By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

At its 2023 Midwest Achievers’ Awards event celebrated recently, the Midwest Herald Community Newspaper bestowed a special Award of Excellence for Industry and Community Leadership on Engr Greg Utomwen Ogbeifun. He stood out among six outstanding personalities pencilled down from hundreds of others during a keenly-contested selection process.

According to the organizers of the event, all six successful winners have impacted meaningfully on the socio-political development of Nigeria. They are resourceful and successful in their different fields which included politics, housing, maritime, oil and gas, etc.

Engr Greg Utomwen Ogbeifun, the founder and pioneer President of the Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) bagged the honour in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the development of the maritime industry through his Marine Logistics Company and for pioneering the first privately-owned indigenous ship repair and dry-docking shipyard in Nigeria, his unwavering passion for human capital development made evident in jobs creation, internship and training opportunities for Nigerians through his various companies with many Nigerians in their payroll.

Most outstandingly, Engr Ogbeifun possesses to his credit exemplary leadership and mentorship qualities which still manifest even in retirement.

Greg Utomwen Ogbeifun, Chairman, Starzs Investments Company Limited, the publisher of Midwest Herald, Omo Ojo-Orobosa said in a special tribute, is one of the leading lights in the shipping and Maritime Industries.

“Though, somewhat a private personage, but like the proverbial goldfish, the Port Harcourt based billionaire shipping mogul and philanthropist whose exploits spread from Nigeria to the rest of the world, unavoidably hogs the limelight once again at the Midwest Herald’s Award for ‘Industry and Leadership’.

Ojo-Orobosa said the Newspaper marked twenty years of its existence with various awards to the recipients and that Engr Ogbeifun was awarded the special laurel for his ‘industry and for his uncommon leadership’, especially in the Maritime Industry where he built the first indigenous Ship-repair Yard in the country.

“Engr Greg is a philanthropist per excellence, a shipping magnate with remarkable business exploits, who has worked tirelessly over the last 50 years, mentoring younger generations.

“Greg Utomwen Ogbeifun is a man of vision who is constantly on a mission to change the tragic story of a nation in constant crises with itself. He has been deploying his maritime expertise by engaging the younger generations through leadership training for his company member of staff”, Omo-Ojo said.

The publisher further described Engr. Greg Ogbeifun as a detribalised Nigerian whose friends cut across every ethnic backgrounds in Nigeria and beyond. His outstanding business ability aside, his reliability, integrity and dependability have constantly drawn friends into his tent as a result of his contribution to society and humanity.

Reacting to the award with the outpouring of accolades, glitz and glamour, the global business giant gave a glowing account of his driving philosophy.

“I feel very humble, very grateful and I think it’s a very motivating experience. Whatever it is that qualified us to be nominated and awarded, we have to keep doing in the interest of the nation and the younger generations after us.”

“In our time, the culture was much better than this time. Some of us have decided that knowing the challenges of the times facing the youths we continue to create platforms that would enable us to impact in them values and attributes they need to survive in this period of hardship.

“That’s what I’ll advice anyone who’s privileged to be focused so that our teeming youths can be gainfully employed or self creative in our own enlightened self- interest. You heard, for example, when they were reading my citation how I tackled the issues of joblessness and unemployment amongst our youths.

“The platforms I created were essentially established not to make more money for myself and my immediate family, but to expand the frontiers of numerous opportunities for the younger generations to leverage on their natural endowments while excelling in their individual disciplines and chosen careers.

“I think this is needed if we must achieve lasting peace in the country, as well as overcome litanies of artificial stagnation in all sectors of the economy and in our daily lives. We can truly change the narratives and a new paradigm shift is possible for a new Nigeria”, Engr. Greg said.

The business tycoon’s advocacy for positive business climate; the possibility for a new Nigeria, the place of governments at all levels and the roles of the youth to bring it about resonated with all the awardees who took turns to ex-ray the Nigerian project and the solutions to the legions of man made crises facing the giant of Africa.

Engr Ogbeifun has two books to his credit, ‘Not Always Easy’ and ‘Potentials of Nigeria’s Maritime Industry’. The first publication chronicles his humble beginning, aptly telling the story that he did not achieve greatness by accident but through a therapeutic chain of events.
As the newspaper states, ambitious people know that everything they do and every discipline they adhere to form the links in the chain of events that will lead them to their final destination.

Professor Julius Ihonvbere, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, bagged the Newspaper’s Award for ‘Visible Contributions to the Advancement of Democracy’. His Award recognizes his inspirational struggles, dedication and commitment to Nigeria’s democracy.
The Midwest Herald Community Newspaper described Ihonvbere as an avowed consistent community builder; an astute leader and community builder with a deep-seated passion to serve his people of Owan Federal Constituency and Edo State in general.

