The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council; Mr Hassan Bello has attributed the current state of backwardness among shipping nations in Africa to lack of unity.
He lamented that, unless this posture changed, Africa will continue to take the wrong end of the stick.
Bello told Shipping Position Daily last Friday in Abuja that there is need for clarity of purpose among government of African nations to tackle the dominance of the multinationals and Western interests that will always demand that Africa signs treaties and conventions albeit blindly.
We should negotiate conventions at our own point of interests; we shouldn’t always take it that there is a convention and that we should implement that. We should come together “, he maintained.
He argued that African nations should also negotiate based on the advantages that they have, saying that because shipping is international they foreign ship owner can not without Africa.
According to him, shipping can not thrive if the two parties at a disadvantage and are not together. “Yes, they have the ships, but we have the cargo, what will the ships do without the cargo, we have the market, they can not trade among themselves, they have to trade with us”, he stressed.
He also urged the African Union and the ECOWAS to rise to the occasion and go to international with a clear understanding of the need to negotiate and the dynamics
The Executive Secretary of Shippers’ Council also urged African maritime nations to take positive steps in protecting the continent’s marine environment.
He noted that the resources from the seas and oceans were exhaustible and should therefore be protected.
The executive secretary said there should be regional integration and the domestication of the UN Conventions on Marine Environment for sustainable output.
Bello talked about awareness on maritime domain, saying that there should be a connection between security, safety and the marine environment.
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