₦airaland Forum

●The Right of Reply That Restores the Record: Reminding Power Where It Ends

●BUA’s Battle Wasn’t Just About a Port, It Was About the Soul of the System

●Abdulsamad Rabiu’s Facts Outlive the Fiction That Tried to Shame Him

●Buhari Saw Through It, the Courts Rejected It, and History Is Still Watching

There is a line between authority and autocracy, between governance and vendetta. Hadiza Bala Usman, once ensconced in the prestige of her office as Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), crossed that line with the quiet arrogance of unchecked power. Now, as she returns from political obscurity to peddle revisionist tales, BUA Group has drawn its line in return, with truth, contract, and unimpeachable fact.

This is no routine rebuttal. This is a public service. When Usman accused BUA Group and its chairman, the eminent industrialist Abdulsamad Rabiu, of breaching a concession agreement at the Port Harcourt terminal, she did more than distort the facts. She insulted the spirit of lawful enterprise. She mocked due process. She trivialised the dignity of her former office.

But BUA has responded with clarity, instead of anger. And not for vanity, but for posterity.

The Contract She Chose to Forget

In 2006, years before Hadiza Bala Usman ever walked the corridors of maritime power, BUA entered into a valid lease agreement with the NPA for Terminal B of the Rivers Port. The mandate was clear: rehabilitate, operate, and expand the terminal infrastructure.

By the time Usman assumed office in 2016, BUA had already begun discussions with the NPA to address remedial works, as the port’s original state was riddled with derelict iron ore remnants, structural deficiencies, and unsafe berths—all legacies of public neglect. These talks were nearing conclusion.

Instead of progressing those talks, she chose disruption. Rather than follow the contract’s dispute resolution mechanism, she wielded authority like a cudgel, summarily terminating BUA’s rights, decommissioning berths, and shutting down the terminal without consultation, without lawful authority, and in contempt of a standing court injunction.

By every measure of law and logic, Hadiza Bala Usman’s actions at the helm of NPA were an affront to good governance. Her decision to terminate BUA’s concession did not follow process. It was not supported by arbitration. It flouted the courts. And it trampled upon Article 17.3 of the concession agreement, which mandates exclusive resolution through arbitration.

No provision in the contract authorised her to decommission the terminal. She has yet to cite a clause. She never will. Because there isn’t one. Worse, after BUA provided indemnities and guarantees, the company was briefly permitted to resume operations, only for Usman to reverse course within three weeks and shut the terminal again, unilaterally. If this was not hostility laced with personal vendetta, then what was it?

The President Saw Through It and Acted

When Abdulsamad Rabiu, ever composed and dignified, sought an audience with then-President Muhammadu Buhari, he did not ask for favours. He brought facts. Contracts. Correspondence. Court rulings.

President Buhari, a man not known for sentiment, responded with presidential decisiveness. He directed the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to investigate.

The AGF invited all parties: BUA, NPA, and Ms. Usman herself. BUA showed up. She did not. The review still went ahead. And the verdict was unambiguous: Usman’s termination was unlawful. The decommissioning was without basis. The NPA under her had breached its obligations, and BUA’s rights should be reinstated.

The result? President Buhari reversed her decisions. He preserved 4,000 jobs. He saved a $500 million investment cluster in Port Harcourt. He preserved Nigeria’s credibility before its own laws. That is the truth. And Hadiza Bala Usman cannot wish it away.

Hadiza now claims President Buhari was “misinformed.” The audacity is staggering. Here is a former head of a national agency, repudiated by her principal, whose decisions were overturned based on the advice of the nation’s top legal officer—now implying that both men lacked understanding.

It is an insult, not just to Buhari, but to the office of the President.

If Hadiza Bala Usman truly believed she acted lawfully, BUA challenges her to show Nigerians the exact clause that permitted her unilateral decommissioning. Let her cite chapter and verse. Let her test her righteousness against the written word. Otherwise, the record must stand: she acted in abuse of power. She governed with impunity. And she endangered one of Nigeria’s most strategic private sector investments.

After Hadiza, Order Was Restored

Following her removal, the air around the NPA cleared. Due process returned. Under the new leadership, BUA was granted formal approval to resume reconstruction at Terminal B in 2022. No subsidy. No bailout. Over $65 million invested, entirely private.

The contract was awarded to global engineering firm TREVI. Completion is now expected in Q1 2026. Jobs are being restored. Confidence is returning.

This is what governance looks like when ego steps aside. Had Hadiza Bala Usman’s recklessness been allowed to stand, the message to the world would have been catastrophic: that contracts in Nigeria are irrelevant, that court orders are optional, and that investment is hostage to mood swings in public office.

She nearly sabotaged Nigeria’s credibility. She nearly damaged the rule of law. And she nearly cost the economy thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in private capital.

Rabiu did not just defend his business. He defended the principle of lawful engagement. He stood firm for every entrepreneur who dares to dream in a system often riddled with systemic sabotage.

