Opinions

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.