Governor Ambode gave the embattled NPA MD a vote of confidence.

Lagos state Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday played host to the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman at his office in Alausa, Ikeja.

Ms Bala Usman’s recent appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari attracted a lot of criticism about the president’s perceived pursuit of a northern agenda.

The former chief of staff to the Kaduna state governor was also vilified by many on other grounds including an accusation that she was profiting from being a founding member of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement.

To some other persons, Ms Bala Usman was not qualified to hold the position of NPA managing director having not been involved in the shipping sector before her appointment.

On Wednesday, however, Governor Ambode minced no words in giving the embattled NPA MD a vote of confidence.

“We are confident that under the leadership of the new managing director, the Nigerian Ports Authority will be transformed for good,” Ambode said in a message on his Twitter page shortly after the visit.

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode with Ms Hadiza Bala Usman; credit: Twitter/akinwunambode

Punch also reports that in the course of the meeting between the governor and the NPA MD, Ambode promised that his administration would put a permanent end to the traffic gridlock usually experienced on the Apapa axis.

He also said Lagos, being a commercial nerve centre and a city surrounded by water, deserves more than one port.

“We have had issues about movement of cargo and every other vehicular movement that relates to traffic congestion in the Apapa axis and I think with the new management in charge of NPA, a whole lot of things will be resolved so quickly.

“We will support everything to make Apapa a place that we will all be delighted to speak about,” the governor said.

For her part, Usman said the NPA under her leadership would partner with the Lagos state government on the decongestion of Apapa gridlock as soon as possible and on the success of the Lekki Deep Sea Port project, among others.