The staff of the office of the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Registration Board of Nigeria (ODORBN), a Parastatal under the Federal Ministry of health, have appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to consider beaming his search light in their office with a view to investigating the leadership style of their Registrar/CEO, Dr. Obinna Edwin Awiaka.

The staff complained bitterly that since the assumption in office of the Registrar June 1st, 2023, the once bubbling and lively office has suddenly become a living hell for them.

According to some of the staff, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity for obvious reasons, noted that the leadership style of the Registrar/CEO can only be compared to that of Idi Amin of the then Uganda. 

They revealed that the first thing Dr. Awiaka did immediately he resumed was to totally dismantle the existing organisation organogram which was purely set up in line with the civil service rules, thereby deliberately making all the Directors, their deputies and assistants inactive. He was also said to have even gone ahead to abolish the management meetings where robust discussion about the organisation have been churned out.

Regrettably, the staff noted that Dr. Awiaka had boasted severally that he does not believe in the civil service rules which informed why he has absolute disregard for the structure he met on ground when he came in. 

One of the staff said, "You cannot imagine that all the departments are now being headed by junior officers. Currently the ICT department is being headed by a staff with just a school certificate, while the Procurement department is being headed by a procurement assistant, whereas there are qualified officers hitherto handling these offices.

"Because of his alleged high-handedness and his tyrannically style of leadership, he has transferred all the Directors, their deputies and assistants under very flimsy reasons. It's either you do his bidding, or you are out. For example, the Director of Admin has been transferred to National Task Force unit for refusing to sign a document he was not aware of. Also, the head of Procurement was transferred to the national Task Force, procurement unit where he does work that belittle his position.

"It is even said that the so-called National Task Force unit does not even exist in the structure of the organisation, it's merely a creation of the Registrar and his aide where their perceived enemies are transferred to. Some of the Directors have been transferred out of the headquarters for no particular reason,"

One other staff accused Dr. Awiaka of flooding the organisation with so many aides who have virtually taken over the running of the office and have even become larger than life. "The office is littered with his aides of different kinds. He has Special technical Adviser, Special Adviser, Personal Assistant, Technical Adviser, Special Adviser on Inter-Governmental Affairs, and several others. And for you to remain relevant in the office, you must have to be in the good books of these aides," He lamented.

The staff also accused the Registrar of running the organisation like his private office, as he hardly comes to the office, virtually running the office from the diaspora, "Dr. Awiaka hardly comes to the office, he comes maybe once in two weeks. Sometimes we don't see him for a whole month. We can count how many times we have seen him in the office this year. These aides help him to run the office."

These staff therefore call on the Nigerian President to come to their aid stressing that if nothing is done, and done very fast, the organisation is definitely heading for disaster. The staff revealed that the Registrar has the boldness to do whatever he likes because he has boasted severally that he has the backing of some top officials of the Federal Ministry of health, the main reason the Ministry has not bothered to beam their searchlight on the organisation despite the outcry of the staff. "He has always boasted to us that nobody can sack him, that he is in a very good relationship with those in the supervising Ministry" one of the staff stated.

Meanwhile, attempt to hear from the Registrar/CEO for his own side of the story proves abortive as he did not pick the several calls put across to him.