Fresh Hurdles as Maritime Stakeholders Set Agenda for President Buhari

On the 29th of May, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari would have successfully completed his first tenure as a democratically elected president of the federal republic of Nigeria. Abiola Seun writes

Even though, President Muhammadu Buhari has recorded major milestone achievements in the maritime sector in the last three and the half years, stakeholders seek further improvement in the sector for the next four years of the administration.

For instance, under this present administration, the sector witnessed the inauguration and commissioning of the first ever Inland Container dry port, known as the Kaduna ICD in the country.

The Kaduna dry port is the first ever in the country and was created to bring shipping to the hinterland and door steps of the shippers.

The ICD receives containers by rail or road from the seaport for examination and clearance by Customs and other competent authorities. It has all the loading and off-loading equipment needed to handle containers as obtainable at the seaports.

The operation of these facilities is coming more than a decade after they were licensed and concessioned by government.

There is no gainsaying that the ICDs will reduce the pressure on the ports in Lagos and ultimately reduce the cost of doing business at for upcountry importers and consignees.

The ICD would reduce the cost of moving cargoes as it is a common knowledge that importers pay huge sums of money to move their cargoes from Lagos by road to warehouses located in their respective states but the ICD would help evacuation of containers for importers in the eastern and northern parts of the country, which buttresses the importance of functional ports in those regions.

Aside the ICD, the present administration has repaired the dilapidated port access roads especially the Wharf road.

The road which had been in a dilapidated state for some years was repaired and put to use by the current administration allowing importers to enjoy easy evacuation of cargoes from the Apapa seaports.

It was gathered that the Nigerian Ports Authority rallied the stakeholders to raise N4.3 billion to reconstruct the access roads around Athe seaport.

NPA who championed the reconstruction provide N1.8 billion while Dangote Group and Flour Mills provided N2.5 billion.

The reconstruction entails full drainage service and the total cost of the Apapa port access roads project is N4.3 billion.

Also, the dilapidated Tin-Can road has been awarded for reconstruction and the contractor has moved to site for the rehabilitation of the road.

Aside that, the current administration was able to make the abandoned rivers ports across the country functional again.

From the abandoned Baro river port in Niger state to the Onitsha river port in Anambra state and Lokoja in Kogi state.

Since the administration had vowed to rehabilitate the river ports, the government started with the Baro river port in in Niger state and in January, President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the rehabilitated the Baro River Port in Niger State which was the first colonial port in Nigeria, as the new structure is inclined to modern ports operations.

The administration also recently signed a contract for the supply and installation of 64 Ton Mobile Harbour Crane by Messrs LIEBHERR NIG. Ltd for the Lokoja – Jamata River Port Complex in the sum of N1.6billion.

However, despite all the giant strides recorded by this administration, the stakeholders in the maritime industry have said a lot still needed to be done by President Muhammadu Buhari for the maritime sector.

Speaking, the President of the Nigerian Chambers of Shipping (NCS), Andy Isichie asked President Buhari to prioritise development of deep seaports, deepen the nation’s draft and a national shipping policy.

According to him, the government should set up a ministry of maritime affairs to deepen activities in the sector

He said, “I believe the government in the next four years should set up a new ministry that will be in charge of Maritime affairs in addition to the ministry of Transportation.

“There should also be a ministry of maritime affairs so that they can deepen our current activities in the sector and bring it up to speed to ensure we have a national shipping policy and ensure that we have port master plans.”

Alao, the government should ensure that the deep seaports are built and Nigeria becomes a hub in West Africa. When we become a hub, the resources we are losing from the underdevelopment of the maritime sector would be harnessed and brought to the national purse in addition to the employment opportunities the sector can generate.”

“What we are saying is shipping should be given a special attention because it will help us in diversifying our over reliance on crude oil.

“We have no deep seaport, we need deeper draft to allow bigger vessels, and we need to look ahead. if we have shipping policy, we will be the port of choice that will attract importers and shipping companies to our ports rather than them going to Abidjan, Senegal to discharge and that will impact the shipping capability.”

Also speaking, the National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Tony Nwabunike acknowledged that the need for a shipping policy in other to decentralize the port.

He stated further that the roads leading to all seaports in the country also needed to be rehabilitated and made motorable.

“First of all, I think they should look into decentralising the port to making sure we have port policies on ground. There is no serious governmental legal frame work concerning maritime industry so we need a situation where federal government will come up with a bill so that it can be implemented. We need a situation where we should be encouraged by getting the whole roads done and the port organised.”

“It is a continuous process and so many things still needed to be done and the remaining four years will be used to get those things done.”

Also, another maritime experts, Kingsley Anaroke urged president Buhari to sign the National Transport Commission (NTC) bill into law.

Anaroke who is also the president, League of Maritime Editors and Publisher (LOMEP) noted that the bill was not given assent last year because of some conflicts observed by the Presidency, the group said that now is the time for Buhari to act on the Bill as the relevant Ministry and agencies of government have addressed this problem.

LOMEP said, “The National Transport Commission (NTC) Bill’s journey dates back to 2008 before it was passed in 2018 by the National Assembly. The Bill was brought before Your Excellency for

assent but suffered some hitches in this direction due to some conflicts observed by the Presidency.

‘’The relevant Ministry and agencies of government were then expected to address this problem. We wish to call on Your Excellency to give assent to the Bill once it is represented. This call is based on the fact that the Bill is all embracing as it sets out to achieve a wide range of objectives that will be of immense benefit to the transport sector.

As it concerns piracy on Nigeria’s territorial waters and the Gulf of Guinea, it noted that the government through the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has made some efforts to address this problem but called for continued and more spirited efforts on the battle against piracy and armed robbery attacks on our waters to rid the nation of threat to international trade.

According to the LOMEP, the maritime regulatory agency and the Nigerian Navy need to be empowered more to enable them to stop the pirates/armed bandits WHO have posed lot of economic threat to international trade