Celebrating Sir Joseph Ari, for changing ITF’s fortunes 

It is likely that someone reading this piece may consider this material as a publicity stunt for the immediate past Director General/Chief Executive of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Sir Joseph Ntung Ari.

Such persons are at liberty to believe what they want. Truth is Ari deserves the recommendations he is receiving, especially on account of being able to turn around the fortunes of the Fund. If repositioning the institution is anything to go by, he deserves to be appreciated, and even much more.

Deep down me; yours sincerely convinced, he deserves what I am doing. Nothing can be as patriotic as to recall what Sir Ari has done for the Industrial Training Fund since he was made the Director General/Chief Executive on September 26, 2016. His two tenures were brought to an end on October 13, 2023.

Seven years down the road, while assiduously working to complete the final year of his second term as Director General/Chief Executive, he, together with other chief executives across the several agencies and parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment sectors were replaced by the Tinubu administration.

According to the statement by the Presidency announcing the new appointments, the changes were in line with Tinubu’s ‘resolve to base Nigeria’s economic revival on the foundation of trade expansion through small, medium and large scale industry facilitation in the industry’; but ‘to optimally deliver in accordance with new key performance indicating benchmarks as established’ by the ministry.

Those who have the mental picture of what the nation’s foremost training institution (ITF) used to be before 2016 are quick to mention the transformation that it went through in the last seven years, when Ari held sway.

To be fair to other Chief Executives that had been there since its creation by Decree 47 of 1971. It began as Parastatal B in the same year of its establishment, and headed by a Director. Ten years later; it became Parastatal A in 1981 with a Director General as the Chief Executive under the aegis of the Ministry of Industry.

Considering the history of the 52 years old organization, several seasoned administrators had sat in the saddle. It will be instructive to note that he was just 11 years old when the Fund was founded, having been born on December 21, 1960.

They certainly left marks of different shapes and sizes, but fair enough, the shoes Sir Joseph Ari stepped into seven years ago were not too big as to enable him walk well to succeed in creating the space for the different transformations.

He had to recalibrate just so to match his vision. Many recall that on assumption in 2016, the tumultuous labour crisis that had characterized the Fund’s working environment would have put off the zeal of any chief executive in the first instance. But that was one thing he needed to settle down to business quickly.

That done, he quickly went to work with a passion that confounded both workers and those who had waited with baited breath to see what he could do. Meeting a workforce that was restive, and the workers unions at daggers drawn with the management as a result of a combination of high-handedness and outright negligence by the immediate past management, it was not long that the issues that had taken time to be resolved were looked into; and amicably settled.

Above all, ‘apart from the workforce, other external stakeholders also openly expressed dissatisfaction with the Fund’s services’. With a man who had a clear mandate of the part the Fund should play, deployed all his administrative arsenals to resolve contending issues in record time.

That clearly endeared him to those he was going to be closely working with over the years. But, more at that, having gone round the Area Offices nationwide, it was easy to know what their challenges were; and apart from being eye opener, the ground was prepared to get him started on a sound footing.

When he was appointed the Director General/Chief Executive in 2016, the nation’s financial predicaments were building to a pitch high that are able to clearly test the capacities of any public official in government on how the storm could be tackled. It was only a matter of time that those who had doubts would see how he could weather the storm and get things right and working well for the Fund.

Everyone knew at that time, ‘the difficulties of a nation going through economic recession were sufficient to test the expertise of the man whose mandate in taking charge of the Fund included, job creation, wealth, skills acquisition and self reliance, through various models of skills acquisition programmes created to turn the fortunes of Nigerians.

They are today footprints that would remain for years having been ebbed in the sands of time; but more importantly, those Nigerians that benefitted from the numerous programmes would continue to be indebted to the Fund and Sir Joseph Ari who pursued them relentlessly. Hard work and loyalty are his middle name.

It is on record that several hundreds of thousand youth were trained in the Fund’s entrepreneurship and skills acquisition programmes. Many of them have set up their businesses and or have continued to be absorbed in various sectors of the economy that have need of their services.

Indeed, there are other sign posts which have helped in turning around the fortunes of the Fund in the last seven years. They include among many others: The Fund’s presence in all states and the federal capital, upgrade of the Center of Excellence in Bukuru, to generate revenue an auditorium was constructed at the headquarters and also by ensuring that the Fund’s Staff School play a greater role in advancing the frontiers of education, completed and commissioned all abandoned projects as well as expanded the Fund’s infrastructure by initiating new ones.

From the onset, to get started, he got and assured staff that he ‘came back to ITF to work, where hard work, punctuality, creativity, inputs by all members of staff will be noticed and in certainty recognized. I came back to heal wounds whereby all staff will be treated equally, irrespective of religion and tribe’.

