By Dipo Olowookere
The newly elected president of National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), Mr Tony Agenmonmen, has been urged to reverse the alleged disengagement of about 32 members of staff of the institute recently.
Making this appeal, Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria (BJAN), an umbrella body of journalists covering brands and integrated marketing communications in Nigeria, said it was worried about this move.
President of BJAN, Mr Goddie Ofose, in a statement, reminded Mr Agenmonmen of the 2003 crisis that divided the institute and warned him not to allow such repeat itself this time.
Mr Ofose further reminded the NIMN boss that it took the Federal Government to “step in to reconcile the two warring factions by setting up a law that act 25 of NIMN of 2003.”
On December 23, 2016, the institute had in a memo announced disengagement of all the employees of the institute, giving till January 6, 2017 for those still interested in their offices to re-apply.
The announcement, said to have affected about 32 staff of the institute, except the institute’s Registrar, was said to have caught many of the institute’s staff, who were actually looking forward to some good tidings from the institute’s Board, concerning the backlog of their unpaid salaries, unawares.
Speaking further in the statement, Mr Ofose, while wishing Mr Agenmonmen well in his new assignment, being watchdog of the industry, said BJAN finds it worrisome that less than months that the new president was elected, the entire workforce had been allegedly sacked.
He urged him and other stakeholders to maintain status quo by calling everybody back and review the NIMN position in order to avoid the incident that happened in 2003 when the institute was divided into two.
“The association wishes to remind the president about the past struggle of the institute when the federal government had to step in to reconcile the two warring factions by setting up a law that act 25 of NIMN of 2003,” he warned.
“BJAN is concerned about the balkanization of the marketing institute once again. If the current leadership of the NIMN goes on with its planned retrenchment, BJAN fears that NIMN might divide into two again, a development the association would not want to witness again,” he said.
Aduragbemi Omiyale