NIGERIA'S presidential and diplomatic cook in New York, Mr. Ajayi Ojo, who has cooked for and served virtually every Nigerian President and Head of State since 1975 would be retiring at the end of the month, according to the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
Ojo is among the support staff of the Mission in New York honoured over the weekend by the Nigerian government with gratuity cheques running into $1.6m for 17 officials.
Nigerian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN, Prof. Joy Ogwu, described the event as a "milestone".
Ogwu said: "We have been asking for the gratuity to be paid and it was a battle to get it," as she and her deputy, Amb. Usman Seriki presented fat cheques in US dollars to deserving staff.
Nigerian Permanent Mission officials said some took well over $100,000 as gratuity payments.
Many of the recipients including Ajayi Ojo and his colleague, Mr. Joseph Onwe, who has worked 41 years at the Mission as office manager, were full of gratitude at the Friday afternoon event, which was first presided by Seriki before Ogwu made a surprise appearance.
Explaining the background, Mr. Peter Egopija, head of chancery at the Nigerian Mission said the Mission is proud to pay some of the overdue gratuities and also to appreciate the services of the support staff team of the Nigerian Mission to the UN, which includes more than 30 people, who were hired locally in New York, unlike foreign service professionals sent from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
But due to financial constraints, the Mission had to scale back the number of its support staff from over 30 to about 21, even though the limit prescribed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry is even lower — 17.
In the circumstances, the Mission took a review of conditions of service for its local support staff and renegotiated a contractual scheme which divests the Federal Government of huge financial commitment which has been tough to keep up with including conditions of service that warranted the payment of gratuities similar to regular Mission staff posted from Nigeria.
Besides, Egopija explained that the mission still has to convince the Foreign Affairs Ministry on the need to keep the support staff at 21, more than the limit prescribed, "So we can get our work here done well." But 12 of the current more than 30 support staff officials have now been disengaged, effective the end of this month.
Included among the 12 staff disengaged are those who have spent over 30 years in service, like Ojo, Onwe and others. Also included are some other support staff officials whose responsibilities are no longer included in the new organogram developed by the Mission.
Speaking at the event, the Deputy Nigerian Permanent Representative to the UN, Usman Seriki, noted that those honoured on Friday with gratuities "have served the Mission meritoriously for more than 30 years."
He added that letting the officials go is "a painful but inevitable step."
Some of the local support staff also included non-Nigerian Africans from Niger, Senegal and Republic of Benin.
In her closing remarks, Ogwu said payment of gratuity to the long-standing local staff should inspire the staff in general to "work in the national interest. When we work in the national interest, the personal interest shall be well taken care of."
A senior secretary, Mrs. Eunice Omo-Abu, simply said on collecting her check, "This is the happiest day of my life. I never though this day would come."
