By Mark Mayah
BUA Group has challenged the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, to specify the specific clause or clauses violated by the group in her decision to terminate the port concession agreement with the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA.
Responding to Ms Usman’s claims justifying the abrogation of the concession, BUA questioned her decision to ignore court judgments on the issue and the arbitration process initiated by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
While affirming that President Bola Tinubu had further consolidated on the due process rejected by her as NPA MD, BUA said the present administration’s inclination to due process has further restricted the kind of arbitrariness Ms Usman exhibited in her assertions and actions as NPA MD.
BUA said: “We have taken note of recent public statements made by Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman, the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, who was sacked from office.
‘’In her comments, she accused BUA Group and our Chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, of breaching a concession agreement and distorting facts.
“BUA entered into a valid long lease agreement in 2006 with the NPA to rehabilitate and operate Terminal B at Rivers Port in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Long before Ms. Usman’s appointment, BUA had begun formal engagement with the NPA to address outstanding remedial works and infrastructural deficiencies. These discussions were near conclusion when she assumed office.
“Rather than build on that process, Ms. Usman ignored BUA’s requests and obligations under the agreement. In 2016, BUA wrote to the NPA under Article 8.4 of the lease, mandating concessionaires to report environmental and safety concerns and to seek approval for remedial works. Rather than act constructively, Ms. Usman used that letter as a pretext to issue a termination notice and summarily shut down the terminal, without providing any prior warning, consultation, or invoking the dispute resolution clause.
“She forgot or failed to disclose in her response that the NPA, under her leadership, was itself in material breach of core obligations including, failing to hand over critical portions of the port, leaving derelict iron ore on the berths, failing to dredge or repair quay walls, and neglecting to provide mandatory security. These lapses were significant impediments to BUA’s operations and, as a result, led to disputes between the parties.
“After the unlawful termination, BUA approached the Federal High Court, which promptly granted an injunction restraining the NPA from proceeding with termination. The NPA itself then referred the dispute to arbitration, as stipulated in Section 17.3 of the agreement, which clearly states:
“Any dispute, controversy or claim… shall be exclusively and finally settled pursuant to the dispute resolution process prescribed in this Article.
“To further compound the illegality, BUA, after providing the guarantees and indemnities requested by the NPA, was permitted to resume operations briefly. Barely three weeks later, the terminal was again shut down, this time on Ms. Usman’s instruction.
‘’This left no doubt that her actions were motivated not by due process, but by personal animosity and abuse of office.
“BUA subsequently filed contempt proceedings and was looking at estimated losses in excess of $10 million. These proceedings were only withdrawn out of respect for national interest and following the intervention of well-meaning Nigerians within and outside the government.”
Countering Ms Bala Usman that President Buhari was misinformed in his decision to constitute a review of her actions using the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, BUA said:
“Ms. Usman’s claim that former President Muhammadu Buhari was ‘misinformed’ when he reversed her actions is false, disrespectful, and disingenuous.
“Following a meeting that our chairman had the privilege of holding with President Buhari in 2018, he presented the matter to the President who then directed the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to conduct a thorough legal review and investigate the situation.
‘’The AGF invited all parties, including Ms. Usman, to several meetings. We never saw her at any of them. Nevertheless, the AGF proceeded to undertake a comprehensive review of the contract, the litigation, the arbitration clause, and all correspondence and actions by BUA and NPA.”
The legal advice (attached herewith) found that the termination was unlawful, the decommissioning was without any legal basis, and that BUA’s rights should be reinstated. It was on this basis that President Buhari ordered the reversal of her unlawful actions. His intervention preserved the sanctity of the contract, saved over 4,000 jobs, and BUA’s $500 million integrated investment cluster involving flour, pasta, and sugar processing facilities which were all dependent on terminal access. For this, we remain deeply grateful to former President Buhari.’’