Through it all, Abdulsamad Rabiu maintained his quiet nobility. Even his recent article, “Two Years of President Tinubu: A Business Perspective,” did not name names. He merely alluded to a former era where impunity was rife, and where business leaders lived in fear of arbitrary disruption. The guilty named themselves.

His endorsement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ongoing reforms—fuel subsidy removal, forex unification, and policy stability—has clearly rattled those nostalgic for the old Nigeria. A Nigeria where power was used to punish, not to protect.

And that, perhaps, is why Hadiza speaks now. Hadiza Bala Usman today serves under President Tinubu’s administration. Her energies, if truly dedicated to national progress, are better spent there. “We do not seek a public spat,” BUA stated soberly, “and would like her to concentrate on fulfilling her duties in her new role under the strong leadership of President Tinubu.”

A subtle reminder. A dignified dismissal. And a full stop to her attempts to rewrite what has already been etched into the public record.

Indeed, public office is not a pedestal for pride. It is a platform for trust. When wielded with wisdom, it births legacies. When corrupted by ego, it writes obituaries of policy, investment, and public confidence.

Abdulsamad Rabiu, in all of this, has stood as a model of restraint, principle, and precision. He does not scream. He builds. He does not insult. He corrects. And when his voice rises, it is never to boast but to bear witness.

The facts are no longer disputed. The record is closed. And the lesson is eternal: When pride meets process, only one survives.

https://politicsnigeria.com/defying-court-orders-flouting-contracts-facts-behind-hadiza-bala-usmans-removal-as-npa-md-bua-group/

power play

Interesting

Ok

This woman chop port money taya. Tinubu's guys have taken over. Sadly, the masses running after them get nothing fir hailing them. Only the masses-oriented leadership will move Nigeria forward. Without politics, most of the so-called leaders will die of a heart attack.

Ok

Lol

From cashivist to power abuse.
She can never be trusted with responsibilities.
That's her undeniable trait

See as these people have shared all the ports facilities in the South South to themselves while Wike and Amechi are there shouting themselves hoax over who is more powerful than the other..

The same way some unity begging agbadorians have shared all the oil wells of the South South to themselves, while deceiving the South Southerners with a funny road from Lekki to Calabar ..

Last last, all man go get sense shaa..

Following her removal, the air around the NPA cleared. Due process returned:

another fake saint

But BUA has responded with clarity, instead of anger. And not for vanity, but for posterity.

Who writes these "official" statements for these companies though? There's so much unnecessary, grandiose and superfluous writing you can't even get the points the statement is trying to prove.

I was tired of reading by the second paragraph walahi

We are watching

El rufai's chick

..See.dem fighting themselves over incompetence & mismanagrment...

In 2006, years before Hadiza Bala Usman ever walked the corridors of maritime power, BUA entered into a valid lease agreement with the NPA for Terminal B of the Rivers Port. The mandate was clear: rehabilitate, operate, and expand the terminal infrastructure.

..you entered an agreement since 2006 to revitailze the PH Terminals..you waited 10years to start the first discussion with NPA..on how to carryout the contract agreement you entered with NPA...10 whole years..till today nothing tangible has been done..

..you did not build anything since 2006..& you waited for your kinsman to become President..so you can have a favourable judgement on the basis of tribalism..

.

.President Buhari, a man not known for sentiment, responded with presidential decisiveness. He directed the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to investigate.

..yöur kinsman did not invite any specialist to ask why a contract that was signed 10years ago..is worth nothing to fruition..

..your kinsman poo'hari did not ask why BUA entered an agreement he could not execute after 10yrs...

..poo'hari just used his prerogative & upheld a contract that was fraught with corruption & incompetence..

..this is how they acquire every assets of Nigerians from the backdoor..& tommorrow they will claim they are doing the country a favour..after stealing what does not belong to them through parapoism & tribalism..they will then monopolize everything & then tell you to go to court..

..Allah will punish all of you..insha allah..

aminulive:
In 2006, years before Hadiza Bala Usman ever walked the corridors of maritime power, BUA entered into a valid lease agreement with the NPA for Terminal B of the Rivers Port. The mandate was clear: rehabilitate, operate, and expand the terminal infrastructure.

https://politicsnigeria.com/defying-court-orders-flouting-contracts-facts-behind-hadiza-bala-usmans-removal-as-npa-md-bua-group/

This was also the year that NNPC's petrochemicals division was privatised by PDP capitalists who deregulated telecoms six years earlier.

Can anyone imagine how prosperous we would all be with cheap and available fuel if Fayemi and APC did not get Buhari's 2011 running mate to lead Ojota deregulation protests in 2012?

Thankfully Dangote's refinery licensed then, survived the shenanigans of APC progreThief socialists.

Omooba77:
A former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on Tuesday, said the protest that trailed the fuel subsidy removal during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012 was due to political interests.

