Hon Sulaimon Ayokunle, the elected Secretary of the PTML Chapter of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) is the CEO, Sula Marine Gold Ltd and SSA (Media) to the National President of the Association, Mr Kingsley Emenike Nwokeoji.

On the sidelines of the inauguration of chapter executives of the body in Lagos, Thursday, Hon Ayokunle spoke to Falcon Watch Online Daily on some trade facilitation platforms the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is currently implementing including the AEO, B’Odogwu, etc. How do these and other trade facilitation tools ultimately affect the operations of the average ANLCA member? According to impression in certain quarters, are customs clearing agents and other stakeholders not being subjected to payment of additional duties and loss of marginal profit they ought to make as return on investment?

Izuchukwu Ozoemena reports.

Q:
The Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) in trade facilitation is currently trending. Is it of any benefit to the customs clearing agent in the present dispensation?

Ans:
The creation of the AEO shows that it is an advanced model of fast-track procedure for cargo clearance. For you to be a beneficiary, you must meet up with certain criteria set out by the Nigeria Customs Service. What is the importance of fast-track? Fast-track is to facilitate trade for low risk importers. I’m talking about importers that are very low in risks such as manufacturers of goods who bring in homogeneous consignments in quantity. The introduction of the AEO is an advancement just to make sure that as the vessel arrives, you can take delivery of your consignment seamlessly. But you must be able to be up to the task because the condition is not just lower in terms of criteria to that of the fast-track beneficiary. It is an improvement on fast-track procedures introduced by the Customs.

Q:
Even as the AEO regime is in place, Customs talks about B’Odogwu, another trade facilitation tool. There are concerns that insufficient stakeholders sensitization should have preceded the simultaneous introduction to avoid confusion. Your take!

Ans:
They are two different things. AEO, as it is known, is basically for importers that are near 100% compliant. AEO is an improvement on fast-track procedures while B’Odogwu is now the new face of customs clearing machine. B’Odogwu is a process; AEO is a procedure. B’Odogwu is a clearing machine coming from NICISS 11 run by Webb Fontaine. When you talk about B’Odogwu, it is what we already have in the system for everybody. Whether you’re on fast-track, diplomatic or physical examination, you must pass through the B’Odogwu clearance machine.
Formerly, we were on the NICISS 11 procedure; even some of the Commands are still on NICISS 11. But B’Odogwu has come to stay at PTML.
PTML was used as a pilot scheme for B’Odogwu. It’s now moving to Tincan and Apapa. What we are telling Customs is that all the teething problems noticed at PTML must be addressed. For instance, you couldn’t connect for examination automatically, you couldn’t attach your documents, even your payment sometimes would not be through with banks used by Customs for collection of duty and other taxes. These teething problems should be sorted out. All banks ought to be integrated on the B’Odogwu clearance procedure. With the same B’Odogwu, you have different channels for clearance. Meanwhile, AEO is just another arm of the clearance process. It’s not a machine, just like you have the one that goes through physical examination, fast-track procedure and the one that involves diplomatic goods, you still have to go through B’Odogwu.

The modernization process of Customs is never static; it is still work- in – progress

The cost has been stated with import and export and, basically, they’re too many.
We are talking about reducing costs and facilitating the process and Shippers Council is talking about ICTN. They should tell us everything that surrounds cargo tracking note because to us, it is another way of adding costs to importation.

Q:
As Customs emphasizes revenue collection, how do you think government should manage the Free Trade Zones?

Ans:
Free Trade Zones are supposed to add to the GDP of the economy. You know it is a special zone for production from where other goods will be exported, not that Customs will not have their revenue once those commodities are to be taken out of the free trade zone. Remember it is specifically meant for those people that have the capacity to produce. The more they produce, the better for us because we can’t continue to be a consuming nation.

So, don’t let us look at it from only the angle of revenue. Let us look at it from the angle of the value being added to the economy.

Q:
What is your view concerning the suspended 4% FOB charges on imports?

