Olokola Deep seaport, a viable alternative to Lagos Ports – Otunba Olatunji

In this chat with Segun Oladipupo, he talks about the potentials of Olokola deep sea port taking away the traffic burden in Lagos.

He says the Port in Ondo, if developed, is  centrally situated to serve the people of the South East and South South.

He wonders why the government is treating such serious issue as deep sea port with natural depth with kids gloves.Excerpts.

Q. What is your view about the development of Olokola deep seaport project in Ondo State?

A. It was late Dr. Olusegun Agagu, former governor of Ondo State; that started the project but unfortunately, he was removed from office barely one or two years into his second term and his successor did not show interest in the project. That was how that project was abandoned.

Q. Why the advocacy for another port in Ondo when there are three  major seaports in Lagos and one deep seaport in the pipeline?

A. It is obvious that Ondo State is close to Lagos but apart from the distance, Lagos has taken good advantage of its strategic location, controlling the Nigeria port business, but the port activities has already become bigger than Lagos and is already threatening the city.

Lagos having two more Deep Seaport in the two sides of Lagos, will further worsen the congestion in the city. So what is going to happen with the coming on stream of the Olokola Deep Seaport is that  it will spill over of port business from Lagos.

What I see happening is that Olokola is the next maritime destination of the country as it will make the government’s Ease of Doing Business policy possible, end the traffic congestion in Lagos and further be a catalyst for industrialization and economic boom of the state and the country.

So for me, Ondo State is a maritime destination that is just waiting with huge and far-reaching opportunities waiting to be tapped by the government.

 

Q. Do you think the state government is ready to key into the project?

A. I am not going to be speaking for the governor so that he will not accuse me of acting like I am his mouth piece, but I am going to say what I know as a maritime player.

I am aware that Ondo State is determined to take advantage of its maritime potentials. But I am afraid because it is a gigantic project and because of the processes and limited resources, I foresee the possibility of Ondo State doing it all alone not being easy but for them to do the project successfully, they need to collaborate with stakeholders and pool resources together.

This is my view but I can tell you for free that the Olokola Deep Seaport,if realized, can put an end to all the gridlock in Lagos State.

Q. Why do you think Olokola should be considered as replacement for the reportedly cancelled Badagry deep seaport project?

A. I just said it that it is not wise that two deep seaports be located in one city because of the Environmental Impact Assessment which could lead to a disaster in future.

Lagos is happy having two deep seaport but we know that anything that can bring consequential damage to lives and properties of our people in future, should be avoided now. We are looking for money but not at the detriment of the lives of our people. So to me, it is better to develop the Olokola Deep Seaport that will address the gridlock we are experiencing in Lagos.

The  cosmetic approach they are using now to address the problem, will not last long. Logistics is practical. There is this small port that is taking the whole West Africa and we keep on patching and patching. Why are we patching? Why are we waiting so long to decongest Lagos port? Why are we not planning about the population that is increasing everyday?

The port users are not Nigerians alone, they include people from West Africa, it is the largest port in West Africa and everybody is dropping there everyday.

Why can’t we think of decongesting it?, why applying coercion? If government says it is promoting trade in one hand and compounding it with another hand, how serious are we? Olokola is there waiting, why are we not looking in that direction?

If successive governments had taken that project serious as late Agagu did, I can tell you that we will not be experiencing the gridlock we experience here in Lagos because that place would have been in use. And I can tell you that we need to really look at what we want, why are our people undermining, destroying opportunities that God has given us.

 I don’t know why people are looking down on ocean economy, the opportunities provided by ocean economy all over the world, they tap into it and become a strong nation.

Look at Singapore, they leverage on their ocean economy and today , they are a very strong nation. Nigeria abandoned the opportunity provided by the blue economy in terms of income generation, in terms of employment, in terms of various opportunities.

It is the foreigners that do business in their backyard and apart from the security threat this portends, by exposing your maritime domain to foreigners, who does that?  What will it take the Federal Government to say this Olokola, let us develop It, Call the state government, NPA and say let us bring in strategic investors, open that place in line with what late Segun Agagu did, if they open it up, it is going to generate massive employment for the people.

Apart from that, ease of doing business will now be easily achieved rather than this cosmetic approach they are adopting where they will carry police, MOPOL to chase people out of the place.

Is that what we need? People are ready to invest if they are serious.

Q. Talking about the huge capital outlay required to build the port, what model of ownership will you suggest for the project?

A. I remember the late governor Olusegun Agagu invited me to Ondo State and sought my opinion about the project and I told him it was a laudable project and that if government can keep their words. I don’t know why government does not want to invest in a project that will have multiplier effect on the state. I found out that part of what made the  project fail that time was because they  didn’t first ensure the buy-in of the local people.

Rather than making local people to buy in, it was the international oil companies that were promoting it and when the man died, nobody continue and the multinationals just left and that was all because there was nobody on ground to continue.

For me, I can tell you that the new governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, I am aware that he is ready to do something about that project and it is very close to his heart. It is going to be a catalyst in the area of employment, revenue generation both to the Federal Government and the state itself. It is going to change the economic face of the state and have monumental impact on the people because it will throw up the revenue of the state.

Q. Talking about the environmental impact assessment, don’t you think the port could still turn out to be like Apapa if the environmental factors are not properly taken care of?

A. What I know is that the port will be an alternative to the ports in Lagos because it will serve people from the east and some parts of the north. They will have no need to go to Lagos before they take their cargoes.

The environmental impact assessment has been done in Ondo State as far as I know, government is going to build infrastructures and roads. In fact, they are already doing that in that area maybe at a slow pace and there is a link road from there to Epe.

I can tell you that vessels that engage third party to lighten their vessels will come on directly because Ondo State has the longest coastline and a natural draught of nine metres which is not common anywhere.

 What it means is that bigger vessels can come here and do repairs. Out of every 20 vessels that come to West Africa, 17 come to Nigeria.  Why then should we allow other people to benefit from the vessels that come to Nigeria at the expense of Nigeria?

Q. In your estimation, what volume of job is the Olokola Deep Seaport capable of creating if it comes on stream?

A. I can tell you that if this project is actualized, not less than one million direct and indirect jobs will be created.

Again, do you know that seaport business is all about logistics, what that implies is that all those vessels that come to Nigeria, will come to Olokola for maintenance. Do you know the implication? Do you know how much will be accruable to Nigeria daily on account of that?

People that are selling provisions, people that are selling bunkers, chandlers and people doing all sorts of things in relation to these vessels will continue to eat. Do you know the implication?

So, you will now see new businesses thriving, new markets emerging because sailors will come out from the ships to go and buy things.

Boat operators, ancillary service providers will come and investors will put money in the business