In
a bid to inject a fresh pair of hands to run the Nigerian Ports
Authority (NPA), the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi,
has submitted Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman’s name to President Muhammadu Buhari
to take over as the new managing director of NPA, according to THISDAY.
Should Buhari approve the
recommendation, Ms. Bala Usman, 40, will become the first female chief
executive of a top tier federal government agency and of the NPA.
She shall take over from Alhaji Habib
Abdullahi, who was reinstated by Buhari in August 2015 as the managing
director of NPA, after he had been shown the exit by former President
Goodluck Jonathan in April 2015.
Sources in the presidency, who confirmed
that Ms. Bala Usman’s name had been sent to the president, said Amaechi
had decided to make the changes in order to overhaul the NPA.
Amaechi, it was gathered, is not
particularly impressed with the way the NPA was being run and has
decided to effect a change of the executive team as soon as possible.
A presidency source said that the minute
Ms. Bala Usman’s name was submitted to the president, Buhari was happy
to consider the recommendation, given the past relationship he had with
her father, the late Prof. Yusufu Bala Usman, who was a renowned Ahmadu
Bello University (ABU) academic, historian and activist before his death
some years ago.
Amaechi was also believed to have
recommended Ms. Bala Usman, on the grounds that two chief executives of
the foremost parastatals under his ministry – Nigerian Maritime
Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Railway
Corporation (NRC) – are from the south, and he would rather have an
equitable distribution of appointments into the agencies under his
ministry.
Ms. Bala Usman, who is currently the
chief of staff to the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, and a
member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was born in Zaria, Kaduna
State, on January 2, 1976.
Credit: Thisday
Post a Comment