Ans:
Customs Act 25 of 2023 contains the issue of 4% FOB charges. However, there is a proviso that for any of those things to be implemented, there must be extensive stakeholder enlightenment and collaboration. Then, how did we come to 4%? Remember we are talking about 4% of FOB in foreign currency – currency of the shipping nation. Sometimes, you might even have more money from that than 4% because even certain consignments that attract zero duty and deserve not to be taxed, yet they pay 4%. Already, Customs has 1% CISS.
We don’t know how 7% surcharge is being distributed. Now another 4% of FOB under the present dispensation that the sector is struggling to survive. You know that without these manufacturers, there is no economy. They add their value to the economy by bringing in their raw materials, yet you add another tax. I don’t think this is the right time to introduce this.

Sequel to the well-attended 16th Marine Technical Summit organized in Lagos recently by the Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors (AMES), the President, Engr ISRAEL OBADAN – a marine engineer of note – featured as guest of Falcon Watch Online Daily.
In this exclusive interview, Engr Obadan dwelt on a number of industry-centric issues including shipping generally, the fate of indigenous shipping development in Nigeria, government’s lack-lustre attitude towards seafarers’ sea-time training, the MAN Oron, and other matters. The encounter was quite engaging.
IZUCHUKWU OZOEMENA reports.

Q: Who is Engr Israel Obadan?

I am a marine engineer by training. I belong to that generation of Nigerian youths in the 70s awarded Federal Government scholarship to study marine engineering in England, America, Russia, etc, to develop the Nigerian maritime human capacity. It was a deliberate policy at that time to involve the third world countries in maritime development. I still regard the set of political leaders who conceived this idea as very visionary. They were able to latch onto the developmental policies of the time globally. Nigeria, Ghana, in fact the entire West Africa and Arab nations such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, etc, floated shipping lines. Nigeria was fortunate to have political leaders at that time with the foresight who keyed into the concept. It was in that era we had the UNCTAD code developing- the 40-40-20 cargo sharing formula. The United Nations came up with the idea of UNCTAD to help the maritime industry of the third world countries.
Prior to that time, just before and after independence, people like Nnamdi Azikiwe and other political leaders were into it. As at then, Ghana had started it because they were the first in everything developmental. By 1960, after independence, Nigeria followed those developmental strategies. That was when the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) was birthed and it started acquiring old vessels to take off. Those vessels were manned by foreigners because we didn’t have the human capacity as at then.
With the NNSL formed, the idea of training and developing the human resources capacity came up and that was when the political leaders latched onto the training programme I talked about earlier. So, the authorities started awarding scholarships to the youths of our generation.
After secondary school, I attended Auchi Polytechnic for my ND in Mechanical Engineering. After that, we were fortunate enough to be awarded the scholarship all over Nigeria. There was no tribalism or sectionalism then. It was purely on merit. That’s why if you see the generation I am referring to now, almost all of us could go to any university to impart knowledge and leadership training. As at that time, training was at UK, Russia, US, etc just to develop the maritime manpower.
It was a good thing and I will say with that maritime development policy, Nigeria blossomed internationally. The NNSL became a national pride in Africa if not the world. We went to the same school with white people and Arabs. The oil boom came up; money was not really a problem. That programme was responsible for developing the maritime industry human capital and it lasted for at least 50 years – constantly training, recruiting young Nigerians. After our generation, another generation came up; there was no break. Today, the remnants of us are trying to keep on while many senior colleagues have passed on. Thank God, the junior ones that came up after us now had to resort to self-training. That policy had derailed!

Q: Can you compare your training experience with NIMASA’s current National Seafarers’ Development Programme (NSDP) abroad?

