BETWEEN AMAECHI AND HADIZA BALA-USMAN

The Rotimi Amaechi and Hadiza Bala-Usman fight is a personal one and a power tussle. In 2016, Hadiza’s appointment as Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority generated some grumbles from some quarters – many people suggested that Hadiza was appointed because of the Minister of Transportation and Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s influence – and President Buhari will always give the duo whatever they wanted.

In 2021, things have changed. Amaechi is now accusing Hadiza of being disloyal. He has been complaining that she is arrogant and that he would cut her wings. And he did – by getting her to ‘step aside’ to allow for a probe of the NPA. The probe-panel has already been inaugurated with some wide mandate which includes examining and investigating the administrative policies and strategies adopted by Hadiza-Usman, and confirm compliance with extant laws and rules from 2016 till date.

Many officials of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have also accused Hadiza of being arrogant and often displaying an attitude of ‘The Lady of the House’. Notwithstanding the accusations against her, Hadiza has brought some extraordinary development in the NPA. She saved the SHIN’s fabrication and integration yard of which $270 million was borrowed for the project; the stoppage of INTELS’ monopoly of oil and gas cargo and the compliance to TSA, the stoppage of the contract scam; SAA fees on the Calabar dredging. She has also sanctioned LADOL for violating the terms of the land lease at Tarkwa Bay, near Light House Beach in Lagos. These are Hadiza’s notable achievements in four years plus.

The fight between Hadiza (a head of an agency) and Amaechi (a Minister)is not new in the APC government led by President Muhammadu Buhari. There was that of Dr. Baffa Bichi of TETFUND and Mallam Adamu Adamu, Education Minister. Ibrahim Magu of the EFCC and Abubakar Malami SAN, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Gur Muhammad of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and Sale Mamman, Power Minister, Saleh Dunoma of FAAN and Hadi Sirika Aviation Ministry). Others are Munir Gwarzo SEC DG and Kemi Adeosun, former Finance Minister, Prof. Usman Yusuf, NHIS and Isaac Adewole, former Health Minister. As well as many other in-house fights that haven’t been in the public. The big surprise is none of the heads of the agencies survived their minister’s onslaught. Would Hadiza survive Amaechi’s hammer?

On the other hand, heads of agencies should learn the art of balancing of loyalty and power-sharing, while ministers should also allow heads of agencies to do their jobs.

President Buhari is a man that seems not to have an interest interfering in such ‘fight’ to save the heads of agencies. If Amaechi succeeds in removing Hazida as MD of NPA, we may see many of this kind of ‘probe’ by ministers. If Hadiza succeeds in returning back, she may be more ‘disloyal’ to Amaechi and not forthcoming to those who have earlier accused her of being arrogant. And, at the end, the fight between Amaechi and Hadiza would definitely translate into bigger political and supremacy battles between many parties both in and outside the APC. The big picture: this is a big low for the Buhari government in terms of public image and politics of the APC.

Zayyad I. Muhammad, Abuja