Vice-President-elect, Kashim Shettima, has said the government of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu will be gender friendly.
Shettima said this while speaking at the book reading of Hadiza Bala Usman, former managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), in Abuja on Saturday.
In the book titled, ‘Stepping On Toes: My odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority’, Bala Usman narrated her experience as a public servant.
Shettima, who was one of the guests at the occasion, commended the author for taking time to write the book.
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“Be rest assured that the incoming Administration of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu will be gender friendly,” Shettima said.
“Asiwaju is the first person that appointed a woman as Deputy Governor in this country. He is also the first to appoint the first female Chief Judge… I also appointed five women into my cabinet as governor.”
The former Governor of Borno State also lamented that Nigerians hardly read.
“We need to read, our reading culture in this part of the world is very low. People hardly read.”
“Honestly sometimes, I go into bookshops to buy books worth five hundred thousand just out of solidarity with the bookshop owners. I buy books to share out to Princes and contemporaries and not for myself. Fundamentally out of solidarity.
“When you visit bookshops, you can hardly see two or three people. We can spend our budget buying very expensive Apple wrist watch and so on, but hardly do we buy books,” he added.
The 200-page book with 17 chapters is filled with damning revelations.
The first two chapters of the book highlighted the events that summed up the author’s closeness to the former Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Ameachi, his recommendation to President Muhammadu Buhari for her appointment as the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority and the President’s subsequent approval.
Chapters three, four and five discussed the status quo or context in which Hadiza met the top government officials, internal reforms and her steps toward turning the place around for the better.
Her innovation or attempts at decongesting the ever tiring Apapa’s traffic was also captured.
The rest chapters delved into the root causes of her imbroglio with vested interests in the industry and her boss-cum-witch-hunter and eventually her ‘stepping aside.’