ANS: The training programme we passed through lasted for 30 unbroken years. That programme derailed the moment Nigerians decided to take over the management of the NNSL. We must tell ourselves the truth. As at that time, management of the shipping line was based in UK. It was run by white people and you have to give it to them.
The problem started when a civilian government took over from the military and the typical Nigerian bragado set in: ‘we want to take over our destiny to save foreign exchange’ – those jargons and all that. That was the beginning of the rot. Even after that, the Federal Government bought 19 brand-new ships, at the same time countries such as Kuwait and other Arab nations bought their vessels as well. The difference with us in that fleet development effort was that Nigeria focused on one type of trade – general cargo trade mixed with a bit of containerization. But other countries such as Kuwait took advantage of their natural endowments to invest in oil tankers to lift wet cargo which is what we should have done as well.
Till today, Nigeria still doesn’t have that political will to venture into wet cargo -crude oil

lifting and refined petroleum products transportation at least. Our refineries are dead. Even when operational, we had coastal transportation and that was all.

Now, the NIMASA training programme you talk about, this is the problem with us as a people. When that programme started, one expected that it would be developed and run by the older generation that knows about shipping, the practitioners. As far as I know, they were not consulted. The bureaucracy in the office just decided on their own, ‘we know it all. We don’t need to consult the professionals. We can do it all by ourselves.’ They embarked on that policy, everybody gate-crashing in the typical Nigerian way to take his bit, to partake in the programme. You know as well as I do the outcome today. They sent our boys and girls to India and other places. The time I’m talking about our generation and training was in the early 70s. Then, India, Phillipines and others who sent their boys and girls to train with us as well were nowhere compared to Nigeria’s maritime industry.
I was recruited late 80s in Singapore as a marine engineer from Nigeria here because they didn’t have the human capital to drive their industry that was just developing. They went all over the world recruiting, mostly Africans probably because they got us cheaper – Ghana, Nigeria, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. As at then, our own shipping line was going down. Generations of us that were trained were losing spaces to work, and luckily, countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia were developing theirs. That’s how some of us professionals were recruited. As a marine engineer in Singapore, I was paid extra allowance because I have a British certificate. They call it superior ticket allowance – extra $200 to my monthly pay. They devoted themselves to developing their own maritime industry. But today, compare them with Nigeria, we are nowhere.
What I am talking about is nobody can put a hand in the quality of training of those Nigerians of our time all over the world. The so-called trainees graduatiing today, there’s no provision for them to practise their profession. They’re all over the place and there are those that are lucky to go abroad to seek spaces in foreign shipping companies. In other words, we’re just training our boys and girls for foreign shipping companies because there are no shipping companies in-country to absorb them. What we are talking about is that there is no structured training now unlike during our own time. It was not us that designed it. It was the bureaucracy, ministries and politicians of our time that designed it. They had the vision and knew exactly what type of programme to design for the citizens. But how come the younger generation of political leaders decide to design a training programme that is of no use to the country? If you say you are developing your industry, you must have a place to absorb the graduates trained to develop your industry especially maritime because it is a specialized profession unlike other types of engineering.

There’s no much I can say about the NSDP apart from the fact that it has not benefitted us. It’s sad and frustrating because I can imagine the condition the cadets are into. Some spend as much as one year waiting for employment in vessels. If you say you are a marine engineer but there’s no place to practise the profession, too bad!

Q: What stands a marine engineer out from engineers in other fields?

ANS: Engineering is wide. Marine engineers are simply the professionals you can simply refer to as ship engineers. But again, it is not only ships. I will say the word ‘marine’ actually defines it: sea-based, ocean-based type of a thing. We call marine engineers mechanical engineers at sea. The closest to marine engineers are mechanical engineers because they can do the same type of job without getting lost. But again the marine engineer proper is the one that people know as the professional that works on ships and maritime assets such as oil tankers, oil rigs, passenger liners. It is a dedicated type of training towards such assets. Dedicated type of training in the sense that it is regulated in terms of safety because of so many things that are involved which includes life, properties and assets that are worth millions of dollars.
To build a passenger liner now, you’re talking about a minimum of $1bn because passenger liners or coaches are getting bigger and bigger, more like floating cities. A lot is involved.

