Review… Peterside, NIMASA and ‘padi padi’ govt

On Thursday, March 10, President Muhammadu Buhari made one of the most important appointments in the agencies under the Ministry of Transportation, when Dr. Dakuku Peterside was named as the Director General of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

The latest appointment is one that is bound to attract interest from Nigerians because of the central role the agency plays in the nation’s maritime sector, its economic importance to the nation, its recent chequered history and the issues surrounding the person of the new DG.

The appointment of Dakuku Peterside definitely starts another journey in the chequered history of the agency, as it has a long history of fraud allegations and political interference, probably because of its pride of place as another cash cow of the nation’s economy.

Aside the now famous #Dasukigate, the fraud allegations in NIMASA rank as one of the most mind boggling in the country’s recent history of corruption and fraud allegations. Billions of naira were alleged to have being looted from the agency under its immediate past head, Patrick Akpobolokemi.

These allegations are so mind boggling, not just because of the amount of money involved but the impunity with which they were said to have been carried out. There were tales of money running into hundreds of millions being paid out to people who neither bid nor executed any job.

An instance is the payment of N548 million to a fashion designer for doing nothing.  In fact, the agency under Patrick Akpobolokemi allegedly became a Father Christmas, doling out money.

The involvement of repented Niger Delta militant leader, Tompolo is another height of the recklessness that characterized NIMASA in the past. Aside coastal security contracts worth billions of naira awarded his company, Global West, Tompolo was allegedly paid a whooping N13 billion for a land proposed to house the Maritime University.

Aside the now famous #Dasukigate, the fraud allegations in NIMASA rank as one of the most mind boggling in the country’s recent history of corruption and fraud allegations. Billions of naira were alleged to have being looted from the agency under its immediate past head, Patrick Akpobolokemi.

Criminal charges have been filed in court and the cases are ongoing with Tompolo still elusive, refusing to appear in court or submit himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,  despite being declared wanted.

Peterside’s new posting, NIMASA, is one of the agencies that has been accused of not remitting the bulk of the money they make to the federation account, thereby denying the nation the much needed revenue that should have accrued to it.

It therefore passes that whoever the Buhari administration would appoint to man the agency must be somebody it trusts to do its bidding. This is however what makes the appointment of the new DG interesting.

NIMASA, as an agency under the Ministry of Transportation comes directly under the supervision and control of Rotimi Ameachi,  who heads the ministry. Peterside is known to all as an Ameachi ‘boy’.

Read also: Dakuku from Rivers is now NIMASA boss

Aside serving under Ameachi as a commissioner and ‘sent’ to the House of Representatives by the former Rivers State governor, Peterside also became the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2015 general elections because he was singlehandedly picked by Ameachi.

The known relationship between the minister and the new DG calls to question the ‘arrangee’ appointment and raises some ethical questions President Muhammadu Buhari must answer to assure Nigerians that he is not following in the footsteps of those he had condemned in the past.

It therefore passes that whoever the Buhari administration would appoint to man the agency must be somebody it trusts to do its bidding. This is however what makes the appointment of the new DG interesting.

How ethical or politically correct is it to appoint a known crony of the minister as the head of a major regulatory agency under his ministry? Without sounding unnecessarily antagonistic, this latest appointment may not pass a rigorous integrity test and runs the risk of reducing the current administration as a ‘padi padi’ and ‘arrangee’ government,  to borrow from the late Abami Eda, Fela Anikulapo Kuti,.

It is important we ask what happened to the many top executive directors and senior directors in NIMASA. Are they not qualified to head the agency? Where is the place of career progression and how do we hope to get the best from our professionals if they are not assured of the possibility of getting to the peak of their careers?

The question is, what qualified Dakuku Peterside as the DG of NIMASA? Or better still, what worked in his favour? Could it be Ameachi and the need to compensate a crony who lost out in the race for the office of governor of Rivers State? Is this another case of job for the boys and a subtle way of reintegration of a battered ally?

There are insinuations that the President might have compensated Ameachi and Peterside with the appointment as a way of recouping the huge election expenses they incurred during the last gubernatorial and presidential elections, and also to build capacity, albeit financial war chest in preparation for 2019.

The onus lies on President Buhari and his administration to prove to Nigerians that he is not running a ‘padi padi’ government where cronies are rewarded with juicy appointments to the detriment of merit, experience and national interest. The ball is squarely in the President’s court.

 

 

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