“Over the years, he has consistently and passionately promoted the Local Economic Development (LED) of his Constituency through scholarships, business grants, employment and other social security works through the IHONVBERE FOUNDATION which he formed several years ago.’

Before venturing into the federal parliament in pursuance of the quest to serve his people, Prof Ihonvbere was Special Adviser on Programme and Policy Monitoring to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Later, he became Secretary to Edo State Government under ex-Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

National President, Council of Maritime Truck Unions Associations (COMTUA), Comrade Adeyinka Aroyewun, has debunked the notion those he called detractors are bandying that the coalition is in disarray. Aroyewun stated this, Tuesday, during an online personality round- table organized in Lagos by the Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria, MARAN. He urged members of the public to disregard the alleged story of dissolution as it exists only in the imagination of people who, haven failed in the bid to have their way, have resorted to a campaign of calumny against the maritime truckers group.

He said that as a body, COMTUA noticed certain anomalies in how the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) was operating the Truck Transit Parks (TTP) and the trucks electronic call-up system (Eto) and raised alarm. Those who individually benefited from the anomalies associated with these systems protested because the association’s stance prevented them from achieving their selfish objectives, hence the resort to blackmail.

Even a year after coming on-board November 25, 2021, he explained, some people who claimed to be founding fathers have not seen the need to relinquish leadership responsibilities to the current leadership under him.

He referred to the issue of bank account and said: “For example, COMTUA has only one account domiciled with Access Bank. The signatories to that account happened to be the first BOT Chairman of the collaboration in the person of Comrade Aloga Ogbogo who is currently the Executive Secretary of NARTO, the current President General, Maritime Workers’ Union, who is also the co-Chairman of the BOT of COMTUA since 2020 and the third signatory is Otunba Olaleye Thompson who was then the President. The last signatory was Madam Folake George who was the Director of Finance.

“The moment the baton of leadership changed since November 25, 2021, none of these four signatories have voluntarily or otherwise released their signatures for the mandate to change. As I speak with you, we have not been able to access COMTUA’s account as executives in the last one and half years of our administration.

Secondly, the so-called elders of the collaboration, in the name of the collaboration, got garages, parks and pregate garages for themselves under TTP. The moment COMTUA began to see inadequacies in Eto and TTP arrangement and started challenging these inadequacies, they became uncomfortable.

“These our so-called founding fathers who have been profiting directly or indirectly from TTP legitimately or illegitimately now feel COMTUA is becoming too powerful for them and it is going to cause problem for them. They felt after submitting their resignation letters three years ago, two years ago, last year and some this year, they can come back to say that they have dissolved COMTUA.”

He was assertive that what appeared as disagreements in the the organization had since been resolved by the members. COMTUA never had any problems among individual component associations.

“Whoever are speaking against COMTUA are no longer members of COMTUA. So, we want the media and the general public to disregard any campaign of calumny as it stands now because COMTUA does not have any problem as a collaboration.

“However, we should not fail to remember that there is freedom of association. You can be in or out of an association at will and since some people have chosen to be out of the association and they have followed due process by writing officially to dissociate themselves from the association. It is okay, it has been accepted. That has been settled internally. Every other issue that we have among ourselves has been resolved internally and we will continue to do that because we have our internal mechanism to resolve conflicts.

“The noise you are hearing now is from people that are no longer members of the collaboration and are determined to bring the name and integrity of the association to disrepute. The association will not fold its hands and look at them to engage in a campaign of calumny against the association. Beyond that, if they fail to desist from their conduct, the association will not hesitate to take a legal action against them.

Aroyewun declared that an association, COMTUA is actually a pressure group speaking in favour of or against the policies of government.

“That we have been doing. Some people do not see any reason for us to do that and only if they are members of the association and they are able to convince us against what we are doing. We don’t have any issue among ourselves except for people who are no longer members of the collaboration.”

On allegation of lack of leadership trust, the reason the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and the National Union of Road Transport Workers, (NURTW) allegedly left the Council, he insisted that there was never a time the issue of trust has come up in COMTUA. There has never been any case of financial misappropriation or criminal allegation.

“COMTUA does not have any issue of trust and, let me correct you, Maritime Workers’ Union pulled out in 2021 and that was under the administration of Otunba Olaleye Thompson. However, the Maritime Workers’ Union pulled out basically because they are actually not transporters; they are dockworkers, seafarers, NPA employees and so on. They came into this collaboration on the ground that they were going to strengthen us whenever we are going to make demands from the government such that they will also embark on industrial action whenever we will be withdrawing our services.
Aroyewun regretted that on several occasions when the Council demanded for them to give support to a legitimate cause, they were unable to provide it because of their relationship with the Nigeria Ports Authority and their status as NPA employees.

