The social media and a section of the conventional media were agog with the misleading news that the Senate is currently in receipt of a Bill which seeks to scrap the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA).
For those who didn’t read it, the story had it that“a law is underway in the Senate to transfer the powers of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to a new agency and privatise Nigerian ports to ensure transparency, effective management and improved safety”.
The Bill is sponsored by Senator Andy Uba, and it is to ‘’repeal the Nigerian Ports Authority Act, 2004 and re-enact the Nigerian Ports and Harbours Authority to Provide for the Ownership, Management and Development of Ports and Harbours’’.
The replacement for NPA as proposed would be Nigerian Ports and Harbours Authority and a governing board, governed by the Minister of Transport.
According to the media, the Bill recommends in part that for the provision of an “appropriate institutional framework for the ownership, management and development of ports and harbours”.
In defending the Bill, Senator Uba argued that if the ports are privatised, it will “ensure the integrity, efficiency and safety of the ports based on principles of accountability, competition, fairness and transparency, and to encourage private sector participation in the provision of port services and port infrastructure and promote and safeguard Nigeria’s competitiveness and trade objectives”.
The Bill also seeks to establish “an authority which shall be vests with control and ownership of all ports and harbours on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, transfer of the technical regulatory powers relating to ports to the Authority, and transfer of the ownership of the land and assets relating to ports currently vested in the Nigerian Ports Authority to the Authority”.
Since this piece of news filtered out recently, maritime industry stakeholder and especially employees of the NPA have become rather apprehensive about the likely fate of the agency.
Coming at this point, one wonders where Senator Uba got his funny idea of wanting to scrap the NPA. It is either the Senate was misquoted or misrepresented in the report or the Red Chamber is ignorant.
From what Senator Uba is proposing, the new Bill will try “to separate the cargo handling section of the NPA from landlord functions within ports and foster greater operating efficiency, accountability and transparency in the management and operation of ports. The reform of the sector would also provide for “safe navigation, development and efficient management of harbours, channels and waterways and all other conservancy functions”.
The port concession is 10 years old and for those years, the Bill that should guide operators of the post concession port system has been in the works at the National Assembly, untouched.
The Ports and Harbour Bill incorporates all that are needed to make the nation and maritime sector stakeholders enjoy maximum benefits of ceding port operations to the private sector.
It is painful that as important as the maritime industry is and as very important as the nation’s port system is, there is no enabling law to guide activities of operators.
Since 1999, the National Assembly has become a major stakeholder in the Nigerian maritime sector, its members take delight in coming over for oversight functions, they see the pains, but do nothing to soothe it.
With the exception of the House of Representatives committee under Hon EmekaIhedioha which ensured the passage of the Cabotage Bill and the CRFFN Bill, we dare say that others have done nothing to justify their membership of the committees.
Members of the two committees on marine transport at the National Assembly visited the ports severally and interacted with stakeholders and yet they failed to fulfil their own part of the bargain.
It is in this light that we see the so-called listing of a Bill for an Act to scrap the NPA as being borne out of ignorance or being informed by other things rather than for national interest.
Rather than engage in another jamboree and wasteful spending in the name of enacting a new law for NPA, the lawmakers should open their shelf and bring out the abandoned Ports and Harbour Bill.
The task before the Senate Committee on Marine Transport headed by Senator Ahmed SaniYerima and the Committee on Ports, Harbours and Waterways, as well as the Committee on Maritime Safety, Education and Administration headed by Patrick Asadu and Mohammed Umar Bago, respectively is to dare to be different from those before them.
Certainly, the way to go is not the one being championed by Senator Andy Uba and currently being considered by the Senate.
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