Moral icons, whose words and conduct can scarcely be impeached, exist in every society. More often than not, any intervention they make is always done with a high sense of responsibility, always guided by the knowledge that any misplaced opinion could injure the innocent or imperil the group or society.
I want to believe that our moral icons like Abubakar Umar are aware that their every speech, even body language, sends strong signals to the society whether in Nigeria or abroad. The people listen, trusting that their views would form that ethical barometer for gauging the moral health of the society.
From available evidence, our own Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar did not apply the necessary caution before sending out his recent article, Watch It, Nigerian Senate in which he attacked the Joint Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariffs, and Marine Transport for purportedly arm-twisting the Nigeria Customs Service and the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala Usman. He claimed that the joint committee was frustrating the anti-corruption war of President Muhammadu Buhari. It was obvious that Umar’s target was the Senator from Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise Duties and Tariffs.
As an experienced administrator, the highly respected soldier will admit that where the premise is wrong, the deductions are bound to be questionable if not flatly hopeless. Unfortunately, on many occasions, he was caught flat-footed in his article. Let us start with his claim that the chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff weighed in on the matter of Customs versus Masters Energy Commodities Trading Limited because he is also the chairman of the Masters Energy. That is “fake news”. The chairman of Masters Energy is Uche Ogar, one of Nigeria’s leading industrialists.
Then he goes on to echo the allegation by the NPA management to the effect that the joint venture agreement between Messrs Niger Global Engineering & Technical Company Limited and Calabar Channel Company, CCM, did not follow the due process. But the bid invitation was advertised in The Guardian of September 21, 2014. Companies were screened and Niger Global won after the attorney general of the federation had vetted the contract and presidential approval received. The retired colonel claims along the same line as the NPA that the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, opposed the Calabar deal. That again, is not true as there is evidence that the BPP director general at the time, Engineer Emeka Ezeh indeed issued a certificate of no objection to the agreement. Also false is the claim that CCM/Niger Global was paid for work not done. Official records not only confirm that work was done but show that payments were made to entities with global renown in dredging activities.
The most damning rebuttal of the claim that no work was done comes from within the NPA itself, that is, the report of an internal panel set up by Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman herself. Recommendations (iii) and (iv) of the panel, make nonsense of any allegation of fraudulent claims by Niger Global. Section (iii) states: “Having verified volumes dredged, all outstanding payments to CCML should be effected in line with the provisions of the JV Agreement” while Section (iv) states: “That in view of the subsisting Presidential approval for the JV, CCML be allowed to continue with the operations but at a reduced scale to be determined by the Authority’s need and CCML’s Board Technical and Finance Committees”.
Between Umar and the NPA MD, somebody must be economical with the truth. But before you jump to any conclusion, cognizance should be taken of the fact that documents that are already in the public domain show that, through the United Bank for Africa Plc, Niger Global had made some payments to its partners thus: Societe Dragage/Luxembourg SA ($3, 600, 000); Dredging International Services (Cyprus) ($1, 207, 440) and Nigerian Westminster Dredging & Marine Limited ($500, 000). These payments were made between August 21, 2015 and August 24, 2015. Furthermore, the Nigerian Navy also confirmed that it had provided security services to the dredging company for Calabar Channel between 20 November 2014 and 15 January 2015
It is shocking that in spite of the welter of evidence, Ms. Hadiza Usman and Col. Umar (rtd) want the world to believe that those payments were fictitious, that the NPA panel, headed by Professor Idris Abubakar, an executive director of NPA, should be ignored, that the Nigerian Navy lied; that all is just a conspiracy to remove this young woman who is doing an excellent job!
It is indeed appalling that Umar could be hoodwinked into believing the fiction that Niger Global was incorporated in 2014, as a special purpose vehicle to corner the Calabar project and siphon public funds whereas Niger Global has been in operation since 1996, 15 solid years before Hope Uzodinma got to the Senate; it couldn’t have been incorporated to take advantage of his position as a senator.
It is pertinent to ask: why has Umar singled out Senator Hope Uzodinma for blackmail in a situation where another senate committee, marine transport, is involved? Was it Hope Uzodinma who blew the whistle on the “missing” 282 vessels? Did he single-handedly script the petitions, and railroad the Senate into constituting a joint committee to achieve his selfish interests? What confers on him the capacity to micro-manage the entire Senate? Or do we accept conspiracy theories that the managing director of NPA was looking for a scapegoat to abort investigations into the “missing” vessels thereby causing the federal government huge revenue losses? Who, then, is undermining the fight against corruption?
The claim that Senator Hope Uzodinma is victimizing the managing director of NPA is a gratuitous insult on a man who has placed the national interest above every consideration in his legislative activities. Perhaps Ms. Usman and Col. Umar (rtd.) should carry their campaign to Rev Jonathan Nicol, the president of the Shippers’ Association who, not long ago threw his weight behind the probe by the joint committee of the Senate. Admonishing the joint committee not to succumb to “cheap blackmail” Rev. Nicol disclosed that the practice whereby ship owners colluded with importers to evade customs duties had been on for some time and that his association’s effort to have audience with the MD of NPA on the matter had not yet succeeded.
From the above, it is obvious that the claim of witch-hunting cannot be sustained. I regret to say that Col. Umar got it wrong this time around. As a public servant, the NPA chief executive should submit the activities of her agency to public scrutiny, a role that the legislature is constitutionally empowered to perform. She is already in the ring; she cannot hide. Let her explain to the Senate joint committee what she knows about the missing vessels. That does not and should not interfere with whatever she is doing about the Calabar Port. In fact, those of us from the South-south with particular reference to the old Cross River State will be overjoyed when the port swings into full operation. And the federal government should not be shy spending money in our zone.
