BY DANJUMA KATSINA
The suspension of the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hajiya Hadiza Bala Usman, by the minister of transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, contravened the disciplinary procedure against chief executive officers of federal government parastatals, agencies and departments approved by President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2020.
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Findings show that the transportation minister, relying on some unsubstantiated information from the budget office about alleged non-remittance and without recourse to hearing from Bala-Usman, surreptitiously wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari to get the NPA managing director suspended.
The suspended NPA boss was not told what her offences were or formally communicated before her suspension was announced by the presidency. Not querying or making her aware of her offence(s) before suspending her is a clear breach of the procedures enshrined in the government’s own regulation for disciplining heads of government agencies.