The managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Usman, has declared that she didn’t sleep with anyone to move up the ladders in her career.

Particularly, she denied having any form of romantic relationship with the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.

Usman spoke on the issues when she spoke on TVC during the celebration of the International Women’s Day on Monday.

Ms Usman was the chief of staff to Governor El-Rufai from 2015 to 2016 before she emerged the NPA boss in July 2016.

“I am definitely not his girlfriend.”

“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.

“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,” Ms Usman noted.

Before her appointment as the NPA boss, Ms Usman was an outspoken activist of the #Bringbackourgirls Movement.

Her appointment generated huge controversies and debates but she has downplayed such reactions from people, noting that what matters is competency.

“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,” she said.

“The bottom line 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 pulldown,” she said.