https://newsin2.com/northern-interest-groups-jostle-for-nimasa-top-job-as-uncertainty-surrounds-petersides-future/


By DOTUN OGUNADE

Uncertainty presently surrounds the fate of the award-winning Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMSA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, as his first four-year tenure comes to an end in a fortnight.

The expectation within the industry and beyond is that Peterside will be re-appointed for a second term, given his outstanding track record in office.

Peterside's reign as DG is said to have led to improved accountability, operational efficiency and stakeholder relations that have continued to elicit positive reactions across board.

In the same vein, NIMASA, under him, has witnessed an increased trade relation in the sub-region and beyond with the agency leading the charge in reorganizing African Maritime Administration Agencies into a broad-based common ideology.

The agency under his watch has also seen a massive improvement in Nigeria's Port State Control.  Recently, Nigeria’s vessel inspection rating got a boost with 81.7 per cent with 636 ship inspections, a radical departure from her history of recurring lows, compared to South Africa which came second with 327 inspections for 2018, while Senegal came third with 270 inspections, during the period under review.

Given this level of achievement, maritime industry watchers are optimistic his re-appointment is a done deal. But feelers from reliable Aso Rock sources appear to say otherwise, as there is said to be intense lobby going on, both internally and externally, for Peterside’s replacement.

It was gathered that some external candidates are interested in the job, while some executive directors in the organization have also intensified lobby, activating their political contacts to try to get the nod of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The appointment of Peterside, from Rivers State, as NIMASA DG is believed to have been part of the compensation for Transport Minister and former governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, a man who played a major role in the emergence of Buhari as president both in 2015 and 2019.

His possible reappointment would follow a broad government trend of re-appointing competent heads of agencies and parastatals upon the expiration of their first tenures.

A source who spoke with this correspondent pointed at the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, Miss Hadiza Bala Usman who was retained in her position; the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who was equally re-appointed for second term and Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), Director-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, among others.

Analysts are speculating that if, for any reason, however, Peterside does not get a reappointment, it would mean that Amaechi, the supervising minister, has lost influence within the Buhari administration.
Speculations are rife in this regard that one of the executive directors of the agency, who happens to come from the North, may have been penciled down by some Aso Rock power brokers for the job.

“If this turns out to be the case, it is bound to cause political tremor because it would mean that the South-South would no longer head any parastatal of worth, even as Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita was only recently retired from her position as Head of Service of the Federation,” our source informed.

The source also made reference to the replacement of Bayelsa born Matthew Seiyefa as head of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the subsequent appointment of Yusuf Magaji Bichi as his replacement had caused agitations, even as the controversial removal of Cross River State-born Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen from office as Chief Justice of Nigeria, inflicted wounds in the heart of many in the region and entire Southern Nigeria.

It would also be recalled that only recently, the Buhari government replaced a South westerner, Babatunde Fowler, former Executive Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) with another northerner, Mohammed Nami.

Almost at the same time, Mr. Muiz Banire, another South westerner was removed from office as the chairman of the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) and replaced by a northerner, Edward Adamu.

The above had indeed followed the discreet appointment of Hajia Aisha Dahir-Umar to replace Mrs. Funsho Doherty as Director-General of Pension Commission (PenCom) after she was first used to replace Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu who was dismissed unceremoniously, even when it was constitutionally the turn of the South East to occupy the position.

Already, there is restiveness among southern political leaders, the North inclusive, over the increasing lop-sidedness of appointments by President Buhari. Indeed, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, had while speaking at an event to mark the 60th birthday celebration of the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, in Kaduna recently, pointed out that under the current leadership, it appears that one must be a Muslim northerner to occupy certain positions in government, even as he warned that nepotism has expiry date.

His comments had come on the heels of similar remarks by the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah who noted, while delivering a homily at the burial ceremony of Michael Nnadi, a Catholic seminarian killed by bandits in Kaduna, that President Buhari had taken nepotism to an unprecedented level and that at the moment, to occupy any position of note in the country, one must be a core northern Muslim.

Speaking in this regard, a prominent ...

His nepotism is why nothing positive is happening in his administration...

When the south rule, let them also retire all northerners from every position held.

NIMASA the cash cow!!!
Northern Nigeria Enjoy!

And when will that be? Southerners steal public funds mostly for personal reasons and are ready to trade the future of their region for selfish reasons. I believe that the North builds up its people as structures. If they steal public money, they most often spend it on religious elements whether in Nigeria, or the Middle East, they develop and empower the next generation to take over.

Where are these in the character of the South East or South West politicians who claim to be wiser but in truth, majority of them are fools.

piippa:
When the south rule, let them also retire all northerners from every position held.

piippa:
When the south rule, let them also retire all northerners from every position held.

Why not just break the country and have everybody rule themselves?
Sounds straightforward

AbdulRicho:
And when will that be? Southerners steal public funds mostly for personal reasons and are ready to trade the future of their region for selfish reasons. I believe that the North builds up its people as structures. If they steal public money, they most often spend it on religious elements whether in Nigeria, or the Middle East, they develop and empower the next generation to take over.

Where are these in the character of the South East or South West politicians who claim to be wiser but in truth, majority of them are fools.

see how stupid your post sounds.. do you even listen to yourself?? how many almajiri has the northern politicians built to be useful to our society other than street begging and public nuisance, terrorism.. and every form of jumbo nonsense.. northern politicians are the most useless bunch we have in the society today.. upon the years and years of power given to them, still nothing to show..

Hahahaha
Is this some type of joke?
Before the north can have any peace,
This crazy hypocrisy needs to stop!
Your leaders are the most wicked set of human beings on the planet.

They kill you like chickens to protect other Fulanis from outside Nigeria, or to prove some electoral point, Millions of you clowns live in IDP camps. Gosh how stuupid can you be??

When a northern politician passes by a group of children, all he sees are thumbprints and potential thugs.

Over 90% of kids in the North want to grow up and be beggars, that is why a typical northerner would never support restructuring or break up of Nigeria.

AbdulRicho:
And when will that be? Southerners steal public funds mostly for personal reasons and are ready to trade the future of their region for selfish reasons. I believe that the North builds up its people as structures. If they steal public money, they most often spend it on religious elements whether in Nigeria, or the Middle East, they develop and empower the next generation to take over.

Where are these in the character of the South East or South West politicians who claim to be wiser but in truth, majority of them are fools.

APC is sowing an evil seed in the minds of the South South comes 2023 if they continue like this. Are we not one Nigeria anymore that most parastatals have to be headed by North and moslim alone?

that's your opinion and you're entitled to it

Psalmy2cute:

see how stupid your post sounds.. do you even listen to yourself?? how many almajiri has the northern politicians built to be useful to our society other than street begging and public nuisance, terrorism.. and every form of jumbo nonsense.. northern politicians are the most useless bunch we have in the society today.. upon the years and years of power given to them, still nothing to show..

AbdulRicho:
that's your opinion and you're entitled to it

so you're also aware the trash you said earlier is also your opinion and you're entitled to it??.. okpanu

By north, you mean Hausa Fulani muslim?

Yes please, and look at that picture very well, Dakuku's replacement is the first guy left. He's Fulani.

eagleu:
By north, you mean Hausa Fulani muslim?