Historians say port operations and development in Nigeria began in the middle of the 19th century and that efforts towards the provision of facilities for ocean-going vessels started with the opening of Lagos Lagoon in the early 1900.
Historians say port operations and development in Nigeria began in the middle of the 19th century and that efforts towards the provision of facilities for ocean-going vessels started with the opening of Lagos Lagoon in the early 1900.
According to the Nigerian Ports Authourity itself, the port of Port Harcourt was conceptualised on discovery of coal at Enugu and was subsequently opened for the business in 1913. The completion of the railway line in Enugu in 1916 resulted in the development of four 20 feet long berths at Port Harcourt to expedite the exploitation and eventual exportation of coal on one hand and the support of importation of goods on the other hand.
The Nigerian Port Authority as a corporate entity was established as a continuous Public Corporation by the Ports Act of 1954 to address the institutional weakness that bordered on lack of coherent policy framework as port development were done on ad hoc basis driven by changes on the level and demand of sea-borne trade.
At a point in its history the NPA was given the status of a Public Liability Company (PLC), but only in name.
However, in 2003, the Federal Government initiated the drive towards improving efficiency at the ports and the landlord model was adopted. This gave rise to the concession of 25 Terminals to private terminal operators with lease agreement ranging from 10-25 years.
As the history of NPA is long, so also is the age long attention that it has always drawn to itself; if it is not been haunted by workers’ demands, it will be inter-agency issues, sometimes too, NPA has issues with its ‘tenants’; the terminal operators.
But more important is the fact that since the advent of democracy in 1999, the headaches have multiplied. Now it is ‘troubled’ by the National Assembly and also by several supervisory institutions of government.
However, one major headache that NPA has had to contend with is the issue of the frequent and lopsided appointment of its Managing Director. This is one sore point that the recent appointment of Alhaji Lamido Ado Bayero has brought to the fore once again.
Since 1999, NPA has had Mallam Bello Gwandu , Engr Joseph Akagwu, and later Alhaji Aminu Dabo, after which came Chief Adebayo Sarumi, Mallam Abdusalam Mohammed, Engr Omar Suleiman, Alhaji Habib Abdulahi, and now Alhaji Lamido Ado Bayero, in that order.
Certainly, eight CEOs in a spate of 16 years is not only bad, but it is also an attestation of the self-serving intentions of those who appoint them.
We are conscious of the observations of some stakeholders about the fact that Kano state is fast becoming the ‘catchment state’ for the CEO of NPA, but we are more worried about the cognate experience of the appointee.
A few examples will suffice here. The trio of Aminu Dabo, Habib Abdulahi and lately Lamido Ado Bayero all emerged as the managing director of NPA by virtue of being from Kano state. While some have erroneously counted the immediate past MD as being an insider, we say No. It was Dabo that brought Habib along to the NPA upon his appointment as the MD in 2003.
It is our informed conviction that appointments into the NPA ought not to be based on primordial consideration, it should not be placed well above cognate experience.
The challenges of running a high net worth agency like NPA are such that, whoever is coming into the office of the CEO should be well equipped form the job. Kano is part of Nigeria, so the arguments against the CEO coming from them don’t hold water with us.
If he must come from Kano, let him have the credentials for it.
Discussion about this post