Publisher Sam Nda-Isaiah Declares For Presidency Amidst Months Of Unpaid Staff Salaries [NewsWireNGR Investigates]

Photo Credit:@SamNdaIsaiah Twitter handle

Owner of Nigeria’s Leadership newspaper Sam Nda Isaiah has made public his decision to run for the Presidency, the nation’s number one office ahead of the 2015 elections slated for February. This doesn’t however come as a shock to Nigerians.

For the coming elections a series of individuals, including artists, and movie actors have joined the race. But for workers of Leadership Newspaper, who haven’t received their monthly salary in over 4 months, this move send the most disturbing signals.

Sam Nda Isiahs ambition to contest the presidency is being perceived by staffs to be silently tearing the newspaper apart. Several staffs are aggrieved that they are being owed salaries of about four to six months. Many are angry that instead of being paid their salaries, Nda-Isaiah has been collecting every kobo that comes into the company for his campaign. Despite the inability of the management of the company to meet salary obligations, there is threat of mass sack.

In telephone interviews with staffs of Leadership Newspaper over their bosses’ decision to run for presidency, a series of strong statements were made by these aggrieved staffs, which for security purposes have chosen to remain anonymous.

A senior management staff who spoke to NewsWireNGR in a telephone interview said” When i heard the man wanted to be Nigeria’s President, I laughed. That’s because he has succeeded in building Leadership on corruption and blackmail”

Sam Ndaiah while making his declaration stated that: “Corruption under the PDP government has reached extreme levels, to the extent that the Federal Government is no longer able to pay state governments and other government units their due allocations.”

This statement has however gone contrary to the opinions of staffs of Leadership Newspaper.

“The Publisher has failed to pay staff salaries, he is currently owing his staffs four months. Again it is the failure of the Nigerian system that breeds criminality, do not mention my name but that man has absolutely no credential to rule Nigeria” says a senior editor at Leadership Newspaper speaking to NewsWireNGR and deciding to remain anonymous.

The recent move by Nda has also sent disturbing signals to party followers as well as political pundits discussing the issue. NewsWireNGR has gathered that the management of the newspaper was borrowing newsprint from a Lagos-based newspaper owned by one of the leaders of the All Progressives Congress to print.

“Nda-Isaiah actually borrowed the 27 million naira used to buy the APC Presidential form” A staff choosing to remain anonymous informed NewsWireNGR “I do not understand how a political party will open its doors to all kinds of miscreants, someone who allows workers to collect brown envelope wants to be Nigeria’s President?” He continued.

The event which took place was attended by former Vice President and APC Presidential contender Abubakar Atiku, Rivers State Governor Rotimi Ameachi, former Minister of FCT Nasir El Rufai, Senator George Akume, Senator Aisha Alhassan, Audu Ogbeh, and other APC members.

Sam has not remained silent over the unpaid salary issue Leadership Newspaper is facing, in response, he has blamed the government. A statement on his Facebook page read: “The salaries that are currently owed are as a result of the debts owed the company by the three tiers of government and their inability to pay is directly related to the fact that Jonathan’s government has not been paying states and Federal Government Parastatal monies due to them. This year, only half of the allocations to agencies, state governments and local governments have been paid to them.”

While speaking on the need for a new leader for the country, he stated that a government under him would be one dedicated to the rule of law.
Under my presidency, all crimes will be punished, no matter how long it will take to apprehend the criminals. We shall send a clear message to criminals that whoever commits a crime will be apprehended and brought to justice according to the law – whoever they are, no matter where they come from and no matter how long it takes.