The intense intrigues in the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) by various stakeholders might have given rise to the suspension and eventual sack of its former Managing Director, Hajia Hadiza Bala Usman, who many believed was consumed by the unending crisis in the agency.
NPA is one agency of government whose efficiency or inefficiency can easily be gauged by the public because of the strategic roles it plays in the commercial life of the country.
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The NPA, by the mandate bestowed on it by the Act of Parliament that created it, is a key driver of the nation’s maritime services which is critical to the country’s commerce, economy and industry. No serious government jokes with its ports services anywhere in the world and Nigeria is no exception.
Now that Bala is out of the way and a new leader, Mohammed Bello Koko is now in the saddle, observers are curious to know what the new helmsman will do to bring the needed sanity to the all-important agency.
It is a statement of fact that the NPA performance will be the surest way to gauge the performance of whoever is at the helm of affairs at the agency and by extension, the government in power at the national level.
Experts from the industry and analysts alike are of the opinion that President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has done well regarding the choice of leadership of the NPA since the inception of the administration in 2015. Without a doubt, the NPA in the last few years of the Buhari-led government has been one of the star performers among Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in terms of living up to targets and even surpassing them.
And even when there seemed to be a crisis of confidence between the supervising minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and the immediate past leadership of the agency led by Hajia Hadiza Bala Usman, President Buhari did not waste time in approving the nomination of Mohammed Bello Koko as the acting Managing Director of the very critical agency to fill the vacuum created by the exit of Hajiya Hadiza.
Before his elevation to the new position sometime in May, following his recommendation by Amaechi to the President, Koko, a banker with over two decades of cognate experience, had been the Executive Director of the Agency in charge of Finance and Administration, a very sensitive department that needs competent and ethical hands to manage.
Koko was appointed to the position of ED in 2016 and being an insider who has the knowledge of the workings of the agency, hopes are high and there are heightened expectations, as people are eager to see how he would marshal his experience and reposition the agency in order to meet and surpass its revenue targets through effective and efficient service delivery.
The task before the new helmsman of the NPA is basically how to reposition the agency for greater efficiency, safety and accountability. To achieve this, Mallam Koko must strive towards blocking all financial leakages and strengthen all the internal mechanisms that embolden corruption and capital flight.
First off, it is pertinent to know that as a finance egghead, Mallam Kolo must ensure that the NPA under his watch must keep up with the dictates of the Consolidated Revenue (Fund) and the Financial Responsibility Act (FRA) to avoid the agency being caught up in the web of infractions which can attract severe punishment from relevant federal authorities.
Aside from that, he should also strive to remove red-tapism and all kinds of bureaucratic bottlenecks that may hinder the operations of the agency within and without, to its barest minimum. This will place the agency on the podium of transparency, civility and equanimity.
The vision of the NPA is to become the leading port in Africa and one of the best in the world. This vision will remain a mirage without workable strategies. It is believed that the recent strategic retreat for the senior management cadre would help the agency to actualize its vision and meet its mandate. The fact that the last time such a critical retreat was organised was over a decade ago means that such initiative could provide additional vista towards revamping and repositioning the agency.
A critical agency like the NPA requires critical infrastructure for maximum performance. The need for competitive growth and to keep pace with revenue expectations of stakeholders, means that the new leadership must work towards infrastructural renewal and expansion.
Haruna Abdullahi writes from Abuja.
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