Usoro: The Cobwebs Within

Mfon-Usoro

The Olusegun Obasanjo administration in one of its last acts cleared Mfon Ekong Usoro, former Director General of the National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NAMASA), of involvement in the agency’s stalled funds, but many maritime watchers insist that there are cobwebs around her
By Innocent Chukwu
When Mfon Ekong Usoro, former boss of the National Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NAMASA), was forced to abdicate her “cherished” throne in a humiliating manner on Monday, April 30, 2007, not many were moved, as the dominant response was this simple: “She is leaving the way she came.”
The reason for this assertion is, indeed, not far-fetched. Usoro’s appointment by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to man the affairs of the money-spinning agency was also midwifed in controversy. She assumed office on August 1, 2006, at a period her immediate predecessor, Festus Ugwu, an engineer, was cooling off in cell following the gruesome murder of a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Funsho Williams, who was at the time board chairman of the National Maritime Authority (NMA).
Ugwu had been whisked off to Force Headquarters, Alagbon for interrogation on his alleged involvement in the yet-to-be-concluded investigations into the assassination of Williams and other alleged financial scams that rocked the NMA during his era. While Ugwu was granted bail and the rest became history, Usoro quietly stepped into the headship of NAMASA, with promises she was never able to fulfill, as in the climax of the squabble between her, the board and her subordinates, she, like Ugwu, fell prey to law enforcement agents, this time the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which took her in over various allegations – fraud, high-handedness, dictatorship and flagrant disobedience to civil service rules and bureaucratic protocols.
The arrest of Usoro came on the heels of an official report presented to the Federal Government by the “Investigative Committee on NAMASA Funds Trapped in Failed Banks.” Based on The Source’s investigations, the NAMASA failed banks issue had lingered before the coming of Usoro. In fact, the alleged inordinate trading with the parastatal’s funds for selfish reasons, which culminated in the loss of huge sums to failed banks, was an initiative of the former NMA boss, Ferdinand Agu.
Ordinarily, Usoro was to be exonerated from the saga since it happened before she was appointed, but because of her closeness to Agu and C.C. Ezeala, a former Director for Finance at NAMASA, the committee alleged that Usoro consistently shielded the duo of Agu and Ezeala from being exposed to face the music, and therefore, should be sacked.
“The current DG, Mrs Mfon Ekong Usoro, for consistently blocking genuine efforts to unravel the riddle behind the lodgments, and for flagrant disobedience of extant rules and regulations should be relieved of her appointment,” the committee stated. In fact, sources at NAMASA were later to confirm to journalists that ab-initio, Usoro was using “delay tacftics” to frustrate the efforts of the committee.
But apart from the NAMASA funds matter in which Usoro was not found culpable by the committee, it (committee) had one separate Term of Reference (TOR) – Any other matters considered necessary”– under which the team was mandated to X-ray the reasons the Agency had remained on the decline, despite all Federal Government's efforts at putting it on the right track.
A competent source at the Transport Ministry told The Source that the government included the separate TOR and mandated the committee to be diligent in its execution and investigations because the government was interested in the actual cause of the in-house crisis that rocked NAMASA under Usoro’s leadershlip. The seven-man committee headed by Dr. H.B. Oyedepo, director, Transport Co-ordination and Inspectorate Department in the Transport Ministry, said it carefully studied the causes of the NAMASA inbroglio and discovered that competent and effective leadership remained an albatross of NAMASA, and thus recommended that a career civil servant who is a staff of the agency, should be appointed to replace Usoro – a recommendation which the Obasanjo administration adopted immediately.
Based on the contentious TOR, the committee discovered among others a fresh US $20 million lodgment in a fixed deposit account with a second generation commercial bank. The roll-over of the lodgement, as authorised by Usoro was said to be without due process and at just two per cent. Another sore point was the former DG’s (Usoro) “dictatorial and unilateral approach to administration", unlawful disengagement of workers who did not favour her cause, verbal aspersions cast on top officers of NAMASA and intimidation of workers by her unguarded use of security aides.
