Hadiza Bala and the Missing Facts In her ‘Stepping on Toes’

Hadiza Bala and the Missing Facts In her ‘Stepping on Toes’

By Ibrahim Isa,

This intervention would not have become necessary, if not for the need to set the record straight.

And then, to also guide the general public against some half-truths by the former Managing Director (MD) of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala, in her new book: ‘Stepping on Toes’.

The immutable fact is that the ex-NPA has always been an opportunist. She was among the arrowheads of the #BringBackOurGirl, which fought for the release of the abducted Chibok girls.

But her participation in the campaign was to achieve her self-serving ambition. After the All Progressives Congress, APC, captured power in 2015, she was appointed as the Chief of Staff to Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru El-Rufai.

Subsequently, President Muhammadu Buhari gave her the nod to pilot the affairs of the NPA. Since then, the once acclaimed activist turned political opportunist became silent, until she was axed as NPA’s Managing Director.

In her new book, Bala said President Buhari told her that former Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi, on two occasions lobbied him to suspend her.

But at the first two shots, Ameachi’s presentations didn’t convince Mr. President over Hadiza’s corrupt practices.

However, when the contraventions became glaring, the corruption allegations unwavering, the infractions mindboggling, the President was forced to do the needful.

But Bala will not want to sink alone. She wished to have sank with many others, like the incumbent NPA boss, Mohammed Bello Koko, who was then the Director of Finance at the federal government agency, and some other Directors.

But Bello Koko and others were not joined in the suspension because Heads of government agencies call the shot, not Directors. Directors have limitations.

Mrs. Bala, alone, was found culpable of offences bordering on refusal to obey presidential orders, corruption, insubordination, and communication without recourse to public service channels of communication, when she held sway as NPA Chief Executive.

It was after the panel set up to probe her diligently carried out its investigation and submitted its report to Mr. President, that Buhari finally sacked her.

The President found her guilty and decided to expel her. But Bala, being a ‘saint’, would never accept her transgressions and offences. She has since run to the public court, seeking justice.

This, without doubt, is aimed at getting her reinstated as the MD of NPA. To buttress this, she attempted to prove it in her new book, that she now has a grasp of the workings of NPA and how to fix its many problems.

Furthermore, if this is not achieved, her next gamble is to secure a new appointment with the incoming administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, come 29th of May, 2023. I hope the President-Elect should see through her cunning ploys.

Ibrahim Isa writes from No. 37, Ali Akilu road, Unguwan Sarki, Kaduna