…Tasks journalists to investigate the issue
The advent of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration and the recent appointment of ministers have thrown up legions of interests in some government agencies and parastatals considered to be money spinners.
One of such agencies is the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) which is currently headed by a technocrat well versed in maritime issues, Dr. Bashir Jamoh.
Perhaps lobbyists for his position might be intimidated by his legendary performance as the Director General of the agency.
People’s Forum reports that also being not a politician but a committed staff of NIMASA who rose through the ranks to become its Chief Executive Officer, lobbyists for his seat might think the only way to get his job is by trumping something up against him.
This gives an insight into the barrage of sponsored allegations against Dr. Jamoh in recent times in some sections of the media.
Despite all this, he has remained cook, calm and collected as the holy book says that the righteous are as bold as a lion.
However, Jamoh reacted to the recent accusations of corruption and nepotism, succinctly describing themas campaigns of calumny sponsored by people who are after his job in NIMASA.
He spoke with an online medium, The Nigerian Economy, in a telephone interview from Ghana where he was attending a conference.
The NIMASA boss declared that he was tired of hearing the barrage of allegations which has become a pastime for his detractors.
Attributing his travails to his closeness with former President Mohammed Buhari, he said that his accusers are exploiting it to levy spurious allegations against him.
Jamoh is married to Buhari’s niece and his daughter is married to Buhari’s nephew.
“From what I gathered, one, they (his enemies) are looking at my relationship with the previous government.
“Two, too many people are after my seat. I think they are the ones sponsoring all these malicious accusations, but it is not enough for me to deny the accusations.
“I want to charge all journalists to delve into the issues and see for themselves, whatever accusations they have against me”
Jamoh said he was getting tired of hearing the army of allegations against him, wondering what it all portends for his enemies and the country at large.
He denied all the accusations against him, saying that budgeting is done according to the needs and priorities of the agency and approved by the National Assembly.
“Some of these allegations have gone to the SSS. I am very tired. I think in the future many good people won’t like to work for the government because there is no point for me burning my youthful age serving my country.
“I spent seven years serving Kaduna State Government, and now, 30 years serving the Federal Government, only for somebody to take paper and biro and start to write fictitious lies against me. What will I do with this money?
“This is not the first time these people are doing this. They alleged that I have N45 trillion. The entire budget of NIMASA from its days as NMA till today is not up to that.
“The bank they said I have N1.5 trillion, the entire banking assets and deposit of that bank are not up to N1.5 trillion.
” I have never maintained an account with Fidelity Bank. I don’t have a foreign account and I don’t have any company account.
“My account is one salary account. So how do I get that money? They said that I inflated the NIMASA budget.
“How do I inflate the budget, when the budget goes through the National Assembly?
“They said the budget for training went up by 500%. I was the head of training at the agency before I was promoted to the Executive Director level.
“Since 2020 when we had COVID, we don’t have large sums for training.
” This matter was taken to the National Assembly and is well known.
“Journalists can visit our office and ask for our financial reports. I am always transparent.”
The NIMASA DG insisted that he was not ready to join issues with his detractors, stating that he deliberately declined approval to all statements written by the agency’s Public Relations Department in reaction to some of the allegations.
“Just last week, the same media organization reported that we didn’t deploy the Deep Blue project. Can you imagine that?
” The Nigerian Navy, Army and Air Force are the ones manning the assets, not NIMASA and the Navy came to NIMASA recently to explain that these assets have been deployed and they are using them.
” The President wrote to direct us to release air platforms to the Nigerian Air Force, water platforms to the Navy and land assets to the Nigerian Army.
“And these assets were deployed accordingly and we have even seen the effect in the recent reduction in piracy.
“I am in Ghana now, and the Chief of Army staff is here too. He was the one who spoke on the operations of the Deep Blue Project and everybody was clapping.
“Last year, we had the NISA (Nigerian Indigenous Shipowners Association) dinner and the Nigerian Navy disclosed that their capacity had been increased by 50%.
“I have been quiet. The agency’s communication department has been writing but I don’t want to react by myself to these unfounded allegations.
” I want journalists to write. I just read here in Ghana about a civil society organization protesting in Abuja, saying that allegations about me are a distraction. I don’t know them, but I am just reading it now here in Ghana.”
He maintained that every agency’s budget is tailored to meet the needs of the agency.
“If the budget increases, it depends on the priorities that we have. I don’t know what they are saying, but I can state that nobody took a kobo for doing nothing.
“The training we had we made it more elaborate and tried to divide the training in terms of professionalism.
“So many professional trainings we were not doing before, now we do. I have put the agency on the global maritime page.
“Before I took over the management of the agency, we didn’t have any vessel.
“Now we have five brand new vessels built with bulletproof,” he stated.