Engr Obadan presenting a special award to Iro Ogbeifun, CEO, Starts Investment Ltd at the 2024 AMES Conference/AGM

Q: There were concerns at the 2024 AMES event that following what foreign ship owners in Nigeria are doing to them, indigenous ship owners are getting frustrated by the day, selling off their vessels. Is it right?

ANS: Because our economy has not developed to an extent that you can say it’s based on privatization, it remains a mixed economy, mostly government-driven and reduced private involvement. Nigerians are hardworking people. Let me use Africa as an example. It’s difficult to see private citizens venturing

into businesses like maritime. I know this because we go to some of these countries. If you go to Lome Port, offshore Togo anchorage, for instance, you see private Nigerians providing services. It’s the same in other Francophone countries such as Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, etc as I have experienced in my trips to inspect ships offshore. Their system is so regulated. But in Nigeria, the ports authority takes charge of such services. In those areas, Nigerians arrange and provide services, the Francophone boys are not involved.
Unfortunately, in Nigeria, we have a failure of leadership. If we have a single leadership that can really direct the people, this country can take off. I have visited many countries of the world and compared them with Nigeria. The only thing they have different from us is sound leadership.
Our maritime training institutions are another problem. The boys finish their academic training and the international regulation is that you cannot be certificated unless you go for sea practice at least for one year. You cannot call yourself a marine engineer if you don’t do the course. Again, why are there no ships for them to practise sea training? As I told you, the training we had was based on a focused policy developed by the government. As they were training us, they provided vessels for us to have practical experience and to continue with our career. But we don’t have that today.
There are different types of ships for trading. If as a people you can’t compete at the international stage in other types of maritime trade like general cargo, containerization trade, we have the LNG which is another type of trade. At least, they’re engaging Nigerians as we take advantage of our natural gas. What about the oil? Crude and refined products even though the refineries are dead. The offshore industry is there as well. Those are specialized fields to service the LNG industry. But there’s no government involvement or empowerment of the people. How do you explain it that generations upon generations, Nigerians are not involved in the official lifting of our crude? No country does that! It’s our own, not on American soil.

Q: What is your practical suggestion to government on how to overcome this matter?

ANS: Very simple! It’s a policy issue! Political will to say ‘this oil you’re coming to take from us, we want to have more of it for our people even if in terms of maritime and human capacity development. Build it into the contract that in your training policy, you must have this number or percentage of Nigerians on each of your vessels. People have been trading with Nigeria since the 50s when oil was discovered in Oloibiri. If we say we don’t have the ships to take the oil from there, what stops you from saying ‘I have this problem: training and developing our maritime manpower, our youths must get involved, train them?’. When I say train them, they’re not doing us a favour. This could have taken care of the Niger Delta restiveness over the years.
When I say leadership, it is a matter of policy. When Alfred Diette-Spiff was Rivers State Governor, he was just 27 years old. He devised a policy of developing his citizens in Rivers State. Some of them were my colleagues and they’re still there. I know how far they have gone in development. Charkins Maritime Academy, the best maritime training institution in Port Harcourt today is owned by one of them. Those are the things we’re talking about – a policy by the government. Nothing more but the political will. Develop a policy to train your youths, put them on ships to enable them become professionals that can contribute to the economy. They are not going to be liabilities. The politicians cannot tell us that the money is no longer there. In fact, we have more money now.

Q: Still on training, how can you rate the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, today in terms of management, training, physical infrastructure, curriculum, etc?

