Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Fresh controversy has erupted at the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) over its 2026 staff promotion exercise, with workers accusing the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Nonye Ayeni, of reintroducing the long-abolished Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER) system to manipulate the process and favour loyalists.
The controversy follows an internal circular dated September 1, 2026, directing staff due for promotion to "fill and submit the required numbers of APER forms to be assessed by their supervisors and use as inputs in scoring staff performances in the Performance Management Systems structure and template". The directive caught staff off guard because the APER had been formally replaced years earlier by the Performance Management System (PMS), following a Presidential directive that took effect from January 1, 2023. Section 050201 of the Public Service Rules states unequivocally: "The Performance Management System (PMS) shall replace the Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER) for the Federal Public Service".
Staff are particularly incensed that NEPC itself had already used PMS criteria for its 2025 promotion exercise, making the sudden reversion to APER for 2026 even harder to explain. One staff member described the circular as self-contradictory, noting that it gave staff only two days to complete APER forms while claiming those scores would feed into the separate PMS framework. "You cannot use APER form to assess scores for PMS because the format and weighted scoring criteria are clearly different. It's like trying to use a landline to access data from a 5G network," the source said. Another staff member questioned Ayeni's authority to act unilaterally, asking, "Does Mrs. Ayeni have the power or authority to unilaterally reintroduce the use of APER form as a component of staff appraisal tool even when the APER form has since been abolished and discarded by the Federal Government?".
Workers have also raised concerns about the practicality of the APER requirement, noting that officers would need forms from the past three or four years, countersigned by Directors, many of whom have since retired or returned to their home states and should no longer be endorsing documents for serving staff. The rushed timeline has further fuelled suspicion, with one employee alleging the reversion is designed to compromise the exercise and promote staff loyal to Ayeni. "The identified flaws of the APER form as a means of assessing civil servants was the main reason why the Federal Government abolished it in the first instance. So why re-introduce it, if not for some sinister purpose?" the employee said. Another source alleged that Ayeni is rushing the promotion exercise to pre-empt the outcome of an investigation by anti-graft agencies, so that her loyalists would have been promoted and could be used to "deal with" certain officers who made negative statements against her.
The controversy is further compounded by the secondment of three Directors, which staff say has deepened agitation. Documents show that Ayeni, in a letter dated May 4, 2026, requested the posting of one Director, one Deputy Director and one Assistant Director from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. Staff argue that the seconded officers have taken up scarce senior vacancies, threatening promotion prospects for existing staff. The officers' arrival reportedly nearly triggered a strike planned for August 18, 2026, which management and the NEPC Senior Staff Union averted while Ayeni was reportedly in the United States on holiday.
In response, NEPC spokesperson Aliu Seidu Sadiq defended the Council's position, describing PMS as a "noble initiative" whose uptake across government remains incomplete. He argued that NEPC is not the only agency that has not fully automated its processes under PMS, adding that the APER form is still being used during this transition. "What NEPC is doing is therefore not out of place. That is why we are implementing the APER alongside the PMS. We do not want to rush into the new system and eventually have problems with its implementation," Sadiq said.
The allegations come amid a broader pattern of controversies under Ayeni's leadership, including halted promotion exercises flagged by the Office of the Head of Civil Service in 2025 and disputes over the re-engagement of retired officers. In January 2026, a group of civil society organisations urged the ICPC and EFCC to investigate Ayeni over allegations of nepotism and abuse of office. Staff have now demanded clarity on what is being measured, who assesses it, the weighted criteria, and what recourse exists for officers who dispute their scores. As one senior official put it, the issue is about transparency, not challenging management. The question now is whether the Council will provide the answers staff are demanding—or whether the crisis will escalate further.
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