Warning to those peddling falsehood about me

BY HADIZA BALA USMAN

A few weeks back, a friend drew my attention to an upcoming campaign of calumny in the media, allegedly orchestrated by people who think I might be standing in their way of achieving some ambition.

I did not think it was anything serious until I saw reports attacking my personality and service at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). Even then, I ignored these splinters of reports, mainly because the authors did not have the courage to mention my name directly.

However, on Thursday, June 15, 2023, LEADERSHIP and Blueprint Newspapers published online reports which mentioned my name. At that point, I considered the importance of giving an appropriate response.

While the headline in LEADERSHIP reads: “Don’t appoint ex-public servants with records of sleaze, CSO cautions Tinubu”, that of Blueprint reads: “Don’t appoint ex-public servants with sleaze records, CSO advises Tinubu.”

The reports, quoting a statement issued by a supposed Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Centre for Leadership Legacy Int’l (Centre LLI), then cited me, Hadiza Bala Usman, as an example of ex-public servants “eased out of office following allegations of sleaze, high-handedness, and abuse of office”.

In the case of Blueprint, the paper went ahead to cite self-serving and fallacious narratives about how I allegedly “severed NPA’s relationship with Intels” after the company had done the NPA so much favour.

It accused me of allegedly mismanaging “the dispute between Ladol and one of its tenants, Messrs Samsung Ltd…”. It after that said: “There are reports that there are plans to impose certain persons whose track records are tainted on the President for appointments into his cabinet. The need for the President to appoint individuals of unblemished character is more urgent now than ever.”

By the foregoing, the report insinuated that I am one of the “blemished” people of whom President Tinubu should be wary.

Let me start by reminding this CSO and their cowardly sponsors that power and appointments into public office are only granted by Almighty God. They should, therefore, not hope to attain public office on the back of assailing the character of a fellow human being who has done them no wrong.

Contrary to allegations, I was not eased out of office for sleaze or any related reason.

Although the story is already in the public space, to the knowledge of everyone who is after the truth, I should restate the facts to educate mischief makers like this faceless CSO.

The Management of the NPA under my leadership was falsely and wrongly accused of the non-remittance of the sum of N165 billion Operating Surplus into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) account of the Federation by the former Minister for Transportation (FMOT), Rt. Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. He then got approval from President Buhari for me to “step aside” on the strength of this accusation, pending investigations by an Administrative Panel of Inquiry to be constituted by him.

After eight months of work, the Minister’s Administrative Panel of Inquiry could not establish this alleged non-remittance of N165 billion, which was the basis for which the former Minister sought the President’s approval for me to step aside.

It was also not part of the query entitled, “Allegations of infractions arising from the report of the administrative panel of inquiry into the activities of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) 2016 -2021.”, issued to me by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transportation, Dr Magdalene Ajani, following the conclusion of the investigation by the Panel on January 28, 2022.

On the contrary, the Panel – the report of which Minister refused to make public – discovered that I had remitted over N182 Billion into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) within the period in question, during its investigations.

Honest stakeholders in the industry will laugh at the narrative concocted by Centre LLI about Intels and Ladol.

For instance, to say that I “severed” NPA’s relationship with Intels”, when what happened was the expiration of only one of the eight contractual relationships NPA had with Intels, which is the Service Boat Operations Management Agency contract, is to show the ignorance or mischief of this group of people.

Intels had operated that contract since 1997, and before its expiration in 2020, the NPA had a running battle with the company over its refusal to obey the Federal Government’s directive that all government revenue must be remitted into the Treasury Single Account (TSA). When I exited NPA, INTELS had a total of USD$264,932,666.91 of NPA funds with it, which it refused to remit.

The dispute with Intels was about a company carrying about as if it was bigger than the laws of the country, and the NPA, under my management, fought to correct that.

In the same vein, Ladol breached a fundamental provision of its agreement with the NPA, and we acted in line with this agreement. My intent in all that we did was to ensure that all parties, including the Authority itself, followed the regulations.

Details of what transpired, and the query issued by the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT) at the end of the eight-month Administrative Panel of Inquiry investigation, are in my book, “Stepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority”. I wrote this book to set the record straight and encourage organisations like this so-called CSO from propagating false narratives like the one in the newspaper reports.

Blueprint Newspaper also claimed I am being “paraded before the President….” This is a laughable suggestion.

Let me serve as a reminder to the CSO and the newspaper that I worked closely with President Tinubu as Deputy-Director General Administration of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, so my being in his presence is a natural fallout of my ongoing working relationship with him and cannot be construed as some orchestrated parade.

Finally, with this statement, I hereby put individuals, organisations like Centre LLI (and their sponsors), and media organisations on notice to desist from publishing defamatory reports, like the one under question, about me.

If this does not stop, I will have no choice but to exercise my rights under the law to institute legal action against any publication that lends itself to the propagation of falsehood against my person and my service at the NPA.

Bala Usman is former manager director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).