Fayemi said this in his keynote address delivered at a national dialogue organised to celebrate the 60th birthday celebration of the founding National Secretary of Alliance for Democracy and Fellow, Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, Professor Udenta Udenta in Abuja.

The programme was attended by Jonathan, former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili; former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, among others.

The PUNCH reports that on January 1, 2012, President Goodluck announced the removal of fuel subsidy and adjusted the pump price of petrol from N65 per litre to N141.

The decision sparked mass protests, tagged ‘Occupy Nigeria’ across major cities of the country.

The price was later re-adjusted to N97, after more than a week of protests.

Petrol price was later reduced to N87 in 2015.

Jonathan faced serious backlash for the fuel price adjustment, especially from leaders of the All Progressives Congress, who were then in different opposition parties, including the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressives Congress, All Nigeria Peoples Party, and All Progressive Grand Alliance.

While condemning what he described as the “winners take all” style of Nigeria’s democracy, Fayemi said the challenges facing the nation today cannot be solved unless the country embraced proportional representation, where the spoils of elections are shared between contestants.

According to him, the last time Nigeria experienced economic development was during Jonathan’s administration

Fayemi said, “Today, I read former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s interview in The Cable saying our liberal democracy is not working and we need to revisit it, and I agree with him. We must move from the political alternatives. I think we are almost on a dead end of that.

“What we need is alternative politics and my own notion of alternative politics is that you can’t have 35 per cent of the vote and take 100 per cent. It won’t work! We must look at proportional representation so that the party that is said to have won 21 per cent of the votes will have 21 per cent of the government. Adversary politics bring division and enmity.

“All political parties in the country agreed and they even put in their manifesto that subsidy must be removed. We all said subsidy must be removed. But we in ACN at the time, in 2012, we know the truth Sir, but it is all politics.

https://punchng.com/breaking-fuel-subsidy-we-played-politics-with-2012-occupy-nigeria-fayemi/

Big man fight

The only thing that jumped at me from this verbose response is that the lease agreement with BUA was entered in 2006 but it took until 2016 - that's 10 years later - for "discussions" on remedial work etc to start. What?

owobokiri:
See as these people have shared all the ports facilities in the South South to themselves while Wike and Amechi are there shouting themselves hoax over who is more powerful than the other..

The same way some unity begging agbadorians have shared all the oil wells of the South South to themselves, while deceiving the South Southerners with a funny road from Lekki to Calabar ..

Last last, all man go get sense shaa..

There's no port in the Erosion region.

Leave South alone. Let them share it.

BUA breached the contract and ran to his clan's men Buhari and the Attorney General where they used tribal connections to gift him back the concession.

May the truth prevail

This woman na second Alison maduaeke..hand go stil reach am for all the corrupt practices she did at the NPA

10 yrs of nothing done BUA na criminal Chia! North done finish South South and South East

Eriokanmi:
This woman chop port money taya. Tinubu's guys have taken over. Sadly, the masses running after them get nothing fir hailing them. Only the masses-oriented leadership will move Nigeria forward. Without politics, most of the so-called leaders will die of a heart attack.

Yeah. That why one still says he's hungry.

"In 2006, years before Hadiza Bala Usman ever walked the corridors of maritime power, BUA entered into a valid lease agreement with the NPA for Terminal B of the Rivers Port. The mandate was clear: rehabilitate, operate, and expand the terminal infrastructure.

By the time Usman assumed office in 2016, BUA had already begun discussions with the NPA to address remedial works, as the port’s original state was riddled with derelict iron ore remnants, structural deficiencies, and unsafe berths—all legacies of public neglect. These talks were nearing conclusion.
After Hadiza, Order Was Restored

Following her removal, the air around the NPA cleared. Due process returned. Under the new leadership, BUA was granted formal approval to resume reconstruction at Terminal B in 2022. No subsidy. No bailout. Over $65 million invested, entirely private."

What a country!
Contract was awarded in 2006, 10 years after in 2016, they were still in talks stage... Absolutely nothing on ground. And yet the country was loosing revenue for not utilising the port , people were left jobless, and he still kept the contract..?
Then in 2022, work began!
Wonderment!!

I no dey shook mouth for matter wey only the parties involved know the real truth which they both won't ever make public.

Believe BUA and Hadiza at your own peril.
The truth lies in between not what bua is peddling and maybe not what Hadiza was said to have done in office.

Why did they start talking in 2016 for a contract that was signed in 2006?

Na dem sabi.

Let's see what Hadiza has to say.

owobokiri:
See as these people have shared all the ports facilities in the South South to themselves while Wike and Amechi are there shouting themselves hoax over who is more powerful than the other..

The same way some unity begging agbadorians have shared all the oil wells of the South South to themselves, while deceiving the South Southerners with a funny road from Lekki to Calabar ..

Last last, all man go get sense shaa..

Can you insult the British ? No.

If you can't....