A report by Daily Sun indicates that the sack of the former managing director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Usman Mohammed, has pitted the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, against the Chief of Staff (COS) to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, and organised labour.

According to the report, labour has alleged that the SGF queried the sacking of Mohammed, approved by President Buhari through the Office of the CoS.

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Recall that immediately the TCN MD was sacked, the SGF released a circular on what should be the procedure for the removal of heads of public agencies in the country, in what was considered a response to the sack of the TCN boss without his consent.

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Some stakeholders in the power sector alleged that the SGF’s directive was specifically targeted at the minister of power, Saleh Mamman, wondering what interest Mustapha had in the power sector.

A competent source said that President Buhari had directed all correspondences to be channelled through his chief of staff, insisting that Mustapha’s action was a direct affront on the orders of the president.

“It is important to note that this removal of the TCN MD was a directive of the president, which was passed through the minister of power, and the minister is the person that the president sent to the power sector to go and do the necessary reforms in the sector, with a view to improving the power situation of the country.

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“The SGF is asking and actually asserting that the president did not follow due process by issuing a memo and a circular to all the ministers, insisting that none of the ministers has the power to remove or recommend the removal of any of the heads of parastatals under their ministries,” the source said.

In the same vein, the labour movement expressed shock on the circular, saying the aim was to restore the former TCN MD to office.

In a letter to President Buhari, signed by the general secretary, Umar Abubakar Dubagari, labour declared that the unions in the power sector would go on strike if the sacked MD be reinstated.

“Your Excellency is hereby notified of pending labour action by our union and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the unlikely event that the circular restores UG Mohammed to TCN and if the wrongful termination of our president is not reversed immediately,” part the letter read.

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Meanwhile, a coalition of 21 stakeholder-civil society groups, drawn from the National Power Sector Stakeholders’ Forum (NPSSF), has urged the president to call Mustapha to order for what it described as the usurpation of the statutory powers of cabinet ministers.

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