FCT, Abuja – Hadiza Bala, the ousted ex-managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), has spilt yet another revelation about her strained relationship with her former boss and ex-minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
As reported by Premium Times, the former NPA boss, at her book launch titled ‘Stepping on Toes—my odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority’ disclosed that she refused to give Ameachi a present on his birthday.
Defending her actions, as noted in her book, she stated that her conscience was clear and that she didn’t find it necessary to buy him a gift because they only had an official relationship, not a close-friendship relationship.
She lamented that buying presents for one’s boss in the civil service has become a norm that she does not find pleasing.
Hadiza said:
There is a culture we have imbibed in public service when it is the MD or CEO’s everyone does a card as big and this gigantic cake appears. It has become like a culture that if you don’t come and celebrate your boss, you are that bad person and not loyal.”
She noted that people in the civil service have begun to develop an attitude of entitlement to be celebrated during their birthdays at the office with a present or a cake.
She said:
“Unconsciously, people in public office start being entitled to that and think it is right to buy a birthday present. Meanwhile, I am not your friend. Why should I buy you a birthday present?”
