The general belief is that Nigerian ports are the most expensive in the West African sub-region, obviously, not because of cost of stevedoring, but largely because of the activities of the several government agencies that are a regular feature of the port system.
At a point, the list included: Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and its several units, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Plant and Animal Quarantine and State Security Service (SSS), the Police and its many units and NESREA. In all, these agencies have subdivided themselves into splinters and they are all involved in the cargo delivery process.
It is no longer news that President Goodluck Jonathan has perfected plans to handover the nation’s maritime security to a private enterprise and this is already generating anger.
We recall that prior to the recent attempt, the same company, Messrs Global West Vessel Specialist Nigeria Limited had been awarded contract to police Lagos maritime zone at a handsome cost of about N49.7 Million monthly.
The contract which coffers patrol and surveillance of the waters in and around Lagos has been touted as largely responsible for the perceived reduction in sea robbery on and around Lagos waters.
The first time that licensed customs agents picketed the premises of a terminal operator or shipping company, that is after the ports were concessioned to the private sector was on January 17, 2007, when the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents led by Mr Lucky Amiwero rallied members of the association to seal-off the corporate head office of a terminal operator at Tin Can Island port; Port and Cargo Handling Services Limited.
The aggrieved agents accused the terminal operator of arbitrary charges and of giving their customers crazy bills. And to give vent to their anger, the clearing agents led by Mr Amiwero did the most illegal; they proceeded to seal-off the corporate head office of the terminal operator.
While signing – off in 2011, we had stated that the year was an admixture of all that stakeholders are used to. It was a year that further exposed the National Assembly; a year that all the bills that were brought forward were again carried over to 2012.
Like we wrote in our last editorial for 2011, it appeared like there was an unwritten agreement between the various government agencies and the National Assembly to deny the sector its fair share of development and attention.
We also recalled that the greatest shock of the year was the failure by Nigeria to retain the Category ‘C’ in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). Her loss was all the more painful considering the fact that she lost because Liberia refused all entreaties and overtures made to her to step down for Nigeria. The country also lost her seat in the governing council of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) under questionable circumstances. The ILO seat is courtesy of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF).
Exactly four years after securing the supposedly elite seat at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Nigeria failed to secure a reelection into the Category ‘C’ in the council. That was the bad (but not unexpected) news that came from the London venue of the organisation’s meeting.
A little recall may be appropriate at this point. While seeking election in 2007, Nigeria had tough challenges from virtually all countries in West Africa.
After everyone thought that it had conceded to the National Assembly over the much-expected passage of the Port and Harbour Bill, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) may have succeeded in convincing the ministry of transport to take another step backwards in the quest to ensure that the nation’s port system is governed by a set of commercial and technical regulations.
Even as Nigerians are yet to come to terms with the possibility of paying more for petrol in 2012, the nation is already been psyched to yet another possibility; this time, it is coming from the of Works, Mr Mike Onolomemen who recently disclosed that come 2012, Nigerians will again begin to pay tolls on major federal highways.
Addressing members of the Senate committee on works, the minister stated that government would reintroduce toll collection on highways in 2012 and that the programme would generate revenues for government to maintain federal roads nationwide.
According to the Denmark-based maritime security intelligence company; Risk Intelligence, there were 58 recorded piracy-related maritime security incidents in the Nigerian inshore and coastal waters for 2010. This is a remarkable reduction when compared with the 91 recorded incidents for 2009 and 114 incidents for 2008.
According to the group, these figures however presented a disguised reprieve as a more disturbing trend surfaced, because as the amnesty programme of the Federal Government faltered, mid-ranking militants in the Niger Delta increasingly turned to offshore kidnappings-for-ransom. Consequently, in 2010, a total of 18 attacks involving kidnap-for-ransom were recorded.
Since its creation in 2007, the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has known little or no peace. Its pioneer governing council spent ample time brokering peace between it and some individuals and between it and some institutions.