Ans: I am happy you raised the issue of MAN, Oron. Any time people talk about that institution today, I feel like dancing. You know why? The present Rector, Commodore Duja Effedua, only came in about five years ago. Oron had been in existence since 1979. From then till when he came in, MAN was not an institution you could be proud of. The only time development was noticed was when the late Engr Akinsoji was Rector because he was a sound professional himself. You must have professionals to run their industry. Unfortunately, Nigeria has this mentality that anybody can do anything. It doesn’t work that way! It’s not in all industries that can happen.
So, when I talk about that school, I feel like dancing. The curriculum was designed as at the time Olu Akinsoji started it. But later, politics reared it ugly head and it became a victim of the typical Nigerian politics. Some of the local people said he’s not from there. That became the bane of the institution for a very long time. Other professionals were brought in to run the school but they didn’t have the freedom to run it the way it should have been run. The school was struggling over the years, churning out graduates that found themselves on their own until eventually they brought in the present Rector.
Before he came there, it was like a glorified secondary school in terms of infrastructure, quality of lecturers, etc. For the key mandate of the school, you must try and get the right professionals. That one could not happen. I will tell you one of the reasons government brought in the present Rector was to quell restiveness and local politics. Today, to God be the glory glory, in less than three years, that guy has turned around that place in so many aspects. I tell people that if in Nigeria that has looked so unworkable for many generations we can get a man like that as the administrator of that school, Nigeria can be fixed in no time. It doesn’t take forever to fix a country! But when Nigerians talk, they say it took America 200 years to get fixed. All the Asian Tigers, including Singapore, it took them less to time. I always hold that school as an example. Because of that man, I always have a sentimental attachment to that school.

The creation of a separate ministry for the maritime sector last year is a monumental achievement of the Tinubu administration stakeholders are hailing. In this special interview, foremost maritime lawyer, Chief OSUALA EMMANUEL NWAGBARA, congratulates the President for granting a long-standing wish of stakeholders and others who are passionate about the need to make the best out of the maritime sector.
The revered Chief has critical interventions on how to run the show now to enable Nigeria achieve the gains and prominence in the comity of maritime nations globally.
He spoke to IZUCHUKWU OZOEMENA.

Q: The Marine and Blue Economy Minister recently clocked a year in office. But stakeholders worry that for the past one year, nothing to show for it. It’s been more of motion without movement. What’s your take?

ANS: My take is that it’s been business as usual. There’s no clear direction yet as far as the ministry is concerned. We need pronouncements and declarations as to where the ministry is headed. The Minister has celebrated one year in office. We need to have a very clear path as to where he’s headed. Unfortunately, many agencies under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy dish out figures they are apparently proud of. On the face value, these figures are attractive but appear not real. This also misleads the Ministry because, sometimes, you see the Minister come out to flaunt these figures that in the segment of the economy, much and much have been earned within a space of time. But the truth is that when you look at these figures and reckon that the Naira has been devalued about 400% in the last one year – from about below N500 to a dollar slightly one year ago to over $1,600 right now, it gives 400% to 500% devaluation. So, what figures these agencies flaunt have to be divided by 4 or 5 and you discover that they are far below the revenue that accrued to the Marine and Blue Economy a year ago. And, in fact, you’ll not measure up to 30% of what was earned about a year ago.

It’s actually a minus balance sheet we’re seeing in real terms. We need a clear direction. One, we need to know what the Nigeria Customs Service is going to do to rejuvenate the economy. We need to know how NIMASA should operate to rejuvenate the economy. We need to know what the NPA should do to attract more vessels to our ports. Now that we have a deepsea port, what is the policy of government to promote transit cargo, for instance?How can Nigeria beef up her revenue profile from transit cargo? That used to be a very large chunk of the earnings from the maritime industry before this time. Because of lack of policy direction to deliberate on and intentional policy to promote the maritime industry in Nigeria, we lost transit cargo to ports of Lome, Cotonou and, recently, Ghana. Now that we have a deepsea port, we need to bring back the transit cargo status and earn a large chunk of revenue from there. We need a clear policy direction from there.

Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice

Q: Nigeria Customs keeps posting homongous revenue collections even as throughput in the ports keep dropping by the day due to unfriendly trade policies of government. Can you reconcile this?

