The last may not have been heard about the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc popularly known as MINT as the Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Abubakar Sule Minjibir employed his brother,
Abubakar Shehu Abdulwahab, a National Diploma Holder and placed him on N30million salary, as well as exempting him from paying tax to the government.
According to information available to this platform, Mr Abdulwahab who recently retired from MINT services as intermediate staff with a salary structure of less than N300,000 was offered the latest jumbo, far more than what top management staff earn, in what insider management staff described as the height of insensitivity and nepotism, even as the Managing Director has allegedly flooded MINT with his kinsmen within the last two months.
Minjibir who has allegedly spent about eighteen years in MINT employed Abubakar Shehu Abdulwahab on the 1st April, vide employment letter referenced NSPM/322/0020/HR as his technical adviser. Our investigation revealed that Abdulwahab, who is the kinsman of Minjibir has no technical expertise nor the pre-requisite qualification for the position for which such salary structure was unilaterally approved for him. Worse still is that the Managing Director exempted him from paying tax to the Federal Government, in contravention of Nigeria Tax Act, 2025.
Recall that MINT, under Minjibir has been recording abysmal performance, which led to radical reforms introduced by the central bank governor, Mr Olayemi Cardoso. The reforms which aimed at repositioning MINT for optimal performance has consistently met brick walls as a result of in-house resistance by some top management staff, another source hinted.
The source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that all reforms embarked upon by the central bank governor are being frustrated by management staff, led by the very Managing Director. The source also claimed that Minjibir is leveraging the growth in MINT for personal aggrandizement. He questioned how a staff with ordinary diploma could be employed and placed on such outrageous salary, when in essence, the productive staff have had no form of encouragement or better welfare to commensurate their output under Minjibir
“MINT under Minjibir has notoriety of nepotism, and operations devoid of strategic planning and execution. This led to the central bank governor getting directly involved by introducing and implementing reforms aimed at repositioning MINT for maximum performance. Those reforms have already started yielding positive results, but as usual, those efforts are being eroded by vested interest.
The source said that the thematic objective of those reforms was to increase output, improve on staff welfare, cut off unnecessary expenditures, reduce wastes and increase profitability. He said that those who pushed for those reforms faced victimization by the same Managing Director who pushed for their disengagement.
“The reforms recently introduced are great ideas that have started yielding results. Those who were hired to push for those reforms were laid off on the recommendation of Abubakar Minjibir. He felt they were competitors. But unfortunately, those positive results are being subtly eroded through nepotism, and lack of clear-cut vision by the Minjibir-led management team.