As the traffic gridlock in Apapa worsens, the Nigerian Institute of Shipping (NIS) is making arrangements to relocate, even as it’s new President; Capt Tony Onoarigho said that one of the institute’s major priorities is to get chartered.
The new president spoke with Shipping Position Daily, after the formal inauguration of the new executives in Lagos last week.
Speaking, the new president, acknowledged that a lot of things had happened in the institute in the past; he however assured that his administration would turn things around for good.
“I am here to serve and to turn the institute around. What I want to do which I have already started is to relocate the institute from where it is today, because trucks and others have blocked the entrance to the institute.
As far as I am concerned I know where are planning to get a place and wherever the place is, it doesn’t matter.
He also maintained that the new office will still be around Apapa.
“The area will come back to what it is used to be before, the entrance to the port both Tincan and the other ports are in a very bad state now. So once these things are solved by the federal government, there will be free entrance to the ports then Apapa will turn to what it is used to be. NIMASA, Shippers’ Council and NPA are still here, those are the people that are controlling the maritime industry and they are still there, so where are we running to? So we will still be in Apapa”
Speaking further on the plans to get NIS chartered, Captain Onoarigho who said it is his number two priority.
“My number two priority is to charter the institute, if you look at the position of the institute from the onset; we have Chief Ayo Afolabi who stayed there for 16 years as president. 16 years is not a joke; a child of 16years is already in the secondary school, he stayed there all these while and there was no charter. Now that I am coming as the fourth president my first project and I will ask God to help me is to make a change and charter the institute. So the first stage is to look for a befitting accommodation that whenever you come you will know that it is an institute; the location doesn’t matter and the next step is to get chartered and when we do that people will have value for their membership” , he said.
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