ANS: Exactly! There’s no particular policy that can succeed in isolation of others. The Nigeria Customs Service should go back to the basic elements of success in business. From day in one, Nigeria Customs Service was set up not only to control the entry of goods allowable into the country but to make revenue just like the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). The difference is while the FIRS is internal, the NCS deals on imports and excise duties.
We recall what is called small-profit-quick-turnover. This means you have to turn over your volumes and the aggregate of the profit you make from frequent turnover which will aggregate to selling more goods. When you hold onto your small quantity of goods and hike the price to make big profits, the time over which you turn your goods are less in number than when you earn small profits with quick turnover.
So, why will the NCS charge millions on an imported car, for instance, leading to a drastic drop in the number of imported cars? Why can’t Customs drastically reduce the import duty on cars to encourage people bring in more cars? As we speak, the annual rate of imports as far as cars are concerned has dropped to about 40%. Many of the terminal operators that deal on car importation now have their businesses going under. Go and investigate. Many of them will leave the country very soon. That’s as a result of the unfriendly business policy of the Nigeria Customs. So, we need a clear direction for Nigeria Customs and that means that the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy should work in tandem with the Finance Ministry which controls the Customs. Working together, they should be able to fashion out a policy direction that will boost government revenue even much more than what we see today, more than that, create jobs for the millions of Nigerians who depend on these ports to live and thrive. It’s not difficult to decipher! You have the number of cars coming, you have car marts, you have young men who are busy everyday marketing the cars, you have people ready to buy these cars as taxis or on hire purchase and earn their daily bread from there while making returns. These are opportunities to create jobs. Beyond that, people also buy cars for private use and for quasi-commercial purposes. Again, it makes life easy for people.

So, we need a clear-cut direction on how Customs can generate more and REAL REVENUE, not just flaunting figures. On the electronic scoreboards in their offices, you see billions they send to the Minister who comes out to say ‘we’re doing very well’ when, in real terms, we are performing less than 30%. The revenue is from the ports system. Even though the Customs is under the Finance Ministry, an ultimate liaison should exist with the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry.
Without the ports (under the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry) there will be no customs ports. Customs makes more revenue from the ports which belong to the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry than even the border posts. So, they’re all interwoven. The Marine and Blue Economy Ministry, working in synergy with the Ministry of Finance should come out with a clear policy on how the NCS, working in the ports, should reflate this economy through revenue collected on imports and excize. This economy is sinking.
The Marine and Blue Economy Ministry is a coordinating ministry, one of the most important ministries in this country because her mandate goes beyond marine and blue economy. The Ministry can promote maritime tourism, fisheries (which belongs to Agriculture), communications especially relating to underwear cables in the oceans which must not be disconnected. The Ministry plays a role in promoting communications.
How do you fish? How do you ensure sustainability in the fishing sector by preserving the marine environment, fishing and taking the parent stock in a way to as well protect the younger ones to grow by ensuring that the habitat is clean and safe for them? By the way, is it only fish that is in the marine environment we can harness in this country? I remember what they call marine noddles and a gentleman who promoted its sale. I’d like a research in this direction. It’s a kind of seafood valued in Asia and we don’t know much about it. Sri Lankans used to export it from Nigeria. For them, it’s a very expensive delicacy. There are many other marine lives we can export from this country in addition to fish. We need a clear direction in this sector from the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry working together with the Agriculture Ministry.
Because of the importance of security to businesses, there’s need for a coordinated approach among the ministries. If we are able to properly coordinate with the Ministry of Communications, we’ll be able to control the level of insecurity on our waters. Tell me, if the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry collaborates with Communications to ensure that every boat plying our waters is equipped with marine radio and communicates, for instance, it means that if there is any attack from bad elements, they can easily communicate, putting a distress call and rescue will come. Even marine accidents will reduce and if this happens and people are comfortable moving on our waters, it is more business for people living in the riverine areas as they will be able to move their goods freely.

Q: It’s being suggested that the Onne Port be blacklisted for frequent entry of illegal arms. Some persons see this as a continuation of the politically-motivated measures to stifle eastern ports in favour of Lagos ports. From the perspective of a maritime lawyer, what’s your view about the arguments on ground?

