Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has advised the Minister of Transporation; Mr. Rotimi Amaechi against the establishment of national shipping line with Federal Government's funds.
Chief Obasanjo gave the advice yesterday as the Chairman of a 2-day Stakeholders’ Conference organised by the Federal Ministry of Transportation. The conference has as its theme: "Building a Sustainable Maritime Industry in Nigeria".
Rather than apply government funds, the former President advised that the ministry should adopt private partnership mode, such as those that established the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) and adopted in the privatisation in the telecommunication sector.
Chief Obasanjo recalled that 24 ships that were bought by his administration in 1979 had been mismanaged and disappeared within 20 years.
The NNSL according to him was liquidated because there was no commitment, professionalism and there was high level of corruption.
"During my time as military Head of State, we had bought 19 brand new ships before I left office in 1979, when I came back 20 years later in 1999, the NNSL has been liquidated with all the 19 ships gone, including the five that were in existence before the 19 ships were added"
"Whatever you do in your thinking today and tomorrow, don't build another shipping line where you will put government money, with the NNSL and the Nigerian Airways, our experience has been heart breaking"
“This should be the focus of our discussion here today. How those vessels disappeared should be a major concern to us today, so that we don’t repeat history with the proposed floating of the new national shipping line"
“If we look at the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), we will see that it is still in operation today. The LNG is doing fine simply because it is not a wholly government owned entity. About 51 per cent of the NLNG is privately owned while government controls 49 per cent"
“The difference between the NLNG and the defunct national shipping line, the difference is pattern of ownership. While the defunct shipping line was a wholly-owned government entity, the LNG was not".
He reiterated that “the current administration, in their quest to float another shipping line, should not make it a fully owned government entity. That was the mistake we made with the defunct national shipping line”.
The former president urged the present administration to “think out of the box and come up with what should be done to grow the maritime industry’’.
“Until NIMASA became a source of where people steal money, nobody knew too much about it.
“Before we tried to privatise Nigerian Ports Authority, I went to Singapore where you get your container within one hour of arriving at the port.
“If we cannot perform like Singapore, we have to do better than what we are doing now,” Obasanjo said.
In his keynote address, Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi assured the former President that the new national shipping line will be a private-driven initiative.
He said the government has agreed that it would be private investors from Nigeria and from outside Nigeria that would bring the money.
He said he had set up a committee to deliver a report on the way forward which will be submitted to him by June 2016.
In his words, “we have learnt from history and will avoid the mistakes of the past. The new national shipping line will be thrown open to private investors. I have constituted a committee on this and their report is due to be submitted in June.”
Amaechi said that corruption played a prominent role in what went wrong in the maritime sector, and that the reason corruption had continued to thrive is because there is no punishment for corruption.
In his goodwill message, Chairman Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Sen. Sanni Ahmed Yerima assured that the outcome of the 2-day conference will be looked at critically and supported for implementation.
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