Amaechi and Hadiza Part One

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In the era when we grew up, films came in plies which we called parts. Nowadays, this has been rechristened and they now call it ‘Season’. So in this era we have “season films” instead. But some of us who are in the same old school mould would still want to refer to it as parts. Amaechi and Hadiza is based on a true life story and, expectedly, like we know of a typical screenplay, some embellishments would be expected. We have seen the first part of the film. However, we expect the second part when Amaechi, who, to me, is the antagonist, retaliates or fights back after the protagonist, Hadiza had drawn the first blood. We hope Amaechi will not fizzle out on the way like smoke as we await his powerful return. We hope the second part of the film will be worth the wait. We are of the belief that we will have something to help the country and ourselves to grow.

Who is Amaechi? Who is Hadiza? What about them? They are not fictitious characters. They were real time flesh and blood members of the outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari up to some point not far long ago. From the screenplay of this movie, they cannot be said to be unknown to the administration. They are insiders believed however to have been operating from somewhere in the outside. In other words, they were just being used… Like puns in chess. In the Chinese films of our era, we called them Sere. The sere are the characters that would first troop out against the ‘actor’ to demonstrate their (often ineffectual) fighting skills. They end up being erased by the ‘actor’ while the ‘actor’ moves masterfully to fight the real enemy we called the ‘boss’.

To us back then the main characters were simply the ‘actor’ or the ‘boss’, and we have our total support for the ‘actor’. Other numerous, hardworking actors in films were none of our business. They were inconsequential. For instance, in the 1998 film Rush Hour, only our main man and one of the main characters, Jackie Chan was the only ‘actor’. That was our belief in the film. We never reckoned with the other numerous characters in the flick with the exception of, perhaps only (Carter) Chris Tucker. Even a star like Tom Wilkinson, the protagonist (boss or villain) in the hugely successful film was unknown to us. He was just Juntao and he was nothing but our actor›s meat to finally deal with. I hope that explains the two main characters in Amaechi and Hadiza, and I hope their places in the entire larger plot is somehow understood. I really hope so.

“They drew the first blood Sam” is what John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) said in First Blood. He revealed this when Colonel Samuel ‘Sam’ Tarutman (his mentor) asked him why he turned his beastly fury on the helpless but headstrong villains. Hadiza has drawn the first blood and we hope that she will be able to stand it when Amaechi fights back. Or could it be that Amaechi just dey play? I don’t think so because it seems that Hadiza has bitten him too hard and in the wrong place.

Hadiza Bala Usman was the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). She was sacked from the ports pinnacle in very unusual circumstances – it was unusual because the Buhari administration was too aloof to complaints against its appointees and was almost averse to sacking them. Reference is the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele. So, Hadiza’s sack as the boss of NPA was simply shocking not just because of that, but also because she was still revelling in her re-appointment with months left to serve out her first. But the sack came anyway, dressed in the garb of suspension.

In her book entitled “Stepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority” Hadiza claimed that her travail was nothing but the scheming of Amaechi. By her thoughts, everything that led to her removal from the NPA was orchestrated by Amaechi. She took to her expected moral high ground in the book to say many things Amaechi did wrong. She alleged that Amaechi constituted the NPA Board without a fair representation of all the geo-political zones and also sought to extend tenure of contractors (after 15 years) against best practice. In newspaper reports of the book, Hadiza also narrated how she went to President Muhammadu Buhari and not only did she get the reversal of an approval got by Amaechi, she also got a renewal of her tenure as the MD of NPA. These are huge for someone who normally is supposed to be reporting to the Minister of Transportation.

Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi was the Minister of Transportation. He was the minister until he decided to resign the position to contest for president. Amaechi’s ministry was overseeing the NPA but he must have seen insubordination in full colours. The MD of an agency in his ministry had direct access to the president. Then, this MD was also so powerful that she got a reversal of an earlier approval of the president of proposals made by the Minister and member of the Federal Executive Council. Minister Amaechi learnt of the reversal of the president’s approval he earlier got through the mass media. He also learnt that the MD whose first tenure had not ended had secured another five-year term in the office.

The Minister of Transportation must have been so much of a sere in this film that he was not even anywhere near the reckoning of the watching moviegoers! I hope you remember what we said a Sere is in Chinese films? Otherwise, how would Amaechi have felt when his subordinate was playing a role that obliterated his powers as the boss in the ministry? And Amaechi and Hadiza were said to have been “friends” o, and that it was even Amaechi that recommended Hadiza for the post of NPA MD? From Hadiza’s book, she said the NPA placed adverts for certain tenders and contracts. “When the minister saw the adverts, he called me to request that we cancel the tender… I explained to him that that these contracts were about to expire after the 15-year tenure. I felt it would not be best practice to extend the contracts.” Who’s sounding more like the boss here? Who was bankrolling the MD? Well, that Hadiza Bala Usman was suspended as the MD of the NPA showed that there was still some fight left in the minister.

The how of her suspension and the issues therefrom is not our concern here. The issue is that while the tragi-comic drama at the NPA boardroom was playing out, the ports are collapsing. Nigerian ports are so decrepit and are about to give way because of decaying infrastructure. The current MD of NPA, Bello Koko, established this fact and he has cried more than twice. Koko even raised the alarm again recently that the Tin Can Island Ports might collapse anytime soon. He said they’d need $800 million to prevent this. Bello Koko is on the hot seat as the MD, marinating in the mess – or could it be that he is stewing in the Hadiza versus Amaechi brew?

Another issue in this drama is the role the president himself played in it all. While the MD was bypassing the minister to get approvals, there should have been some circumspection on the part of the approving authority. That the president granted the MD of NPA audience without his minister of transportation is enough slight on the minister. The president also approved the reversal of what he had earlier granted his Minister on the strength of a presentation by the MD of one of the agencies in the ministry. The thing dey somehow, but what do we know? Wouldn’t it have been helpful if the minister was involved before the reversal of the approvals he got?

Now, the NPA is suffering because a former MD bypassed the minister. Memos sent to the minister’s office didn’t get to the federal executive council meeting. Power play… Amaechi promised us a book expected to be explosive. We hope it sees the light of the day?

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