Oluyinka Onigbinde
Some member-nations of the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) have commenced lobbying to unseat Nigeria as the headquarters of the Regional Maritime Development Bank (RMDB).
Sources close to the undercurrents hinted our correspondent last week that, the development comes after about eight months after the Minister of Transportation; Mu’azu Sambo had assured MOWCA that Nigeria would provide a headquarters building for the specialised bank.
Investigations by Shipping Position Daily have actually revealed that Nigeria is about to lose the right to house the RMDB following the failure of the Federal Government to provide an office space for the purpose.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the Minister had in August last year expressed optimism that within 90 days, the ministry will secure accommodation to enable the take-off of the Regional Maritime Development Bank.
Sambo had given this assurance when he received the Secretary General of MOWCA, Dr Paul Adalikwu; a Nigerian and former Director in the Ministry or Transportation.
Sambo had told his guest: “When I resumed here, I realized immediately that the Regional Maritime Bank is one of the lowest-hanging fruits that we can achieve within a very short time. In fact, 90 days is too long. I observed that all efforts towards getting accommodation via the Central Bank of Nigeria have not yielded any outcomes. So, I will approach the Attorney General of the Federation to see if one of the forfeited properties can be allocated to the bank.”
However, checks by our correspondent revealed that about eight months after the Minister gave the assurance, the MOWCA is yet to get an office space in Nigeria.
Recall that member states of MOWCA had equally ceded the position of the Managing Director of the bank to Nigeria.
Our correspondent confirmed through multiple sources that there is unease among other member states of MOWCA, over the failure of Nigeria to provide the much-needed accommodation for the bank to commence operations.
It was confirmed that some of the other member states, especially from West Africa are already lobbying to house the RMDB headquarters, but are being very careful owing to the fact that the Secretary General of MOWCA is a Nigerian.
The MOWCA comprises of 25 nations, 21 of which are coastal nations, while the remaining four are landlocked.
The coastal nations are: Angola, Gambia, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe, Cameroon, Guinea, Senegal and Cape Verde. Others are: Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Gabon and Mozambique.
The landlocked member-nations of MOWCA are: Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Central African Republic.
An impeccable source in MOWCA who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity confirmed that about nine countries out of the 25 member states of MOWCA which subscribed to the establishment of the bank and other investors are worried that Nigeria could not keep to its promise of providing an office building.
He said, “the Regional Maritime Development Bank as you know was intended to create a platform for building maritime capacity through financial support to the 25 member states of MOWCA.”. This is even as he stated that, at the last count nine countries have subscribed to the establishment of the bank.
“And when the MOWCA Secretary General visited Nigeria last year, the Minister of Transportation promised that within 90 days an office space would be given for the establishment of the bank in Abuja.
“That 90 days I think last between September and October that 90 days have gone past and nobody is talking about it. We tried to know why the Minister is yet to fulfil his promise, but it looks as though they (Nigeria) are playing pranks”, he told our correspondent.
“You said this kind of thing and people went to town with the story that MOWCA office will be created in Abuja; the international community, the maritime business community is aware, so it’s beyond Nigeria, when we say certain things to feel good for the sake of the headlines and you have put a timeline, it means people are expecting you to work towards it. If for any reason you didn’t achieve it, why not explain to the people why you cannot”, he lamented.
Giving more insight, he added that, “Countries that subscribe to the bank are awaiting and more countries are also interested, the partners that want to collaborate with the bank are also set, but unfortunately Nigeria that is supposed to provide the office space has not shown sign of commitment in that regard and that is a big setback and the MOWCA SG himself is a Nigerian”.
Lamenting further, the insider source told Shipping Position Daily: “So we have limitations because MOWCA is multilateral and diplomatic, because there are certain things even if somethings are not right, you don’t come to public to say they’re not right.
“The SG cannot come out and say Nigeria has failed or has disappointed, but we have to keep taking the step that if this minister did not do it, the next administration should”.
Pressed further about the identity of the countries that are already lobbying to unseat Nigeria as the headquarters of the bank, our source pleaded not to divulge the names.
However, efforts to get the reaction of the Minister of Transportation proved abortive. Several calls and text messages sent to him and his special adviser on media were not responded to, as at press time.
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