The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Barrister Hassan Bello has accused maritime stakeholders of being impatient, even as he said that the Council cannot be blackmailed or rushed in its efforts to bring harmony and sanity into the Nigerian port system.
The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Barrister Hassan Bello has accused maritime stakeholders of being impatient, even as he said that the Council cannot be blackmailed or rushed in its efforts to bring harmony and sanity into the Nigerian port system.
Bello who spoke with Shipping Position Daily correspondent at an event to mark the 70th Birthday Ceremony of his former boss; Chief Adebayo Sarumi in Lagos yesterday responded to critics of the Council who have accused it of not living up to expectations in its newly assigned regulatory role.
He said that the Council will continue to concentrate its efforts on ensuring that the clearance procedure at Nigerian port is made faster, even as he vowed that the agency would cut unreasonable charges in the system, because Nigerian ports are in competition with other neighboring ports.
"The Shippers’ Council will be accused all the time by stakeholders, if we are not accused then we are not doing our work, we have to be accused, abused everyday, but what we want is harmony, representation in Nigerian economy through the ports and nobody is going to rush us", he stressed, even as he added that: "We are going to take a scientific approach, it is not a beauty contest or a popularity contest, but by the time there is harmonisation in the port, I am sure everyone will see it, regulation is not ‘ABC’ that you recite for people to get impressed, it has to be scientific".
Hassan Bello said that a commercial regulator is supposed to be allowed to study the situation in the industry for not less than three years for it to be properly grounded.
He said that luckily, Shippers’ Council has got some experience and past dealings in the industry, but, stated that it is not going to regulate on the pages of newspapers.
"We are going to consult and have the buy-ins of the stakeholders before we do everything, even now we have started the regulation and regulation is consultation, transparency, unbiased and this is what we have started" he said.
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