Hadiza Bala Usman, the former managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has stated that President Mohammadu Buhari informed her that former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi had requested her resignation as MD of NPA twice before her final removal from office.
She was accused of ignoring ministerial directives and communicating directly with Buhari. In 2022, she was succeeded by Mohammed Bello-Koko.
Usman, who was appointed NPA MD in 2016 but left the agency amid controversies with Amaechi, the former minister of transportation, wrote about her experience as NPA boss in her newly released book.
According to excerpts from Hadiza Bala Usman’s book, “Stepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority,” the former NPA MD explained how the former Minister of Transportation hurriedly pushed for the reconstitution of the NPA’s Governing Board without considering geopolitical balancing.
Usman stated in her book that she met with the president following the #EndSARS protest and the uproar that ensued. She claimed she was informed that the minister had called for her resignation “on two occasions.”
Despite Amaechi’s protests, the ex-NPA boss stated that Buhari informed her of his intention to keep her until the end of his presidency. She also asked the president to reconstitute the agency’s board, citing the initial appointments’ zonal imbalance.
She said, “A few weeks after the attack on the NPA, I secured an appointment to see President Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja,” Usman wrote.
“After exchanging pleasantries, I brought him up to speed about the attack on the NPA and he asked how we had fared in the aftermath.
“I told him my suspicions about what might have motivated the apparently targeted attacks. He expressed surprise at the zonal imbalance and asked if it had always been like that.
“I reminded him that he had approved the dissolution of the board earlier in the year which had as its chairman a person from the south-west but still no representation from the south- east and approved the appointment of a new board in accordance with the request of the minister.
“I also indicated that there was a chance that the minister planned to nominate someone from the south-west as managing director since my tenure was due to expire in June 2021 just about seven months away to create a balance of having a south-west person on board.
“The president expressed surprise that my tenure would soon expire. He informed me that the minister had requested for my removal on two occasions but that he intended to retain me at the NPA until the end of his administration. He asked who the immediate past chairman was, and I told him it was Mr E. O. Adesoye, who retired as a director at Exxon Mobil and was reportedly nominated by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
She said the president then directed Ibrahim Gambari, the chief of staff, who was at the meeting to work on the reconstitution of the board of the NPA to have representatives from every geo-political zone.
“He also directed that my reappointment should be brought to him so he could approve,” she wrote.