A new wave of controversy has hit the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) as Adepoju Adeyemi Sunday, the supposedly sacked Postmaster General of the agency announced and celebrated a reinstatement.
Recall that last Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu sacked the Chief Executive Officers of three agencies under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovations, and Digital Economy with immediate effect.
Adepoju Adeyemi Sunday, the Postmaster General of NIPOST was among those affected by the overhaul, according to a statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale.
Read here:
President Tinubu removes Danbatta as NCC chief, retains Inuwa of NITDA- meet the new heads
Adeyemi was said to have been replaced by Tola Odeyemi, who was until recently the Government Affairs Lead at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
It is however now coming as a shock that three days after this announcement, Adeyemi announced a restoration to his opposition followed by celebration footage making rounds on X (formerly Twitter).
Also, the official X account of NIPOST, posted a ‘reinstatement image’ of Adeyemi, accompanying it with a press release.
For the uninitiated, the Nigerian Postal Service is a government-owned and operated corporation. It is the agency responsible for providing postal services in the country.
A background story of the appointments
On Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu sacked the Chief Executive Officers of three agencies under the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovations, and Digital Economy headed by Bosun Tijani.
The heads of the agencies affected include the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta; the Postmaster General of the Nigerian Postal Service, Mr Sunday Adepoju and the Director General of the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), Mr Tukur Funtua.
The new CEOs were listed as Aminu Maida, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of NCC; Nkechi Egerton-Idehen as Managing Director of the NIGCOMSAT; and Tola Odeyemi as Postmaster General of NIPOST.
Tola is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in government and regulatory roles, working at senior government levels both at state and federal levels in Nigeria on strategy development & implementation, policy making, and operations.
She was the West Africa Government Affairs Lead at Binance. Before that, Tola Odeyemi was the Head of Public Policy for West Africa at Uber Technologies.
Prior to this, she served as the Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Environmental Trust Fund and simultaneously served as the Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos state Governor on the Public Utilities Monitoring and Assurance Unit (PUMAU).
Adeyemi Adepoju, on the other hand, was appointed as the Postmaster General of NIPOST in October 2022 for an initial term of five years and before that time, the accountant was a member of the Federal House of Representatives from 2011 – 2015 and 2015 – 2019, representing Ibarapa East/Ido Federal Constituency.
The appointment controversy
What exactly is going on under Bosun Tijani’s Ministry is currently unclear but a power struggle is suspected to be at play here. On Thursday, less than a day after the fresh appointment announcement was made, Minister Bosun Tijani posted the visit of Tola Odeyemi to his office, on X.
In his words:
“Guess who came to say hi and compare notes? Our new PMG; @tola_odeyemi!”
This was supposed to be a confirmation of an appointment to an agency under his ministry, but it’s bizarre that two days after, Adeyemi is celebrating a reinstatement and the official NIPOST X account is buttressing it.
No comment on the matter from the presidency or Ministry of Communications, Innovation & Digital Economy, as of the time of writing this report.
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