Buhari picks BBOG co-founder Hadiza Usman to head NPA

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Hadiza Usman, co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group, as managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

Yetunde Sonaike, director of press at the federal ministry of transportation, announced the appointment in a statement on Tuesday.

Also appointed are Mohammed Bello-Koko as executive director, finance; Idris Abubakar, a professor, as executive director, engineering; and Sekonte Davies as executive director, marine operations.

Born in 1976 in Zaria, Kaduna state, Usmaan has a B.Sc. Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU),
Zaria, and a post-graduate in Development Studies from University of Leeds, UK, in 2009.

She worked at Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from July 2000 to August 2004 as enterprise officer, and hired was by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the federal capital territory administration (FCTA) from October 2004 to January 2008 as special assistant to the minister on project implementation.

She also worked as director of strategy of Good Governance Group, a non-governmental organisation, from 2011 to July 2015, before she was appointed chief of staff to Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state — a position she held until the present appointment.

The Zaria-born activist came into national reckoning in April 2014 when she started the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) movement‎ to pressure the government into stepping up efforts towards the quick rescue of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted from their hostel in Chibok, Borno state.

The group, which she co-founded with Obiageli Ezekwesili, former minister of education, faced stiff opposition from the past government of Goodluck Jonathan.

Owing to her membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Jonathan government discred‎ited the group as working for the opposition and accused it of plotting to bring down the administration.

For her humanitarian efforts, the business administration graduate was named by Financial Times (FT) among the most influential women of 2014, while CNN named her as the most inspiring woman of the same year.