As we write every year, as a leading maritime media organisation, we have the advantage of seeing the Nigerian maritime sector from all fronts; from ‘the good the bad and the ugly sides’, sufficiently enough to say that 2012 is just another year, rolling pass.
As we write every year, as a leading maritime media organisation, we have the advantage of seeing the Nigerian maritime sector from all fronts; from ‘the good the bad and the ugly sides’, sufficiently enough to say that 2012 is just another year, rolling pass.
When the year started on January, we like everyone expected that 2012 would be better than the year before it. Whether or not it was, is a matter of the side of the economic divide you are. But, generally, we had hoped that the mistakes of previous years would be corrected, we had many positive hopes.
Suffice it to state that the fact that 2012 started with fuel price hike threw a big challenge at everyone.
As a media outfit, we started the year with the transformation to Shipping Position Daily, in our bold and ambitious efforts to rewrite the history of maritime journalism in Nigeria. The move makes us Nigeria and indeed Africa’s first maritime daily publication.
And here we are, doing our last Monday edition for 2012 and asking whether our prayers for the industry have been answered. Your guess is as good as ours.
Just as it is often difficult to arrive at a consensus about any year, 2012 also remains an admixture of all that happened in the industry in the out-going year; hence, an appraisal will depend on the perception of the appraiser, in most cases this is subjective.
A few remarkable things came up in 2012 which, even though we gave prominence in the course of the year, we need to also acknowledge again.
First, unlike in the previous year, 2012 saw a reduction in the level of robberies on Nigerian waters. Whatever anyone says, the apex maritime regulatory agency; NIMASA was able to record some appreciable level of success in the fight against vices such as attacks on ships and theft of crude oil through the use of Nigerian ships. In 2012, NIMASA paraded the highest level of suspects; it even fingered an ex-minister in one of such crime bursting efforts.
The change of executive management at the Nigerian Ports Authourity in 2012 was one of the shocks of the year. The move led to the emergence of Alhaji Habib Abdulahi as the new managing director. The action was greeted with shock by many stakeholders; especially port users, who saw the removal of Omar Suleiman as one change too many for the strategic organisation.
The crisis which engulfed the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) was about the most embarrassing feature of 2012. The face-off which pitched some freight forwarding associations against the regulator defied the intervention of the minister, leading to the avoidable dissolution of the governing council.
From our informed perspective, the high profile Presidential Committee on Port Reform ended 2012 worse than it started it, with empty promises, scheduled meetings that never yielded any tangible fruits. The much-talked about ‘Five Steps for Clearing’ remains on paper and a reference point for discussants on 24-hour cargo clearance.
The committee’s chairman; Professor Sylvester Monye, perhaps for want of any further excuse for failure, invited the EFCC to being undercover operations at the ports. We ask: Does he or his committee; with all the often- touted presidential backing need an EFCC to ensure that undesirable are swept off the port system.
As 2012 rolls by, we acknowledged that the ‘pains’ of seafarers remain, the ‘lamentations’ of indigenous ship owners remain, and that the ‘cries’ of importers through their clearing agents are yet to attract attention. But yet, the year must roll by. How nice would it have been if the year had ended with a more robust maritime sector, where the fears of these players have been addressed?
For us in the Shipping Position Daily family, 2012 has been a fulfilling year for us, just as we had expected. For these, we are grateful to God Almighty for His mercies and abundant grace
From all of us at First Mediacon Network Limited (owners of Shipping Position Daily newspaper and Shipping Position Live on Star FM), our prayer is for you to have a fun-filled Christmas celebrations and a prosperous 2013. Amen.
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