Emma Ugoji (Terminal Operator)
The ministers and Managing Directors have so much power, and you know that absolute powers corrupt absolutely, so there has to be a way or a group to check the excesses of the MDs, if you leave an MD for six months without a board, go and check his story after six months. The Board is like pouring cold water on the parastatals, it is made up of highly experienced people that can also prevail on the minister not to do certain things, they have direct access to the president, if you leave the minister alone with the parastatals, he could make or mar, this is why it is why we must have these boards. Democracy is not cheap, so we must spend money for these board members, they are not philanthropists or charity organisations, they are offering services and they must be paid. They are using their experience, their brain and time. However, the quality of those we put on the board matters most.
Major Henry Ajetunmobi (Executive Director, SIFAX Group)
By convention, leadership is at various levels, there is the staff, there is management and there is the executive board, there is also the ministerial level. It is a structure that has been enshrined in practice for decades. If everything works fine, the board is supposed to be additional benefit to the quality of administration; it is only that it is unfortunate that in our system, reality is miles away from expectation. Boards do not necessarily slow down things at these agencies, there is every level of value addition, and you cannot always compromise speed for quality of service delivery. The way civil service operates is that things cascades from up down and down up, at the end of the day you cannot fault civil service operational pattern, the mill of the civil service grinds slowly but it grinds well.
Simeon Nwonu (Head, Special Duties, NAGAFF)
There is need for a government agency to have a board, the board is the decision making body of the agency, they are the decision makers on the way forward for the agency, this is why in the case of Customs CEMA which is now under review, if you have studied the draft bill, you will see that Customs is now asking that the Comptroller General be made chairman of the board and that all DCGs should be members of the board, it is a misnomer, and I think they are asking for too much. Customs officials are civil servants and they must see themselves as such, the only thing is that they have the mandate of government to collect revenue on import and excise. Every agency must have a board, without a board it means they are judges in their own case.
Barrister Osuala Nwagbara (Maritime lawyer)
We need boards because there are limits of authority at various levels, a director or a CEO of a parastatal has a limit to which he can act, and the board also has a limit to which it can act, this is why we have the parastatals tenders board, they take decisions on certain high level matters, before it goes to the ministry, these levels of authority has to be crossed. The boards are statutory positions, and if they are not there, the parastatal organogram is not complete. So we truly deserve to have the boards. They carry out the day to day functions of the parastatal, they need to be in place to drive the agencies objectives.
Engineer Matthew Alalade (President Merchant Navy Assoc.)
It is a welcome development as far as we are concerned and in fact government should also deem it fit to appoint technocrats as board executives in maritime agencies because it is long overdue after the elections that brought General Buhari to power. The appointment will further help to manage the agencies effectively. But our worry is that appointments into these boards have always been political. There is the need to involve stakeholders in the industry to be appointed into the boards of NPA, NIWA and NIMASA and it is a welcome development.
Engineer Tijani Shehu (Marine Engineer)
We expected that whoever that will be appointed as board chairman to these agencies should have a maritime background, but that is not what we have seen at the moment. Past boards in those agencies could not do anything to move the industry forward and from all indications the board chairmen or members should have ideas of what they are coming to do in these agencies and not what they will get. It is expected that the boards should meet with the management teams of the agencies to know what are challenges and shortcoming , but I think things like that will come up considering the calibres of people who are going to those agencies. We expect the chairman to ask the CE0 about the daily routine of the organisation. Politicians as board executives to those agencies will rather create more problems; therefore even though it is relevant to appoint board members to those agencies, I think there is need for government to appoint people who understand the industry.
Alhaji Inuwa Abdullahi (NARTO)
We all know that the new government is talking about change and a way to cut down cost despite the hardship in the country. In time past, I am yet to see what the contribution of board in those agencies is. The boards have been in existence in time past yet no development, no changes in the maritime industry. The boards have not made any impact to those agencies, but my advice to the boards of NPA and NIMASA is that they should look at the numerous challenges facing the industry because it unbearable at this moment. But to me I don't think there is need to appoint board members at this point in time because it will add more cost to governing the country.
Chief Austine Kelly (South West Coordinator FECESARA)
There is the need for a board to be constituted in the maritime parastatals to give room for effective supervision and advise to the management teams of the agencies. NPA and NIMASA are very big organisations therefore, it is not easy for one man to run the affairs there and that is why the governing body comes in to play a very key role. Previous boards of the agencies are all afraid of themselves making it difficult for something good to come out from their appointment as boards, but with the new government in place, in line with the change mantra, I believe that the boards of both agencies would be able to checkmate the management teams for transparency to move the sector forward. They are welcome on board and my advice to them is that they must ensure that issues of nepotism, tribalism, favouritism and otherwise are disregarded.
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