One of these ‘wars’ was the one it fought with the former national president, National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents, Mr Lucky Amiwero; the fight is still before the courts.
Recently, President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the boards of all federal government agencies, after many of the members had spent the statutory four years.
President Jonathan didn’t follow the ways of his predecessor; late Umar Musa Yar’ Adua who spent almost two years before appointing many of the board members. And when the late Yar’ Adua’s list came out, it didn’t deviate from the norm; which is that they must (first and perhaps most importantly) be loyal party members.
Apart from this, they must come from states, zones and local government to which those positions have been allotted. It is rare for academic qualifications and professional leanings to be considered as paramount factors.
That was the consideration that brought the ‘gentlemen and ladies’ who for the four years were referred to as board members of agencies in the Nigerian maritime sector.
Ordinarily, the calibre of individuals who held sway in the various agencies as board members (and who have now been swept away) should offer assurances that these agencies would draw from their experiences and start experiencing positive transformation in the quest to deliver on the President’s promises.
The dingdong of deregulation has now reached its climax, and that is after almost two years of denials and retractions. Now, we know that come January, 2012, the pump price of petrol will shoot up; beyond the reach of the average Nigerian.
Initially, the Federal Government had called it deregulation and it affected diesel, which pump price now hovers around N140 per litre, the same applies to aviation fuel which price had soared so unprecedentedly that air fare for a journey of 55 minutes is now about N26, 000.
Last week, our focus on this page was on the plethora of government agencies in the Nigerian port system and their effect on port operations. Our decision to focus on government agencies in the ports was informed by snippets that the Federal Government was desirous of pruning the number of its agencies operating in the ports.
We had last week expressed support for the impending action, and by Monday, a few hours after we hit the newsstands, the minister of finance and the coordinating minister for the economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala led her counterpart in the transport ministry;
The general belief is that Nigerian ports are the most expensive in the West African sub-region, obviously, not because of cost of stevedoring, but largely because of the activities of the several government agencies in that are a regular feature of the port system.
The list include: Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and its several units, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Plant and Animal Quarantine and State Security Service (SSS), the Police and its many units. In all, these agencies have subdivided themselves into splinters and they are all involved in the cargo delivery process.
Last weekend, Nigeria clocked 51 years as a sovereign nation, having been granted independence by imperial Britain on October 1, 1960.
And as it has been in the last couple of years, Nigeria also last week joined the rest of the world to mark the 2011 word maritime day, with the theme as Piracy: Orchestrating the Response.
The two events offer a good opportunity to appraise the state of the nation’s maritime sector, 51 years after independence.
About two weeks ago, the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee was able to hold the celebrated public hearing on the contract for the ‘Single Window’ cargo clearance procedures at the nation’s entry points. The probe into the controversial N4.5 trillion cargo inspection contract that had been awarded to Messrs Single Window Systems and Technology Limited (SWST) lived up to expectations as it drew stakeholders from across all divides.
According to experts, the Single Window system “is a trade facilitation idea, which enables international (cross-border) traders to submit regulatory documents at a single location and/or single entity. Such documents are typically customs declarations, applications for import/export permits, and other supporting documents such as certificates of origin and trading invoices. “The main value proposition for having a single window for a country or economy is to increase the efficiency through time and cost savings for traders in their dealings with various government authorities for obtaining the relevant clearance and permit(s) for moving cargoes across national or economic borders. “In essence, it is a facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardised information and documents with a single entry point to fulfill all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements.”
It is already seven years since former president Olusegun Obasanjo signed the Coastal and Inland Shipping Bill (otherwise called Cabotage) into law at a brief, but epoch-making ceremony at the State House in Abuja.
Obasanjo’s assent was after both chambers of the National Assembly had painstakingly debated and passed the Bill. Of course, the law makers also subjected it to an elaborate public hearing which was attended by stakeholders who were very critical to the success of the new law. These included ship owners and agents, shipping practitioners (indigenous and multinational), financial institutions, government agencies, including Cabotage Act’s would-be implementing agency, that is, the-then National Maritime Authority (NMA), now NIMASA.
