SIMON REEF MUSA, ABUJA – Embattled Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman, was suspended for continuously snubbing the Minister of Transportation, Hon Rotimi Amaechi, as her supervisor, sources in the maritime sector claimed
According to an inside source privy to the stormy relationship between the Ministry and NPA, Hadiza was too full of herself and never accorded due respects and courtesies to Amaechi who was supposed to be her supervising minister.
“She deliberately avoided him and refused to brief him relating to the NPA. The Minister was kept in the dark over happenings within NPA. Even when Amaechi made efforts to meet with the Maritime agency’s suspended boss, she flatly snubbed him.
“Ms. Usman’s appointment came through some powers that made her feel she was above reporting to the minister. From 2016 to date, the Minister has always been kept in the dark as to the happenings in the NPA,” said a reliable source on the current imbroglio trailing the suspension of the NPA MD.
Another source confided in our reporter that despite several memos sent to suspended NPA Chief Executive to forward documents to be captured in the transportation development blueprint being prepared by the National Planning Ministry, Ms. Hadiza bluntly insisted that as an agency, the NPA was not answerable to the Ministry but to the NPA Board.
As at the time of filing this report, Forefront could not confirm if a query had been issued to the Ministry over NPA’s refusal to submit the documents that have stalled the final harmonisation and presentation of a transportation policy for the country.
“Yes, we have been reliably informed that the National Planning Commission recently issued the Ministry a query arising from the NPA’s deliberate refusal to submit vital documents to the Commission. The Minister has described NPA’s refusal to submit the required documents as an act of insubordination. That is part of what led to her suspension and the setting up of a probe panel to unearth financial dealings of the agency from 2016 to date,” another source confided in Forefront.
From our investigations, the last straw that broke the camel’s back was the renewal of Ms Usman’s tenure that was done before the expiration of her first term and without Amaechi’s recommendation.
“The renewal of her tenure for a second term that was done without the recommendation of the Ministry clearly reveals that Ms. Usman was highly connected. Amaechi had had enough of her insolence and was not willing to tolerate her further. The suspended NPA MD was never a friend to any of the top officials of the Ministry as her actions towards them were described as disdainful.
“On her appointment as NPA MD, she was said to have transferred some senior officers from the Headquarters to other ports to give room for people she trusted. Some highly placed workers with high technical knowledge had to throw in the towel to avoid any form of clash. There were many issues to be sorted with the Ministry but she was never available to update Ministry officials on the happenings of the agency.
“When the new Permanent Secretary, Dr Ajani Magdalene Nwanwuche, assumed duties at the Ministry, she summoned all heads of agencies under the Transportation Ministry for initial briefings to keep her abreast of what was happening in the various parastatals. All except Ms. Usman appeared and briefed the new Permanent secretary.
“Dr Nwanwuche was furious when someone walked into her office and introduced himself as an Executive Director of the NPA sent by the MD to brief her. The new Permanent Secretary instantly walked the NPA official out of her office, telling him she could not take briefings from someone she had never been introduced to.
“As at the time she was suspended as MD, Ms. Usman never apologised for not honouring Dr Nwanwuche’s summon. Her refusal to cooperate with the Ministry put everyone in the dark and left no one in doubt that she was having it all alone, without allowing the Ministry play its supervising role in a juicy agency adjudged as one of the nation’s cash cows,” the source added.
Clearly, some top officials of the Ministry were miffed at the tenure renewal of Ms. Usman and thought it wise to arrest her sense of arrogance that kept the Transportation Ministry unaware of ongoings within the NPA. It was on the basis of a memo detailing Ms Usman’s many iniquities and what the Budget Office of the Federation described as violating due processes that got the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend her from office
Inaugurating a 7-man panel to probe the NPA, the Minister declared that their Terms of Reference include, among others to: “examine and investigate compliance with the communication channel as obtained in the Public Service; examine and investigate the procurement of contracts from 2016 to date”.
Members of the panel are Suleiman Auwalu, Director, Maritime Services and Chairman of the team; Ben Omogo, Director, Organisation Design and Development, Co-Chairman. Others include Hussani Adamu, Director, Procurement; Blessing Azorbo, Director, Legal Services; Mercy Ilori, Director, Transport Planning Coordination; Muhly-deen Awwal, Director, Human Resources Management; and Gabriel Fan, Deputy Director, Legal Services, who is serving as the secretary of the committee.
However, in her remarks, Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki appealed to the panel members not be distracted by the noise trailing the NPA MD’s suspension but focused on doing their work diligently.
