Dr Eugene Nweke is a former National President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF). In this interview with Anozie Egole, he speaks extensively on the challenges in the maritime industry and the way forward.
“The maritime industry seems to be tilting towards inactivity, occasioned by lack of political will”
“Everything does not revolve around revenue, ship call, tonnage management for revenue purpose, ship registry, deployment of officers to patrol, what brings revenue should be protected, the water should be protected”
How will you access the Nigerian maritime industry in the first quarter of 2019?
The maritime industry seems to be tilting towards inactivity occasioned by lack of political will, so I don’t feel there is any need wasting my energy reviewing the industry. Whereby the essence and corrective intensions of the people have been narrowed down to favour a certain few. That is why when such bills get to the Presidency, they are not ready to sign it and it remains. I know the commitment we make towards the review of the Cabotage Act, where are we today? I don’t really know if that green chamber is actually representing the wider view of the people or just a few.
Our national trawlers; what is happening to them, are they making progress, we have discovered that within the African contest, Atlantic Ocean, our water has the best aquatics, talking about fishes and all that. But we have foreign vessels that will come, anchor and fish for years, warehouse them and come to sell to us and collect our foreign earnings. So we should first and foremost allow the Navy to do their job of policing our waters, they know their job, the traditional Navy pick up their responsibilities, they should fund the Navy.
If that should be the case, if navy is in charge of their responsibilities, I see no reason for piracy, our national trawlers should be doing very well, that is the major job-creating sector apart from contributing to the growth of GDP in maritime sector. So you see a situation where they come to fish, our trawlers ply our waters within the nautical miles and then poachers will come to attack them and they overcome them.
Why? Because, the security on our waters is not functional.
What do you think are the strategies to ensure maximum security on our waters?
If you understudy other countries of the world, Navy is for security of the nation’s territorial sovereignty. So, whether you now have a coast guard department under Navy, that is another thing, but the whole thing centers on Navy and their technology management in terms of security. Navy should be a bigger driver in maritime development. There is need for an effective Navy, and then we also don’t have good ship yard, maintenance yard and bunkering, a reliable one. If we have an effective and functional Navy well-funded, then our territorial waters should be void of unnecessary piracy. Having reconciled the fact the MV Texas; an American submarine has been in the Gulf of Guinea for the past 20 years, safeguarding the American pipeline underneath, any passerby pirate knows that you dare not go near that place because they will blow you off. Yet the marine officers there (once in a while) they take them back underground and bring another people to come and safeguard the place, why are we failing. A functional and well-funded Navy will give room for a collaborative seafarers training and certification. If we don’t embrace an effective navy management and technological advancement, there is no much success we will achieve here. All that the politicians do is to use maritime agencies to harness their own personal interests to the detriment of the overall interests geared towards national development. I can see that NIMASA wants to kick start what they can blue economy as provided at the African Maritime Safety 2050; it is good, they said they want to start capacity building, it is good. Before you embark on capacity building, you need to sit down and study the terrain and say what you think should be done to address what constitutes challenge in the industry. Everything does not revolve around revenue, ship call, tonnage management for revenue purpose, ship registry deployment of officers to patrol, what brings revenue should be protected, and the waters should be protected. All these ideas of dragging who conducts wreck removal is childish and unnecessary. The National Assembly has given the issue of dredging to an agency like the NPA; you don’t need to contract it out. Navy will give impetus for our coastal inland movement and that is where NIWA comes in. I am not against any of these agencies, but Navy should be the driver.
Recently one of the shipping lines, CMA CGM placed what we call peak season service charge on cargoes coming to the country, what is your reactions to that?
I think the problem we have is the delay at the Presidency where the NTC Bill has not been signed into law. What we needed in this country is a transformation of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council into the National Transport Commission (NTC). We need an independent economic regulator that has everybody and can cope with everybody because no matter how strong you are as a DG of any agency, you need that apex body empowered by the law to regulate the maritime industry. What you are saying is the Shippers’ Council assignment; if they fold their hands and allows somebody to charge peak season charge on Nigeria-bound cargo, and then they should tell us why it should be like that.
However again, shipping lines are business people and they have agents that give them information which we call ship agents. Now the question is when the shipping agents give information to them, are those information correct and that is why before any information is given to shipping lines, there is need to get clarification which should be published by Shippers’ Council as the economic regulator.
Yes, we know that the Apapa gridlock has been a challenge, but the question is – was there any pronounced congestion at the ports by the terminal operators or the NPA. If there is port congestion then we will now look at the other type of congestion like congestion on the sea by coming vessels. If you look at the total volume of cargo that came into the country within the period, how many are they, then how did they come about this peak service charge. How many vessels came in their volumes waiting at our anchorage; was their congestion over there? At any case, what is our volume compared to other years?
Talking about the Shippers’ Council, what do you have to say about the registration of port service providers that was introduced by the Council?
It is because you can’t just come into an industry like the maritime industry and you do what you like; bring in your views and take it out.
The Shippers’ Council is doing the right thing, the only problem is that because of the fee you know when a fee is attached, then people will have problems with that. The council is an economic regulator. But if they say they are going to collect an administrative charge in other to connect all person who renders one or two services in the maritime sector, that is a different thing and I think it should be discussed among the maritime stakeholders and they agree on that. If they come by way of an imposition it will be resisted. So it is a normal thing for them to have a compendium of who- is- who and who renders what service to know where they are and how to get them. Because, if you go to the help desk of the council they are attending to either one complain or the other.
What do you think is the way out of this high rate of unemployment among seafarers?
I have told you why the Navy should be at the centre of everything. If our Navy is maintaining vessels, developing vessels for the purpose of training like in the olden days when Nigeria-made vessels went to the Soviet Union and become the only African built vessels that attended the Soviet Union. So we need to sustain and fund the Navy and know that it is strategic to the security of the nation and the development of the nation too. Because security comes with development, you cannot advance in anything without security. So in maritime, Navy Act should be revisited I don’t know who the Naval Chief is but I think politicking has rubbished some of those things. If our navy is doing very well and in collaboration with our indigenous ship owners are having what we call strategic alliance with ship building , design and development, then I see no reason why our Nigeria-built vessels cannot ply international waters. If they can, then we won’t be waiting for any foreigner to come and employ our seafarers for sea experience. If the present situation was what it was today, then some of the generals we have today won’t be there. Charity must begin at home. Do the Philippines call America to help them develop their seafarers, yet their major source of revenue is seafaring.
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