Ans: I don’t see it as a strategy for the continued neglect of the eastern ports. Onne Port and, indeed, the eastern ports have been neglected for a very long time. Because of this, there is the tendency and a possibility that some people may want to use the port to import unauthorized goods. Let me give a scenario. Why do bandits attack trains on Nigerian rails? It is because there is no frequent movement of trains. In countries where the rail lines are busy, every five minutes a train passes through the rail line. A bandit cannot waylay or stop a moving train, knowing that in another five minutes, another train will be close unless he wants to commit suicide.
If you develop Onne Port, activities go on and all government agencies are there working with their eagle eyes. If anybody thinks of importing illegal arms through the port, chances are that he will caution himself not to engage because once it lands, if one agency doesn’t see, the other will detect. But if you notice that it is once in a blue moon that the cargo comes and the terminal operators are even excited that they have something to clear,

there may be that temptation not to scare the few importers by scrutinizing everything imported. That can give crooked businessmen opportunity to bring in unwholesome goods through the port. But if the government had given attention to the port and there’s regular flow of imports, exports, regular performance of duty by all agencies in the port, chances are that before anyone plans importing prohibited goods through Onne Port, he will think twice. So, while I do not agree with suggestions on the possibility of blacklisting Onne Port or see it as a strategy to completely sideline and under-develop the eastern ports, I also believe that lack of a deliberate policy to develop the eastern ports is also promoting illegalities in those ports. It is not only in the eastern ports that you see illegal importation of goods. Even in ports in Lagos, Tincan and others where traffic is regular, you still record illegal importation of cargo including drugs. So, a dog should not be given a bad name in order to hang it.
Attention should not be denied the eastern ports in terms of development because of infractions. If anything, what we are seeing there should encourage more attention to the eastern ports to ensure that activities pick up and create employment. Beyond reports of occasional illegal importations, people also complain of insecurity around Onne Port. Why is it so? Onne Port used to be a 45-minutes drive from Port Harcourt but today, it takes more than two hours. As a result, there’s a lot of insecurity around the port just as in other eastern ports that are neglected. Government should give attention to the port, the port environment and access roads. When the environment is properly lit, channels are clean, the draught is deepened, quays are renewed, all technical equipment that make a port put in place and personnel do their work when they should; above all, NPA directs vessels to Onne Port and keeps the port busy because it has the powers instead of allowing vessels queue up here at the Lagos anchorage waiting to berth and some berths are idle.

Why not make Onne Port an export hub? Some two years ago, we thought NPA had taken a decision to promote exports when over 600 containers taken by one of the Maersk vessels visited Onne. We were all happy about it and expected that more would be done. If the arrangement had continued along that line to make Onne an export hub by promoting cargo movement using barges and small vessels to move exports to Port Harcourt, you’ll find that all the threat about blacklisting the port will be gone as the situation will take care of itself. We need to be deliberate about developing this country through the ports system. That is very key if we must develop the maritime industry in Nigeria.

H.E. Adegboyega Oyetola, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy

Q: People complain of what appears a deliberate delay to renew ports concession. What are the legal implications?

