The managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA),
Hadiza Usman, has denied having a romantic relationship with the governor of
Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, saying no such affair helped her clinch the NPA
top job.
Ms Usman, chief of staff to Mr El-Rufai from 2015 to 2016,
spoke on the subject while appearing on TVC programme on Monday, in celebration
of the International Women’s Day.
She described claims about her relationship with Mr El-Rufai
as an “over flogged story” that has been on for awhile.
“I am definitely not his girlfriend,” she said of Mr
El-Rufai. “The governor is my mentor and my boss.
“He has been very supportive of my career and the career of
every other woman that has worked for him.
“As you are aware, Kaduna State is the first state in
northern Nigeria that has an elected female deputy governor; so you can see he
has that commitment having women in positions of authority so that rumour is
completely untrue,” Ms Usman said.
Forty four-year-old Ms Usman, a politician and activist of
the #Bringbackourgirls Movement, was appointed the ports authority MD in July
2016, by President Muhammadu Buhari. Her appointment generated controversy as
many saw it as ethnically based and questioned her qualification and experience
for the role.
The NPA boss, however, said such response was part of
attempts to pull down women who are in high positions in society.
“These are the things they say to women to pull us down,
they say for everything you have done in terms of showcasing your competence
they always reference and attribute it to the fact that you are in a
relationship with another person,” she said.
“The bottomline is that you got a job and you perform, so
when people reference that you got there because you were somebody’s
girlfriend, that is a pull down,” Ms Usman said.
NEPOTISM IN BUHARI’S GOVT
Mr Usman spoke about the allegation that the Buhari government
is nepotistic, saying such bias should separated from the ability and
competence of the appointee.
“There is a lot of issues that the presidency has been
appointing northerners into key positions,_ she said.
“What I would say is that, the minister of finance — is the
person not capable and competent or not qualified? The managing director of NPA
— has the person not performed well or not?
“So to that extent
when we narrow our limits and our competence to our ethnic and religious
backgrounds I think it is reducing what we are as a people. And people should
be ascribed to be in position because of their capacity and competence not
based on where they come from,” she said.
When asked by the TV programme anchor if it would not be
unfair to exclude other regions, she said, “If you go back in 2015, there was a
time we had a minister of finance that was not from the north, we had the head
of FIRS that was also not from the north, so we have had all those situations
that at certain times a particular region has more positions in the country. At
that point who said what?
“It is important for us to understand the larger play and
see at a point when it was not favouring you what did you say about it, no one
raised it that we have so many people from the South-west.”
President Buhari has been accused of being nepotistic in his
appointments, with rampant allegations that he appoints only Nigerians from the
north into sensitive and high positions in the country.
The government denies wrongdoing, saying the president
appoints people he trusts and that he has been fair to other regions of the
country.
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