Remarkably, in its “General Re-commendations," the committee which was considered to be impartial ab-initio and had allegedly refused to be “gratified,” said thus: “The current Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of NAMASA, from the committee’s overall assessment, lacks the requisite experience in the management of human, material and financial resources required for effective and efficient running of a complex and critical organsation like NAMASA.”
Little wonder, observers say, there was never a moment’s peaceful co-existence between Usoro, the NAMASA board headed by Alhaji Tijani Ramalan, the two executive directors of the agency at the time and even the Minister of State (MOS) for Transport, Mohammed Habibu Aliyu, for it was then alleged that Usoro was in constant friction with them. Other issues that cropped up, though not laid bare to the committee, was a book launch which gulped N45million of NAMASA's funds, which was questionably donated by the former NAMASA boss and the N70million allegedly squandered by the Public Affairs Department headed by Ego Nwokocha between January and April 2007, on questionable PR and printing projects.
In its recommendation, the investigative committee counseled the authorities in the direction that “there is need for a seasoned administrator from within NAMASA, who is well versed in the knowledge and working of the Public Service, to be at the helm of affairs in the agency…” It also advised the Federal Government to recall Alhaji Ahmed Abdulkadir, an Assistant Director (Internal Audit), who was sacked in questionable circumstance by Agu.
In fact, the committee disclosed that Abdulkadir “was unlawfully laid off for daring to raise an Audit Query on the irregular expenditures of the former DG, Arch. F. Agu in respect of the on-going (Maritime) Resource Centre”.
Others ordered to be recalled were Alhaji Anwalu Makarfi, director, Administration and Personnel and Fatai Olupitan-Hassan, Assistant Director for Cabotage – both of who were unlawfully relieved for questioning the “lopsided recruitment of cabotage staff”.
Instructively, while the EFCC investigated Usoro, the Federal Government, apparently desirous to provide a soft- landing for the indicted NAMASA helsman, who insisted that she had the backing of forces within Aso Rock Villa, constituted another committee, this time tagged “Review Panel” to look into the allegations raised by the first committee, and then issue a white paper.
A notable personality in the ministry who craved anonymity, told The Source that the Review Panel was not put in place because the Federal Government doubted the report of the “incorruptible” investigative committee, upon whose report the EFCC swooped on Usoro, but that it (Federal Government), on a second thought, wanted a soft-landing for the woman whose protagonists had allegedly begun to pester Obasanjo not to disgrace her further.
Based on the above revelation, it is notable that the Review Panel’s report, against the expectation of millions of Nigerians, is yet to be made public. The Source gathered reliably that the panel, despite pressures to favour Usoro, was at a loss over how to fault their colleagues of the investigative committee, even when the Federal Government had already begun to implement some of its recommendations, including the immediate sack of Usoro, the board, and the appointment of a staff of NAMASA to head the agency. Given these controversies, The Source gathered reliably that Obasanjo and the former Minister for Transportation, Cornelius Adebayo, resolved to sweep the Review Panel report under the carpet.
Indeed, the confirmation of the above allegation against Obasanjo and Adebayo, was laid bare, not just to The Source but to a horde of other journalists at the Grand Ball Room of the Le Meridien Hotel, Garki, Abuja, venue of the last ministerial briefing of the Transport Ministry under Adebayo, on Tuesday, May 22, 2007.
Even as journalists who came for the briefing insisted on a no-holds-barred question and answer session with the minister and his MOS, Adebayo defiantly sifted the questions and chose the ones they would not have difficulty providing answers to. However, in what Adebayo and Aliyu must have regarded as a reckless, colossal blunder, one of their aides selected, albeit inadvertently, The Source’s carefully worded questions, one of which sought to know the outcome of the Review Panel’s report.
Silence was to envelope the hall when the question was read amid a mixture of confusion and rage as Adebayo passed the question over to Aliyu (MOS). Yet, Aliyu’s answer, “This is not the forum for such questions”, attracted more suspicion than his boss’ silence did.
The Source later cornered Baba Farouk, the Director of Maritime Service (DMS) at the ministry, who is also chairman of the Review Panel. But after Farouk’s deliberate effort to dismiss The Source without saying a word failed, he casually muttered that the panel was through with its job and had passed the report to the Federal Government (then headed by Obasanjo) which would make it public.
