Stakeholder pleads with Buhari for resuscitation of Eastern Ports.

Segun Oladipupo

A critical stakeholder in the freight forwarding subsector of the Nigerian maritime industry and
Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to revive the under utilised eastern ports in Nigeria.

Aniebonam said such moves would help to further open up the economy of the country for more revenues.

He added that the revenue accrued to the federal government from the Lagos ports is lesser than the government should get from port operations in the country.

Aniebonam who doubles as the National chairman of New Nigerian Peoples Party gave the advice on the heels of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee’s efforts to revamping the eastern ports.

He maintained that the ports would address issues bothering on youth restiveness and create massive job opportunities if properly harnessed.

He noted that the eastern ports, namely: Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar and the Onitsha dry ports have suffered setbacks due to political coloration by some political elites.

The NAGAFF founder stressed that :”It is a political issue, the ports are not working because it has political connotation. What is difficult in it aside the issue of insecurity especially like the Warri port. There was a time of restiveness but it is not uncommon.

“The dredging of the Calabar port is also a problem because there was period when issue of fraud and all that rocked the project.

“It is not about the issue of reducing freight and all that, it is not enough. In the first place, you know we have Aba, Onitsha which are commercial zones and it is easy for people from the East to pick their cargoes from there than going this far.

“If they want it to work, it will work and the economy will also be open because what we are losing in Lagos zone right now is more than what we are getting.

“We are losing so much because shipping business is dollar denominated and when a ship is idling, it is incurring revenue.

“The man hour loss in Lagos roads is a disaster in terms of the economy. I am sure if the President gets to know about all these things, he will take it up because it will create job opportunities, bring governance to the people, ease of doing business will progress , facilitation of trade and creating capacities will be enhanced ,” he said.