Task before Habib as returnee NPA chief

FUNSO OLOJO

Abdullahi Habib, returnee Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), is a cat with two lives. His reinstatement last week by President Mohammed Buhari as the helmsman of the super-rich government parastatal, two months after his sudden sack by the former President Goodluck Jonathan at the twilight of his administration, caught many stakeholders napping.

Even though, analysts believed that the sack of Abdullahi was hasty, unwarranted and punitive that smacked of heavy dose of vendetta, not many would have expected that the Kano gladiator would bounce back the way he did.

Not a few however welcomed the return of Abdullahi back to his familiar turf.

For the two months he went on sabbatical and the Kano crown Prince, Alhaji Ado Bayero, held sway as the Managing Director, the agency literally was on recess.

Activities at the agency were at the lowest ebb as the tempo of operations plummeted due to the slow managerial pace of Bayero whose grasp of the workings of the NPA left much to be desired.

Within the short spell of the Kano Prince at the NPA, the first two major steps he took were faulty and which eventually hastened his exit from the agency.

Firstly, he carried out two controversial decisions of his principal, former President Jonathan which caused lot of uproar in the otherwise relative peaceful maritime environment.

He signed the relocation order of the $500m oil facility owned by LADOL and financed by a South Korean company, Samsung, from Lagos to Bayelsa state.

The related assignment which drew the irk of operators of which its echo is still reverberating, was the order to all importers of oil related cargo that they should bring such cargo through the oil-related terminals in Onne, Warri and Calabar which were owned by INTELS.

The shout of disapproval which this decision generated nearly consumed the Kano prince the second day he resumed duties.

The alleged link of Bayero royal family with INTELS, an allegation which trailed the Kano Prince to the office, further fuelled the public consternation against the decision and made his short tenure at the NPA eventful.

Even though the ownership allegation was vehemently denied by the trio of Bayero family, NPA and INTELS, but the stench of the public opprobrium stuck to the flowing agbada of the crown Prince till he was quietly eased out of office.

Another controversial decision of the departed Kano Prince at NPA was the part- payment for the dredging of Calabar port channel contract.

The payment, which the contractors said followed due process and was in partial fulfillment for the work done so far, raised eyebrows from some quarters.

Stakeholders therefore believed that the returnee NPA helmsman, Habib Abdullahi, needs to face the challenges which resulted from some of the decisions his Kano kinsman took, in order to restore the confidence and acceptability of stakeholders in the agency.

”He needs to look at some of the controversial decisions and actions of his brother to ensure that NPA’s image is restored” an industry operator noted.

Another problem which the returnee MD will have to resolve is the lingering issue of payment of tally clerks on board vessels at the port.

The workers, who are members of the Maritime workers Union of Nigeria, have been at a logger head with the NPA over what they claimed was an unpaid eight-month salary arrears.

The workers have threatened to go on strike several times, the recent been few weeks ago before the change of guard at the NPA.

The intervention of the parent association which had discussions with the management of the agency starved off the proposed strike.

The workers put the strike on hold due to the promise made that their arrears would be paid.

However, last week Friday, the irate workers, chanting war songs, barricaded the entrance of the NPA headquarters, demanding for the payment of their salary.

The angry workers, who spoke though Abiodun Fadipe and Olufemi Awoniyi, accused NPA of insincerity and appealed to the management, especially the returnee MD who they claimed had an ample knowledge of their problems before he was removed, to pay the over 2000 workers whom they said could no longer meet any financial obligations to their families.

These and other challenges which have accumulated during the sabbatical leave of Abdullahi, are what he has to tackle as he returns to his familiar turf at the NPA.