The management of BUA Group has explained how its $500 million integrated investment cluster involving flour, pasta, and sugar processing facilities and 4,000 jobs were saved by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s intervention in view of an alleged disregard by a former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman.
This disclosure was made in BUA’s press release titled “FLOUTING CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS, DEFYING COURT ORDERS, AND DISREGARDING ARBITRATION: THE FACTS BEHIND HADIZA BALA USMAN’S ABUSE OF OFFICE AS NPA MD,” dated May 31, 2025.
The rebuttal followed a statement from Usman’s office accusing BUA Group chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, of flaunting his access to former President Muhammadu Buhari by allegedly misinforming the former president into reversing NPA’s decision on BUA’s contract.
The allegations and counter-allegations relate to BUA’s long lease agreement in 2006 with the NPA to rehabilitate and operate Terminal B at Rivers Port in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
This reversal, according to Usman’s office, resulted in a directive that contradicted the existing contract and undermined the country’s interests.
“On Thursday, 29 May, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu, chairman of the BUA Group, wrote an article riddled with falsehoods by accusing an unnamed former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) of acting against the interest of his business organisation.
‘He claimed in his article that ‘we woke up to a letter stating that the concession had been revoked. There was no prior warning, no issue, no conflict….’ This is a blatant lie. Not only did the BUA Group receive numerous notifications and warnings about its negligence of contractual responsibilities; some of these warnings preceded my tenure as managing director,” Usman’s office stated.
The statement added that it is curious that the chairman of BUA Group has continued to push this alleged false narrative aimed at distracting Nigerians from seeing his company’s flagrant disregard of the binding contractual agreement.
The company and its chairman were urged to refrain from alleged cheap blackmail and commit to making the company a responsible corporate body that will make the country proud.
Rebuttal
Responding to the allegations, BUA Group stressed that former President Buhari was not misinformed but acted on facts and laws regarding the organization’s contracts with NPA and the ports.
“Ms. Usman’s claim that former President Muhammadu Buhari was ‘misinformed’ when he reversed her actions is false, disrespectful, and disingenuous,” the group added.
- The group stated that following a meeting, its Chairman had the privilege of holding with President Buhari in 2018, he presented the NPA-BUA 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 statement added that the AGF at the time, Abubakar Malami SAN, 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 group stated.
- The group highlighted that the legal advice found that the termination by NPA under Usman 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, all dependent on terminal access,” the statement partly reads.
- BUA, while appreciating former President Buhari, added that “this culture of impunity” by Usman has been significantly curtailed under President Bola Tinubu’s leadership, as many are aware they could be dismissed or imprisoned if they abuse their positions.
- BUA highlighted that following Ms. Usman’s removal from office, the NPA, under new leadership, implemented the AGF’s position, and BUA was granted formal approval to resume reconstruction works since 2022.
“The contract was awarded to TREVI, and BUA has since invested over $65 million—entirely self-funded and with no recourse to public funds or subsidies,” the statement partly reads.
- BUA added that work is ongoing and completion is expected in the first quarter of 2026.
Backstory
Nairametrics recalls that BUA and Usman’s leadership of the NPA had been at loggerheads dating back to 2019.
- In October 2019, NPA reacted to accusations of breaching a court order in the case involving BUA Ports and Terminals Limited, a subsidiary of BUA Group.
- The port authority and the company have been in a dispute over a port terminal in Port Harcourt.
- NPA had decommissioned the entire concession arrangement, which BUA Group obtained in 2006, claiming that the unsafe operational environment of the jetty (BUA concession area) needed urgent repairs and reconstruction.
However, the General Manager of BUA Ports and Terminals Limited, Mohammed Ibrahim, said the withdrawal of the license by the Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala-Usman, was against the requirements of global judicial/dispute resolution and undermined the NPA concession agreements.
