Amid disputation of impropriety, Hadiza Bala Usman was on Wednesday told to step aside as the Managing Director of the Nigeria Port Authority, a post she had held since 2016.
Usman, who has a stint in the public service, had occupied key positions in government including being a senior officer at the Bureau of Public Enterprises and a chief of staff to the incumbent Governor of Kaduna, Nasir El-Rufai in 2015. This made her familiar with the power blocs in the political sphere. The fact that she is a Fulani woman from Katsina, the home-state of President Muhammadu Buhari, who has a track record of shielding his loyalists, also dazed on-lookers.
Vanguard News
The nexus between Hadiza, Tinubu and Pantami
On
By Emmanuel Aziken
Penultimate Monday night’s visit by All Progressives Congress, APC leaders Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande to President Muhammadu Buhari was perhaps the most visible show of concern by elements in the ruling party to the distress in the land.
Tinubu came out of the meeting pleading with Nigerians to join hands with the government to address the many concerns about insecurity, economy, and other issues in the land.
The call from Tinubu and his visit to the president undoubtedly reflected the unease he may have felt with the happenings in the land.
Festus Akanbi
The suspension of Ms Hadiza Bala-Usman as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority last Thursday by the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, against civil service rules for the removal of heads of MDAs, was the culmination of the personal desire of the minister to remove Hadiza and truncate her second term as Managing Director of agency.
Hadiza was not told what her offences were or formally communicated, before her suspension was announced by the presidency.
Not querying her or making her aware of her offence(s) before suspending her is a clear breach of the processes stipulated in the governmentâs own regulation for disciplining heads of government agencies. A government circular dated May 19, 2020, and endorsed by the Secretary to Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, stipulated that when there is an issue of impropriety against the head of an agency, the federal government requires a minister, through the permanent secretary of t
Hadiza Bala Usman had tweeted:
The state of insecurity in the country that has led to the kidnap of Kagara boys and Zamfara girls need to be addressed URGENTLY…We can’t go on like this! Rescue our children and Secure our country that’s all we ask …#SecureNorth #SecureNigeria.
According to a release by President’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, President Buhari approved the recommendation of the Ministry of Transportation for the setting up of an Administrative Panel of Inquiry to investigate the Management of NPA.
“The President has also approved that the Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman, to step aside while the investigation is carried out. Mr Mohammed Koko will act in that position. The panel is to be headed by the Director, Maritime Services of the Ministry while the Deputy Director, Legal of the same ministry will serve as Secretary. Other members of the panel will be appointed by the Minister,” Shehu had said in the release.