NPA boss Usman: 'I am not el-Rufai's girlfriend'

She also denies sleeping her way to high office or a federal government position.

Premium Times reports that Usman, 44, made the clarification on a TVC programme on Monday, March 10, 2020 in celebration of International Women’s Day.

Premium Times which monitored the programme, reports that Usman described claims concerning her rumoured relationship with el-Rufai as an “over flogged story” that has been making the rounds for a while.

“I am definitely not his girlfriend,” she said. “The governor is my mentor and my boss.

“He has been very supportive of my career and the career of every other woman that has worked for him.

Nasir El-Rufai is Governor of Kaduna State (Premium Times) Nasir El-Rufai has been criticized for poor performance since becoming the governor of Kaduna State in May 2015. - The Whistler NG Pulse Nigeria

“As you are aware, Kaduna State is the first state in northern Nigeria that has an elected female deputy governor; so you can see he has that commitment having women in positions of authority, so that rumour is completely untrue,” Usman said.

Accusing women of sex-for-positions

President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Usman MD of the NPA in 2016.

Before the NPA role, Usman served as el-Rufai’s Chief of Staff in Kaduna from 2015 to 2016.

Usman was also one of the leaders of the #Bringbackourgirls Movement, a group that inspired a global clamour for the return of the over 200 schoolgirls who were kidnapped by terrorists from the town of Chibok in 2014.

During the interview, she said it’s a shame that women are always accused of sleeping their way to positions of authority or to high office.

“These are the things they say to women to pull us down, they say for everything you have done in terms of showcasing your competence, they always reference and attribute it to the fact that you are in a relationship with another person.

“The bottomline is that you got a job and you perform, so when people reference that you got there because you were somebody’s girlfriend, that is a pull down,” Usman added.

Usman says Buhari is not sectional

President Buhari has often been accused of nepotism and sectionalism in his appointments into sensitive positions or high office.

Usman who hails from northern Kaduna State says the label on the president is a harsh, inaccurate one.

“There are a lot of issues that the presidency has been appointing northerners into key positions.

“What I would say is that, the minister of finance — is the person not capable and competent or not qualified? The managing director of NPA — has the person not performed well or not?

President Muhammadu Buhari and the Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Usman [Twitter/@hadizabalausman] Pulse Nigeria

“So to that extent when we narrow our limits and our competence to our ethnic and religious backgrounds I think it is reducing what we are as a people. And people should be ascribed to be in position because of their capacity and competence not based on where they come from.

“If you go back in 2015, there was a time we had a minister of finance that was not from the north, we had the head of FIRS that was also not from the north, so we have had all those situations that at certain times a particular region has more positions in the country. At that point who said what?

“It is important for us to understand the larger play and see at a point when it was not favouring you, what did you say about it? No one raised it that we have so many people from the South-west,” she said.