Memoir; my journey through the thick and thin of life — Part 5

Advertisement for general employment was done and I was officially employed as Administrative Assistant (Computer).

In August 1, 2006, I was deployed to Management Information System (MIS) Section. The MIS Section was domiciled under the Management Services Department.

Before my employment, the MIS had a Head, Mrs Israel Umoh, who later transferred his services to the mainstream Civil Service and became the State Director of Computer.

With the completion of both the Water Rehabilitation Project and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) project, the company now have a new system in place; a Computerized Billing System and a GIS platform.

Under the original company organisational structure, the hitherto manual billing System was managed by the Commercial Services Section, but with the introduction of Computer~based billing system, the management of the billing system was technically handled by the MIS Section.

Because the company now has an evolving specialised IT system (GIS) different from the normal ICT system, I saw the need for a GIS Unit, I started the process of getting the Management buy-in to create a new Unit called the GIS Unit under the MIS Section.

I made memo to the then Managing Director (Engr Bassey Ating), suggesting the creation of a GIS Unit. Somehow, it was not possible to achieve it because he couldn’t get the Board’s approval to rejig the organisational structure to reflect the reality of time.

To prepare myself to move up the ladder in my career, in 2007, I enrolled with the Institute of Data Processing Management of Nigeria (IDPMN), for a Professional Diploma in Computer Data Engineering and passed its Part 1 & 2 Professional Examinations.

IDPMN is a sister professional institution to the then IDPM of London, which later transmuted into the Institute of Management Information System (IMIS) and finally became the British Computer Society (BCS) otherwise now called The Chartered Institute for IT.

By the way, when it was time to take IDPM professional exams, I was unable to raise the examination fees and had to approach my bank for a loan. My bank accepted to offer me loan, with the condition that my employer has to undertake for me. They gave me a form for my employer’s signature. I took the form and met the Managing Director. He attached a minute requesting the General Manager, Management Services (Mr Akpabio IKON) to treat it immediately, considering the urgency of time.

I took the form with the MD’s minute to Mr IKON. Mr IKON asked me why I am doing the program and then began to lecture me about Civil Service policy that I should have sought the company’s Management approval before embarking on the programme. I explained to him that this professional examination since I had registered as an associate member of the of professional association, it was not necessary to inform my employer. I told it just a being a member of the Management Institute of Nigeria (MIN) for which he is a member. Employees, either in private of government organisations, are not statutorily not required to seek employers approval to be members of professional associations. It is usually personal decision for self development. You are only required to notify your employer when you want to take the association exams, so approval can be given to excuse you to prepare for the exams. He said he cannot proceed with signing the undertaking for me. (In short, he asked me to take it back to the MD to sign himself). I cried myself to sleep that night.

Next day, I called the IDPMN Centre Director and reported my challenges, he volunteered to allow me take the exams and pay later. When the result was out, I got the best result.

After the Professional Diploma, I was enrolled for the Graduate Diploma in Data Processing Management, I passed the Part 3 & 4 Examinations in 2009.

IDPMN Professional Diploma is equivalent to OND and the Graduate Diploma is equivalent to HND by academic standard and these are clearly written on the Statement of Results and the Certificates.

While I was doing the IDPMN Graduate Diploma, I was concurrently running an HND in Computer Science programme.

In August 2010, I notified the Company’s Management of my acquisition of the IDPMN Professional and Graduate Diploma, requesting the Management to UPDATE my record.

The MD minuted to Mr IKON, Mr IKON dumped my certificates in his cupboard without any action. In September that same year, the Board conducted personnel academic qualifications review and my qualification was ratified as equivalent to an HND and I was subsequently promoted in October to a level of an HND holder.

Meanwhile, all the efforts to get the Management’s approval to recognise the existence of a GIS platform proved abortive. Because of this I became disinterested in developing a career in GIS. In short, I abandoned the platform.

When the government of the day contracted Julius Berger (JB) to rehabilitate and expand major roads in Uyo and JB, having heard that Akwa Ibom Water Company had executed GIS project, came to the company to request for a map showing all water Akwa Ibom Water Company’s Pipe Networks across the metropolis.

Since the company did not recognise it had spent hundreds of millions of Naira in contract to have a GIS database nor did they value the fact that someone spent his time and resources to develop the skill needed to manage the platform, I couldn’t improvise the pipe networks map for Julius Berger because even the large format printer I would have used to print the map had no ink. I had lost motivation to improve upon the GIS or to continue to build a career from it. (Your work environment can either make or mar your career prospects ~ focus your mind on what you want to achieve for yourself).

As a result of the non- availability of a GIS map to guide JB during the road rehabilitation projects, major Akwa Ibom Water Company pipes were destroyed, leading to the inability to the company to supply water to many areas in the city.

Julius Berger refused to bear the cost of replacing those pipes on grounds that government should have given them maps showing their already existing utility lines.

Now you see why some government projects fail.

…to be continued

Stay with me on this series.