The transformation of the Fund in his first four years was indeed noticeable; no wonder, by setting up of ‘ITF Reviewed Vision: Strategies for Mandate Actualization. The implementation of the six-year plan, which was divided into quick wins, medium and long-term goals commenced in late 2016’, which terminated in 2022 became in many respects what endeared him to powers that be, staff and indeed stakeholders in the industry.

A number of people have, since 2016 insisted that he was indeed prepared for the new assignment. Their recommendations on his capacities for the job have several reasons attached to. Those who have tried to question or invalidated them continued to be surprised at what he has done over the years.

That Sir Joseph Ntung Ari OON was picked as the Director General/Chief Executive seven years ago was a departure of bringing and or hoisting someone without the knowledge of the industry as its head.

For those who do not know, he was ‘at different times the Head, Public Relations, External Affairs and Publicity, Director of Administration and Human Resources Department, Corporate Planning Department and the Business Training Development Department at the ITF Headquarters’, and at some point, ’Chairman of the Fund’s Training and Research Committee (T&RC) of Management’. What better choice could the federal government have made for the Fund?

The fact that he nonetheless faced some nerve racking challenges on assumption of duty, failure was not on the lips of those who value his contributions in various sectors of the nation’s economy. And given the fact that he joined the Fund in 2007 with an incredible reservoir of public service experience, which was largely accumulated during his tour of duty at various organizations; even rising to the peak of his civil service career as the Permanent Secretary to the Plateau State Government House, God helping him, proved his mettle with a stellar performance.

Just before long; and indeed, having had a firsthand understanding of how the mandate of the Fund could be achieved; without doubt he had made impact on the institution, to the admiration of staff and stakeholders. Therefore, to fulfill ITF’s ‘mandate of providing, promoting and encouraging the acquisition of skills in industry and commerce to generate a pool of indigenous trained manpower sufficient to meet the needs of the private and public sectors of the Nigerian economy’ was the guiding principle of his vision.

Under his watch, a number of programmes have been executed for different categories of Nigerians. They include: National Industrial Skills Development Programme, (NISDP), Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), Training on Wheels and the Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP), Construction Skills Empowerment Programme, CONSEP, Passion to Profession Programme (P2PP), Infotech Skills Empowerment Programme and ITF Model Skills Training Center among several other initiatives. These initiatives have either been expanded and or introduced newly, to capture sufficient grounds of skills acquisition schemes for all categories of Nigerians.

It is on record that numerous trade areas were covered giving those who ordinarily feel they cannot be considered a place. The areas include: Event Management, Cosmetology, Poultry Farming, Bead Making, Baking and Pastry, Soap/Disinfectant/Detergent Making, Hair Making, Food Processing, Tailoring and Fashion Design, Tie and Dye and Electrical Installations. The other areas are: Brick Making, Plaster of Paris, Tiling, Electrical Installation and Carpentry. The list is not exhaustive, as there are trade needs and Nigerians available to prove their industry.

As the Director General/Chief Executive of the Fund he was not bereft of fresh ideas; he had sufficient of them to run their courses; as he was ever willing to lay them on the table for the benefit of the organization. None of them has gone unnoticed; as they have been appreciated with numerous mention and conferment.

They include: Conferment as Kurnajam of Gamailand (Defence Minister), Oba Atunlese of Amuroland in Kogi State and Owuze Upata 1 (benefactor of the Upata people) in Rivers State chieftaincy title; Award of Excellence, Micro Scale and Medium Enterprises MSME; conferment of 2022 Public Service Award by the Leadership Media Group Limited; conferment of national merit award of Officer of the Order of Niger, OON by former President Muhammadu Buhari among many other awards.

Ari is a fellow of five institutes as well as beings member of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ. Being a devout Christian, Sir Joseph Ari is a knight, and in recognition of his religious activities, Pope Francis conferred on him the title of Knight of Saint Sylvester (KSS).

For the first time in the history of the Fund, it ‘organised the National Skills Summit which attracted over 500 participants from different sectors of the Nigerian economy including the academia. The summit, which provided a veritable platform for the articulation of specific strategies for developing employable skills in Nigeria also discussed the application of best practices for aligning skills development to market needs, spotlight and bring to public domain topical issues that have skills development implications and/or requiring skills interventions, bring together skills development agencies and practitioners to exchange ideas and facilitate professional networking and technical collaboration, propound policy guidelines for skills development, and identify and assess existing skills development and labour market contexts in Nigeria’.

The Fund’s staff members were fully integrated and motivated for optimal performance through various training programmes as well as several copious welfare packages made available in large measures. History has been kind to him to have left indelible footprints wherever he worked; with ITF been the most profound.

Sir Joseph Ntung Ari, Knight of Saint Sylvester (KSS), father of five boys, is married to delectable Lady Victoria Selbyjen Ari. He has always had a staying spirit that enables him pull through challenges. He has been passionately prepared to lead ITF; just as he is determined to support Mr. Afiz Oluwatoyin, his successor settle in his new assignment.

He knows that even in this new development, God shall make it pass away too!