Ans: It’s beyond legal implications! It also has economic implications. You have a concession arrangement that gives you a 10-year, 15-year, 20-25- year period or more from 2005. Many of them with short tenures have expired. We still notice deficiencies in the ports system and amendments are supposed to be incorporated in any renewal arrangement. We have called for public hearing on the renewal because it is not a thing you can go into a conference room and take a decision. You need to throw it to the public, engage stakeholders. Are there things that are supposed to be done before a renewal is granted? These are the questions stakeholders will ask and expect answers. Why are stakeholder recommendations in different fora over the years not being implemented? Is it not an opportunity to incorporate these into any renewal arrangement? We have consistently called for stakeholder engagement before the agreements are renewed. But because those entrusted with ports concession are afraid of coming to the public domain to tell us how they have managed the concessions granted. Maritime stakeholders including lawyers, clearing agents, shippers, terminal operators, etc, will ask questions. Nigerian economy watchers will also ask questions because the port system is part of the Nigerian economy.
Nigeria is not the only place in the world where you have the landlord port model. Why is the efficiency in other climes so good? It’s not about promoting the number of vessels that call at the ports which we have seen since 2005 when concessions were granted. It’s not about increasing cargo throughput which has declined in recent years because of bad policies of government. It’s not only about improving infrastructure in the ports. What’re the benefits of concession to the economy? It shouldn’t be a facade! You get to the port and see new equipment- cranes, well paved port environment, new paints on the quay aprons, vessels coming more often and more cargo throughput. It’s beyond these. What is the benefit to the economy? What aspect of the economy have we recreated? What is the impact on workers in the maritime industry; reduction of unemployment in the maritime industry? These are the critical questions a public debate on the renewal of port concession will elicit.

Why is it that we still have policy somersault after concessioning the ports? Why is it that following the concession, rather than all terminal operators being happy to create more jobs,they are closing down today? Why is it that after concession, at a point, workers in the terminals, shipping companies are being denied support they hitherto enjoyed? What are the benefits to stevedores, seafarers, sailors,dock labour, shipping company worker, technical and operational staff in the terminal operator’s office? What improvements have we had in the skills of Nigerians working in the port sector? What special advantage has it conferred on them? So many questions will be thrown up in the public space when the issue of concession is debated and a report given about how far it has operated, who operated it, the upsides and downsides, the expectations- whether met or dashed. When these are satisfactorily addressed we shall have a port concession that is so called.

Q: Nigerias can never get tired of discussing indigenous shipping development no matter how long it takes the FG to play with the beleaguered CVFF and its disbursement. From the legal point of view, what’s the way forward?

ANS: This fund belongs to Nigerians and the segment is ship owners. The way forward is ship owners should come together and take NIMASA to court, take government to court and obtain an order of mandamus to disburse the CVFF. Until that happens,the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund will not be disbursed.
It is now 20 years, regime after regime. The Cabotage Act was promulgated in 2003, it started working in 2004 and ever since, the collection continued till date. As we speak, it’s only a writ of summons that can compell NIMASA, as a public officer, to disclose how much that has been collected on behalf of ship owners who are the real owners of the fund. No other persuasion, no other demand can do that and get it done accurately. Not even a demand under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. The writ of summons will compel The Presidency, Attorney-General of the Federation, the FEC, the Minister of the Marine and Blue Economy all together to disburse the funds to Nigerian ship owners. But before then, Nigerian ship owners must come together, form a common front and set up a special purpose vehicle in the form of a shipping company where ship owners will take up shares, have their seed capital because there’s a requirement that a ship owner must contribute a particular percentage of the fund he requires. Going by the CVFF disbursement guideline, there is a percentage of it the PIL and other interests must contribute. We make these contributions to arrive at at the 100% value of the ship to buy.
If it is only one big vessel they are able to buy, I tell you we would have seen a tangible contribution of the Marine and Blue Economy Ministry to the Nigerian economy. For instance, if you have a crude carrier of say, 20,000 metric tons, which, by today, should be in the region of about $70 million partaking in lifting Nigerian crude, do you know how much forex it will earn for Nigeria? Do you know how many Nigerians will be employed on the vessel? Can you imagine the multiplier-effect of the vessel operating on the Nigerian economy and, by so doing, positively rubbing off on Nigerian citizens? So, there’s a whole lot that can be done!
Ship owners need to use the court system. I am happy the current Attorney-General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, a good-natured man, appears to want to play to the rules and would want to do positive things as we see in the local government autonomy court matter we are celebrating. He will advise the government to obey. We have had enough rhetorics on this CVFF thing. I am sure that as soon as it gets to that level of (legal) persuasion, government will do that as the lack of disbursement of the CVFF is one of the banes of the domestic shipping and the maritime industry in Nigeria.