Hadiza Bala Usman, a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, has disclosed why she was fired from the NPA.
Bala accused Rotimi Amaechi, the former Minister of Transportation, of plotting her ouster from office in February 2023.
This assertion was made by Bala in her book “Stepping on Toes: My Adventure at the Nigerian Ports Authority.”
Amaechi, she claimed, arranged her dismissal because she did not lavish him with favors.
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Bala was removed from office following allegations that the NPA failed to deposit around N165 billion in operational surpluses to the federation’s Consolidated Revenue Fund Account.
President Muhammadu Buhari suspended her after Amaechi requested an investigation into the accounts.
After that, the minister established an administrative panel of investigation to probe the NPA’s operations, including contract awards from 2016 to May 2021.
In addition, he requested that the panel “review and probe compliance with communication channels obtained in the public service.”
The investigation, which lasted around nine months, found no evidence of non-remittance; however, Bala Usman was removed from office and replaced with Mohammed Bello-Koko, her executive director of finance and administration.
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Bala in her memoir stated, “Amaechi held personal grudges against her because she failed to dispense favours, and that some of these inspired his decision to remove her at all costs. She alleged that the former minister said this much to some people who tried to mediate on the matter.
“Interest groups and leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) also tried to intervene. I know, for instance, that Governors elected on the platform of the APC, chaired by Governor Atiku Bagudu, deliberated on the issue of my suspension and constituted a committee to intervene.”
“The Governors’ team met the Minister to discuss a resolution of the matter. He insisted that my management of the NPA had to be investigated because of the amount unremitted to the CFR (Consolidated Federation Revenue). He even tried to sway the governors’ resolve by suggesting to them that the budget of the NPA was bigger than most of their state budgets, so they shouldn’t bother about me.
“When the governors persisted, he told them that the matter was no longer within his purview and that they may need to approach the Head of Service of the Federation.
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“He told another person who tried to intervene that I was so so selfish that I did nothing for him from the NPA, and never even gave him a birthday present!”
She went on to say that she had a personal reconciliation meeting with Amaechi, during which the former minister accused her of writing straight to the President without going via the ministry.
She claimed that the former minister told her that he initiated the actions against her because he no longer wanted her in the ministry and that he asked her to quit freely or to challenge her suspension in court.
The author wrote in the memoir, “I told him I wasn’t going to do either especially now that the probe panel was in place.
“The public service does not in fact accept resignations from staff under probe. I was convinced that doing either would make me appear guilty. I told him that I would rather wait for the panel to complete its task and present their findings, as I was sure I had done nothing wrong.”
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Upon rejecting Amaechi’s advice, Ms Bala Usman claimed that the former minister “then told me that he would ensure that the investigation went on until 2022 when political activities would have started, and the president would not remember that I was still on suspension. He said what mattered to him was that I was no longer the MD of the NPA.”
Aside from the foregoing, the book suggests that Messrs Amaechi and Bala Usman clashed on how to handle several of the agency’s important functions.
She claimed that an unknown industry stakeholder had advised her that the minister would want her out when two significant contracts were up for renewal.
According to the book: “The first of this was the capital dredging contract and the second, the service boat management contract. While the minister demanded an extension of tenure of the companies providing capital dredging services without due process, he got approval for the restoration of an expired service boat contract. He got this even though the company was owing the federal government, had violated the Treasury Single Account policy, and above all longer had any contract with the NPA.”
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In an interview with Premium Times, the spokesperson for ex-Minister David Iyofor stated his team would give a detailed response to the memoir after reading it.
Iyofor said, “As of now, we are still looking for the book.”
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