Listening to the Acting Rector of the Oron, Akwa Ibom- based, but Federal Government of Nigeria-owned Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Mr Joshua Okpo recently when he addressed a select group of maritime journalists, one can not but pity the 32- year old institution. He was appointed by the supervisory ministry of transport to oversee affairs of the academy and ensure it experiences a more robust intra-campus environment and also enjoys the a friendly relationship with its host community.
He lamented the high level of decay in the academy and stressed that with the situation that he met on ground, it would have been difficult for it to transmute successfully into a maritime university as is being proposed.
In June, when the seventh National Assembly was inaugurated, it signaled the commencement of 13th year of the Nigerian legislature since the return to democracy on May 29, 1999. Thus the present crop of lawmakers have effectively commenced their term which expires same time in 2015.
The nation’s maritime sector has been a beneficiary of democracy through the instrumentality of the National Assembly’s various committees and their oversight functions.
Certainly, the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has not enjoyed total peace since its inauguration about three years ago. It has a running battle with all its ‘federating units’; except probably the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA).
The first battle line was actually drawn by the National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents under its ‘then-national president’, Mr Lucky Amiwero, shortly after elections were held in Abuja to fill the eight slots into the CRFFN governing council.
At the end of its raid at the Tin Can Island port in Lagos, official figures indicated that at least 100 persons were arrested, although unofficial sources put the figure at about 500.
The raid is undoubtedly the reaction of Nigeria Customs Service to the excesses of the notorious ‘canteen boys’ who have notoriously turned themselves to ‘area boys’ and whose clientele is enormous.
Going by snippets from their August 1, 2011 meeting with the national president of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola, the ‘canteen boys’ are ‘important stakeholders’ in the nation’s port system, albeit, for different reasons.
In April this year, an indigenous auto dealer and national president, Institute of Transport Administration (IOTA), Mrs, Mulikat Sanni told our correspondent that her organisation would establish a wholly Nigerian vehicle assembly plant that would be the first indigenous assembly plant after several efforts have failed and after many assembly plants had died.
And few months after that promise, even though we can not ascertain how seriously Mrs Sanni is pursuing her ambition, another big player in the Nigerian automobile business has assure that before the end of 2011, it will roll out the first set of made-in-Nigeria Hyundai cars.
According to the Denmark-based maritime security intelligence company; Risk Intelligence, there were 58 recorded piracy-related maritime security incidents in the Nigerian inshore and coastal waters for 2010. This is a remarkable reduction when compared with the 91 recorded incidents for 2009 and 114 incidents for 2008.
According to the group, these figures however presented a disguised reprieve as a more disturbing trend surfaced, because as the amnesty programme of the Federal Government faltered, mid-ranking militants in the Niger Delta increasingly turned to offshore kidnappings-for-ransom.
Traffic into and out of the port city of Apapa has never been this bad, stakeholders; especially those who have to be in Apapa on daily basis will attest to the fact that it is now a nightmare to work in the once- commercially attractive business city called Apapa.
Apapa is now becoming less attractive, no thanks to the debilitating traffic that has been made worse by the terribly bad entry points.
Not many people, especially maritime sector stakeholders will envy the newly appointed transport minister, Senator Idris Umar; no thanks to the circumstances which surrounded the exit of his predecessor in office, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman.
Suleiman’s exit from the juicy transport ministry to a much national and ‘louder’ ministry of sports is believed (rightly or otherwise) to be the ‘punishment’ his face-off with the director general, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr Ziakede Akpobolokemi.
Frankly speaking, one of the greatest things that President Goodluck Jonathan has done for Nigeria country is the disappearance of fuel queues from filling stations across the country. It has been like this since he became the President and except for a few labour-induced face-offs, the supply of petrol at filling stations has been stable.
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