A maritime lawyer, Mr Emeka Akabogu, has explained why the Onitsha River port should be given due attention, saying that the port is particularly important going by the volume of cargoes regularly destined for Onitsha.
Shipping Position Daily recalled that a few months ago, the Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ONICCIMA) appealed to the Federal Government to show commitment towards realizing a functional River Port in Onitsha, the commercial city of Anambra.
President of ONICCIMA, Mr Don Ebubeogu, made the call at the 12th Edition of an annual lecture series of the chamber earlier this year, in Onitsha, tagged, “The Perspective, Onitsha River Port Capacity and Possibilities’’.
Ebubeogu said that the non-functionality of the port several years after the project was initiated by former President Shehu Shagari in 1983, was hampering economic growth of the sector.
Akabogu who threw his weight behind the ONICCIMA president, told our correspondent in Lagos, that all river ports in Nigeria need to be given attention and made functional.
Explaining further, he said, “All river ports in Nigeria need to be given attention and made functional. The Onitsha river port is particularly important in view of the volume of cargo that is regularly destined for Onitsha, which feeds not just the huge Onitsha market, but the manufacturing hub of Nnewi and the key South Eastern cities”
He maintained that fixing the Onitsha River port will improve the national inter-modal network which according to him, is nothing to write home about.
Akabogu however said that the perennial traffic gridlock on the Apapa port axis will be a thing of the past if the Onitsha River Port is properly fixed.
“The non-functionality of the Onitsha River Port is not just a South Eastern problem, but one for the country as a whole. Fixing it will feed and improve the national inter-modal network which is currently nothing to write home about”
“The current gridlock occasioned by the collapsed road infrastructure in Apapa will be eased by the trans-shipment of South-East bound import cargo for the Onitsha River Port amongst others, which itself creates additional jobs in stevedoring and barge operations. So, the development of the Onitsha River Port is not just a South Eastern imperative, but a crucial national logistics target”
Speaking on his expectations from the newly-appointed Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) Dr. George Muoghalu, he charged the new NIWA boss to speed up the dredging of the waterways to speed up the navigability of the key inland routes.
“While river port development is imperative, equally urgent is dredging to facilitate navigability of the key inland routes. It is not currently clear whether barges can freely navigate from Lagos all the way to Onitsha, nor between key locations across the country without stranding as a result of siltation over the years”
“As such, I believe the primary agenda of the new Managing Director should be to ensure navigability of a minimum number of crucial inland transportation routes for linkage of the country’s key commercial cities and support to the national inter-modal network” he concluded.
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