But barely one week later, the Federal Government was to drop a bombshell which has failed to stun many Nigerians. With just a day to the terminal date of the Obasanjo administration, Adebayo wrote a letter to Usoro informing her that both the Review Panel and the presidency had absolved her of all the allegations raised against her by the investigative committee.
Part of Adebayo’s letter reads: “I am pleased to inform you that following the findings and recommendations of the Review Committee, my endorsement of same and the subsequent approval of the President (Obasanjo), you are not culpable of any lapses in handling the issue of trapped funds in failed banks for any reason.”
Since after the letter, which many maritime analysts have tagged “deceptive”, Usoro has embarked on a media cleansing of her image, using the said letter as a potent defence because there are unconfirmed reports that she is being positioned for an appointment under the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s administration. Many observers, however, have begun to fault Adebayo’s letter as they instead demand for the publication of the Review Panel’s report for the public to see.
Critics of Obasanjo’s action vis-a-vis the NAMASA Affair, also raise the issue of other allegations levelled against Usoro by the same investigative committee which Adebayo’s letter failed to address, arguing that the former NAMASA boss had other weighty allegations to contend with, including the EFCC scandal which is gradually fizzling out. They also point to the series of petitions written to the Federal Government and the Panel by Ramalan, where several allegations about the mismanagement of NAMASA under Usoro were raised. This group wants such issues to be revisited, suggesting that if they are false, then Ramalam should be brought to book for raising false alarm against Usoro.
Besides, others argue that the issue Adebayo raised in his letter was not the major reason why Usoro was humiliated out of office - NAMASA's trapped funds in failed banks. According to them, Usoro’s failure at the agency was basically centred on the seventh TOR of the investigative committee, which revealed her alleged dictatorial tendencies and lack of regard for civil service rules, including constant neglect of her job as she would not hand-over to her assistants in her absence.
The group also ask several other questions as it concerns Usoro’s media celebration to the effect that she has been cleared. For instance, the outcome of the EFCC investigation of Usoro during which it was alleged that one bullet- proof Jeep car was recovered in her residence, is yet to be addressed. Similarly, the N45million which she doled out at a book launch is still raising dusts within the agency; just as the N70 million allegedly mismanaged by the PR department under Nwokocha within four months.
Recently, several trade groups in the Maritime industry have called on the Yar’Adua government to carry out fresh investigations into the Usoro saga, so as to determine if the celebration is genuine or not.
Yet, the fear of those who hold such view is that the war of attrition that was witnessed in NAMASA during Usoro's reign was not hidden. Several petitions from both the Usoro and Ramalan camps became too numerous that the Federal Government had no option than to set up the investigative committee. Besides, it appears that a new lease of life has permeated the agency since Usoro’s exit and the appointment of Dr. Adegboyega Dosumu as the new helmsman of the parastatal – an indication, many say, that Usoro mismanaged the agency.
Workers of NAMASA who spoke to The Source on the goings-on at the agency after Usoro's exit attest that the kind of peace that is being witnessed in the maritime regulatory agency since Dosumu came on board is unprecedented. They say that though Dosumu is being careful, taking a cue from what happened to his predecessors, he would be cautious of any policy that is capable of undermining the tranquility the agency is currently enjoying.
The Source reliably gathered that Adebayo’s missive to Usoro is not without reactions within the Transport Ministry as investigations show that a kind of animosity has cropped up between members of the investigative committee and the Review Panel based on the letter which sought to impugne the investigative committee's work.
There is fear within the Maritime department at the ministry that betrayal will be the order of the day as the two groups engage each other. The Source was told that in the months ahead, certain alleged fraudulent acts that took place at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) under its former Managing Director, Adebayo Sarumi, would be revealed. This, it was said, is because Sarumi is a member of the Review Panel. But what those who spoke to The Source from the ministry are insisting upon is that the Review Panel's report should be made known to the public. Until this is done, they say, Usoro's celebration would remain political and her indictment dogged by several cobwebs.