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 the supervising ministry, to refer the matter to the governing board of the affected agency in line with its enabling law and chapters three and 16 of the Public Service Rules on discipline in government parastatals.