“They often do not cooperate with us when we have demands to make of NPA. However, we were managing the relationship even though I was not the president at that time. For example, we wrote to NPA demanding to know why the electronic call-up regime is not functioning properly. We expected the Maritime Workers’ Union, as decided in the meeting, to be part of signatories to this letter, but the President of the Maritime Workers Union declined his signature.

“There was never a time the NURTW withdrew their membership of COMTUA. The present co-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Council of Maritime Transport Unions and Associations is Prof. Ibikunle Baruwa who is the President of NURTW.

COMTUA does not have any issue of trust with anybody. There is nothing like financial misappropriation in COMTUA; there is nothing like criminal allegations in COMTUA. Those that actually withdrew their membership from COMTUA have their personal reasons for doing so and we don’t have a problem with that as we have moved on.

As about four associations have withdrawn their membership of the collaboration, he stated, six more associations have applied and are now members of COMTUA.

“We have the Green Initiative, Maritime Truck Drivers, the Lekki Fertilizer Group, the Arewa Group, the Marine Beach operators, Amuwo-Odofin Truck Operators and the rest of them. So, the collaboration is ongoing and we are waxing stronger and that is why you are seeing everybody showing concern about the existence of COMTUA. If COMTUA had issues, nobody would want to associate with it.”

Aroyewun recalled that before COMTUA came into existence, the maritime transportation industry had been battling with a lot of issues. These included traffic congestion and the challenges of returning empty containers.

“It was through COMTUA that the introduction of holding bays where our members do not have where to return empty containers to the port was actualized. What we do now is to return empty containers to the holding bays. It has saved the industry a lot of stress in the area of container deposit.”
To him, this is one major achievement in the past five years.

“Before now, when you loaded cargo, after discharging the cargo, you would be on the road for weeks before you are able to return the empty containers. The importer is incurring demurrage and the truck is also stuck. We no longer return empty containers to the port; we return them to the holding bays across Lagos State and beyond. This saves us a lot of turnaround time. This was an initiative of COMTUA to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the Nigerian Ports Authority.

He said that before now, the congestion in the port area was not only limited to the roads only. From time to time, COMTUA embarked on educating the drivers on the need to be more professional in their conduct.

” I can assure you, in recent times, the rate of accident has reduced and our drivers are more professional now. In addition to this, you will understand that COMTUA has been faced with a lot of challenges vis-a-vis so many unpopular policies of the government and we do not hesitate often to engage the government in policy making. For example, in the past, when the federal government was setting up the Presidential Task Team, members of COMTUA were included in that project and that project stayed for a period and served some of the purposes even though there were challenges.”

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By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

An online registration user guide for operators and shippers has been described as one sure way to address fears of insecurity and return total sanity in port operations to the Eastern ports.

The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) stated this in Port Harcourt during the unveiling of the Online Portal for the Registration of Regulated Port Service Providers and Users. The ports economic regulator says the innovation has the tendency to improve the much- desired security as well as enhance the ease of doing business.

Unveiling the Portal, Chief Cajetan Agu, NSC’s Consumer Affairs Director,
explained that the arrangement which is the first of its kind, is designed to identify who is who in order to ensure trust in shipping operations in the Eastern zone.

Agu who represented Hon Emmanuel Jime, the Council’s Executive Secretary, identified insecurity as one of the challenges confronting operations at the Eastern ports.

“The user guide is to demonstrate a move away from manual registration to on-line platforms. This is going to reduce time and cost. It will also make it easier for stakeholders. It will help us know the people who are customers, shippers and operators accessing the port. It will assist to give out information.

“The registration of the operators will bring sanity in our Eastern ports. If you don’t know the people that are operating in a particular area you cannot manage them. The issue of security is there.

When you don’t know anybody, secuity is compromised. But when you know the people, secuity is guaranteed. With this, we can profile people and know who is doing what in the Port.

Agu advised those doing business within the Eastern ports to identify with the arrangement and register themselves so as to operate seamlessly.

Earlier, the South-South Zonal Director of the NSC, Glory Okonedo, who regretted that access into the ports lacked control, expressed delight that with the innovation, port operators in the zone now have a reason to be happy.

“The registration means so much to us in this zone. If you look at the ports in the Eastern zone, particularly Area 1 Port and Onne, access into the ports lack effective control.

“As it is now, registration will control access into the port. Most importantly is the fact that when you register on this portal as a service provider or user, it gives some level of integrity to your business. It will aid the ease of doing business.”