Of hegemony and ports management

WHEN the Civil War ended on January 15, 1970 and with massive importation of goods into the country which occasioned cement Amada, the Apapa ports were severely congested. This situation necessitated General Yakubu Gowon appointing the late General Benjamin Adekunle, the civil war hero, as military port commandant to decongest the port. And in no time, General Adekunle with the cooperation of officials such as Bamanga Tukur, late Adeagbo, Bayo Sarumi (who later became Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA) and other worthy and hardworking officials who had returned to the NPA after the war, got the Apapa ports decongested.

The Gowon government undertook a massive expansion of the old Apapa ports and also built new Tin-can Island  ports in Lagos. Over time, the Warri ports complex was also built and modernised, so were the Port Harcourt, Onne and Calaba ports. After the departure of Adekunle, Alhaji Tukur was appointed General Manager of the NPA. He had under him, five Assistant General Managers and they constituted the  management. It was then that the tempo of massive recruitment of Northerners into the NPA was increased. These Northerners  were given accelerated promotions and made to superintend over highly qualified,  skilled and hardworking  Yoruba and Igbo people working in the NPA as senior staff. By dint of hard work and  patience and perseverance and luck, though, Chief  Sarumi eventually emerged as  Managing Director of the NPA. It was during his tenure that the NPA was properly repositioned and rejuvenated.

However, another ugly scenario preceded that. In 1983, Tukur voluntarily retired from the NPA and contested the governorship of the then  Gongola State. At the time, there were  five  Assistant General Managers, each eminently qualified to be appointed as substantive General  Manager. The Shehu Shagari government, with Alhaji Umarn Dikko as Minister of Transport, was  poised  to appoint the most senior among these Assistant General Managers, Mr.  Opara, an lgbo gentleman, in  early January 1984.  But by March 1984, all the five AGMs were swept off in a gale of retirement by Buhari, who is now president. Thereafter, the government appointed a Northerner  from Kano with a questionable qualification of OND/HND in Engineering as  General Manager of NPA with sweeping powers to fire Southerners. This scenario cemented the grip that the  Hausa-Fulani hegemony had on the running of the NPA whose existence spans littoral states in the South.

But for the wickedness of the British Colonial power under Fredrick Lugard which amalgamated the Northern and Southern protectorates in January 1914, would the Hausa-Fulani have continued to dominate and subjugate other Nigerians in their littoral states where natural harbours exist which facilitate construction of seaports? Are there harbours in the core North to facilitate the construction of seaports? Why the dominance of  Northerners  in the management of the NPA since the 60s? Let our  leaders  down South, without any party or political affiliations/considerations, ponder on this issue before it ruins the economies of these littoral states.

That the Almighty God in His infinite wisdom had made the littoral states conducive areas for natural harbours for the construction of seaports as it were shows that, economically, God had made these states buoyant and if  not for mismanagement by the inept and corrupt leadership foisted  on us, the economies of these littoral states, viz, Lagos and Rivers States, would have  been at par with those of littoral states like the State of Texas and others in the U.S.A and other  littoral states all over the world. It was this reasoning that informed Prof. Itse Sagay, an acolyte of President Buhari, to opine that the Federal Government should be paying a form of revenue to  the  Lagos State government out of the revenue accruing to it from  the NPA, at a forum last year.

Now, there is something I find quite intriguing in this matter. President Olusegun Obasanjo, during his  tenure  (1999-2007), appointed and retained Northerners from Kano as Managing Directors  of the NPA, as did President Goodluck Jonathan. May I ask these leaders from the South: were there no qualified Southerners during their  tenures?

General Ibrahim Babangida, during his tenure, literally turned the NPA into an arm of the military, flooding every department with military personnel, with Brig. General Haladu at the helm of the NPA. Haladu, a Kano man, was promoted before he  was redeployed and eventually died. In fact, at the end of the Jonathan tenure, he removed his appointee from Kano and  replaced  him with a lawyer from the same Kano. And as soon as President  Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated, he ordered the return of Jonathan’s earlier appointee. And so the macabre dance continues at the NPA. During this period, it was said that N34.5 billion earmarked for the dredging of Calabar River Channel to enable big ocean-going  ships sail into Calabar Port was diverted. Up  till now, nothing has been heard from Federal Government. Why?  Your  guess  is as good as mine.

Again, it was also said that N18.5 billion was budgeted for  between 2015 to 2016 as wardrobe allowances for the Managing Director of the NPA  and its Executive Directors, Directors and General Managers. These absurdities  were  never  heard of when Sarumi was the Managing Director. I’ll  keep  saying this: Sarumi as a Yoruba patriot distinguished himself as thoroughbred  maritime administrator. Maybe when our leaders from  the  littoral states are ready to look inward as rightful owners of our seaports,  they will call on  Sarumi and Akani who is from the same Rivers State as  Rotimi Amaechi, the present Minister of Transport.

In order to show that Hausa-Fulani Hegemony has had a firm grip on the  Management  of NPA, Ms. Adza Usman who is from Kaduna State (not Southern  Kaduna) who was 40 in July 15, 2016 was appointed Managing  Director of NPA. This is under the watch of Amaechi as the Minister  of Transport. What a way of slapping in the face, Yoruba, lgbo, Edo, Ijaw,  Ibiobio and other Nigerians from the littoral states.  What a gratuitous insult and assault on the psyche of those very hardworking  patriotic, devoted and highly qualified professionals who have put up to 20-25 years  of meritorious services in NPA. The NPA under Ms. Usman, despite the Federal Government’s circular to pay arrears of 32/51 percent to NPA pensioners, has not thought it fit to  do  so.

• Olaosebikan writes in from Ibadan, Oyo State.