There appears to be a dilemma at both the Presidency and the National Assembly over how to harmonise the various transport and maritime bills currently being considered by both arms of the Federal Government.
Last week, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) reeled out four bills that it wants to forward to the National Assembly for consideration and eventual passage, but our findings indicate that the position of the National Assembly through its marine transport committees is quite at variance with that of the executive.
There appears to be a dilemma at both the Presidency and the National Assembly over how to harmonise the various transport and maritime bills currently being considered by both arms of the Federal Government.
Last week, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) reeled out four bills that it wants to forward to the National Assembly for consideration and eventual passage, but our findings indicate that the position of the National Assembly through its marine transport committees is quite at variance with that of the executive.
The four bills that are to be transmitted to the National Assembly are: National Transport Commission Bill, Nigerian Ports and Harbour Authority Bill Nigeria Railway Bill, and the National Inland Waterways Authority Bill.
To give vent to its determination, the FEC had also gone ahead to name the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice; Bello Adokeas the chairman of a special committee to fine-tune the four bills, which according to the Council are meant to reform the nation’s maritime, aviation and land transport sectors by drawing in more private sector participation.
However, Shipping Position Daily confirmed from some members of the marine transport committee of both the Senate and the House of Representatives that there is a great deal of variance in the positions of the National Assembly and the Executive a s regards maritime sector bills.
Our sources at both chambers of the legislature expressed apprehension about the four bills that the executive is set to forward to the legislature.
For instance, the National Assembly favours the Port and Harbour bill, instead of the humongous National Transport Commission (NTC) bill, the FEC prefers the latter.
Our correspondents in Lagos and Abuja confirmed also that the NTC was a creation of the BPE, which it has succeeded in selling to the FEC.
A member of the House of Representatives committee on marine transport (who pleaded not to be identified) told Shipping Position Daily that, “we can also subsume their (FEC’s) Bill under our own”. You may wish to remember that the Ports and Harbour Bill had gone very far in the House; we were almost at the verge of passing it. If we had, will they be talking about NTC or another Port and Harbour bill again?
He also blamed the Ministry of Transport for what he described as the ‘new confusion’ that the FEC had brought in with the new bills.
According to him, “when the Ports and Harbour Bill, which is a private member Bill was being debated, we invited everyone, including the Ministry of Transport and all relevant organs of government to make input, no one talked about NTC, until we were almost done with the Bill”.
Asked why it took the National Assembly so long to pass the Bill, he went further to blame both the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) and the Ministry of Transport for the delay. “When we were almost done we needed to sort out a few clauses that have to do with revenue and remittance, but NPA and the ministry started acting funny”.
However, a senior official at the Ministry of Transport blamed the BPE for the delay in passage of the ports bill. According to him, the ministry went all out to support the National Assembly on the Ports and Harbour Bill, but the BPE want the NTC.
“We were a bit hamstrung because of the position of the BPE which favours NTC, because we are both working for the same executive. We didn’t want it , but what the FEC has done now is a bit more confusing, I can assure you that those bills are not likely to be passed by the current National Assembly’.
He explained that, unless there is a meeting point between the National Assembly and the FEC, then a lot more time will be needed to harmonise the divergent positions.
Shipping Position Daily also learnt that the National Assembly is likely to stick to its version of the ports bill, with a likelihood of incorporating the FEC’s positions.
The NTC is a semblance of what obtains in South Africa, where a single regulatory agency in charge of alls modes of transportation.
The Port and Harbour Bill is a port industry-specific bill which seeks to create technical and commercial regulator for port businesses. It incorporates an Independent Port Regulatory Commission.
It is the delay in the passage of the bill that led to the recent directive to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to take up the commercial regulation responsibility while NPA takes charge of technical regulation.
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