The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy,
Hadiza Bala Usman, has replied former Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi.
Recall that Amaechi on Thursday made his first major public
appearance since suffering a defeat in the presidential primary of the All
Progressives Congress, APC.
Speaking as the guest speaker at the 2023 TheNiche Annual
Lecture themed ‘Why We Stride and Slip: Leadership, Nationalism, and the
Nigerian Condition’, held on Thursday in Lagos, Amaechi slammed Usman, accusing
her of documenting false narrative in her book titled, ‘Stepping on Toes: My
Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority’.
The former Rivers State Governor went on to make fresh
claims against the former NPA boss, accusing her of awarding a contract worth
N2.8 billion.
In her response on Saturday, Usman said Amaechi, a former
Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, seems to have put his defeat in the
APC primary behind him and is now crawling back into public life.
Here’s the full text of Usman’s reply to Amaechi:
Amaechi should please grow up and stop all these lies
Recent newspaper reports of false claims attributed to the
eternally petty ex-Minister of Transportation, His Excellency Chibuike Rotimi
Amaechi, about me did not come to me as a surprise.
In his over two decades in public office, Nigerians must be
used to the fluidity with which he tells lies, manipulates facts, and talks out
of turn.
Here is someone who once brazenly told Nigerians that he
doesn’t like money, even when his public conduct contradicts this assertion.
That must be the most fantastic lie that any public official, living or dead,
has ever told Nigerians and so, nothing he says should astonish us.
Aside from exaggerations, manipulation of the truth and
outright lies which he threw at his audience on Thursday, the former Minister
said nothing that I did not already reveal in my memoirs: Stepping on Toes: My
Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority.
The book has been on sale since April 2023, but has he even
read it to understand that I didn’t hide anything from Nigerians about the
events surrounding my “stepping aside,” and eventual exit as Managing Director
of the Nigerian Ports Authority.
Mr Amaechi in his rant alleged that I awarded a contract
worth N2.8b. This is false. I don’t know where the former Minister got his
N2.8b figure from since this accusation was nowhere in the list of infractions
conveyed to me in a query arising from the reports of the Administrative Panel
of Inquiry he set up.
The only issue relating to a contract award in the query was
about the emergency purchase of operational vehicles following the
vandalisation of the premises of the Marina, Lagos headquarters of the NPA on
October 21, 2020.
This subject was addressed in Query E with the title:
“Unilateral and improper use of the emergency procurement mode to procure vehicles”.
Here, the management of the NPA was accused of making the
emergency purchase of operational vehicles “to the tune of One Billion, Two
Hundred and Seventy-Seven Million, Six Hundred and Sixty Nine Thousand, One
Hundred and Eighty-Three Naira Ninety Five Kobo(N1,277,669,183.95), without
approval from the Federal Executive Council.”
In my response to the query of the N1.2billion expenditure,
I explained that we made the procurement pursuant to the provisions of Sections
43 (1) (a), (2), (3) and (4) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 (PPA) which
allows procuring entities to purchase items due to the emergency nature of the
need and obtain the necessary approval upon conclusion of the procurement. The
response to the query, including the approval obtained and the alleged
inflation of the cost of the vehicles, are all detailed between pages 166- 171
of the book.
The former Minister also spoke about waivers, which the FMOT
query addressed in Item F. The query and my response explaining the
circumstances and justifications for all the waivers granted by the NPA
management, are published on pages 171-175 of the book.
He twisted the facts about Query C, which alleged the
“unilateral execution of a supplemental agreement in respect of Lekki Deep Sea
Port Concession Project published on pages 163-165 of the book.
In my response, I explained as follows: “The Authority was
of the view that the supplemental agreement was operational in nature and does
not alter any major aspect of the concession agreement as it only rescheduled
construction timeframe for a berth and allowed other players to partake in the
development of dry bulk since the company was constrained to embark on the
construction at that time …”
Mr Amaechi also claimed that I was indicted on some ten
counts. I do not know what these ten counts are, because no one communicated
any such indictments to me. But can I ask him whether these counts include the
alleged non-remittance of the sum of N165bill non-remittance of operating
surpluses to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) for which he sought and
obtained former President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval to investigate the
accounts of the NPA and my “stepping aside from office?” Is it not true that this
weighty allegation did not appear in the query that I received from the
Ministry after the conclusion of the work of the panel?
Media reports from his lecture said that Mr Amaechi
“brandished” the panel report saying that he is keeping it to himself. But I
wonder what the secrecy about the report is when the details of the alleged
infractions were published as Appendix iii, from pages 157 through 179 of my
book. On these pages, I shared the full official query issued to me on the
alleged infractions arising from the investigation of the panel of inquiry by
the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMOT), and my response.
But more importantly, why is he the only one who has had
access to this report?
Mr Amaechi carries on like this was his personal document
with which he can grandstand by showing his cronies and blackmailing other
Nigerians. But no! This is an official document that should be in government
custody and copies should be made available to parties that have been so
indicted for action in line with the recommendations. But he goes about like he
is the government and that he makes the sole decision on what to do with
government documents.
He talked about four printed copies out of which two were
stolen, and even had the audacity to suggest that I was hoping for his own copy
(which should not be in his house), would be stolen. Really? How ridiculous and
improper can people get with public office?
His claim that he is keeping the report close to his chest
to protect the interest of some “prominent Nigerians” who did not “look for his
trouble,” is self-serving and condescending.
This attitude again reflects the former Minister’s mindset.
Does he own Nigeria? Does “looking for his trouble” or not determine whether
people are held accountable for monies they owe Nigeria? If people owe Nigeria
money and have been asked to refund, why should the former minister hold on to
such recommendations because they didn’t “look for his trouble?”
Finally, he made so much fuss about whether I gave him a
birthday gift or not. While this is a trivial issue, the question he should
answer is whether he complained to someone that I never gave him a birthday
gift as Minister or not.
He referenced that I worked under him from 2013 and inferred
that anyone working under him for that period would have given him birthday
presents. I wonder why it should be automatic to give anyone birthday presents
because you work for them. Such entitlement disposition is responsible for a
lot of misbehaviours exhibited by people like Mr Amaechi when Nigeria bestows
them with opportunities for public office. The truth is that no one owes you
anything!
In any case, I only worked with him between December 2014 to
May 2015. So, how many birthdays would have gone past within that period that I
would have given him “a lot of birthday presents,” as he claimed.
If indeed I offered him a present while he was Minister and
he turned down my gift, why then did he complain that amongst my “many crimes”,
was the fact that I never gave him a birthday present? The Minister should
please stop ridiculing himself by fabricating these stories that do not add up.
It is a good thing to see that the former Minister has
finally recovered from his failed presidential bid and is crawling back into
public life. However, he should not and cannot make Hadiza Bala Usman the
subject of his attempt at a rebound.
Mr Amaechi would definitely have his perspective of the
events of the five years I served Nigeria as Managing Director of the Nigerian
Ports Authority under his supervision. There is no problem with that, but when
he shares his perspective, I suggest that he endeavours to stick to the facts
and resist the apparently usually overwhelming urge to speak arbitrarily and
spread falsehood.
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