Dr. Segun Musa (Deputy National President, Air and Logistics, NAGAFF)
I feel there is no need for the two bills. We don’t need to start establishing any other commission again. What we need is just to strengthen the existing ones. I think the Nigeria Shippers Council and NIMASA needs to be strengthened. Let the Shippers Council be saddled with economic regulation, NIMASA should be saddled with creating a friendly environment for shipping activities and maritime administration. When any sector is over regulated, you encourage a lot of illegalities. We have existing laws that are addressing all issues in the proposed commission. The same thing should be extended to the Ministries.
Rev. Jonathan Nicole (Former President, SALS)
If you look at the NTC Bill and the recent one, it is just a change of name. That is the way we look at it. The components in that bill are what they transferred to this new name. They will collapse the Shippers Council which is supposed to be a private sector-driven Council for shippers. It means shippers will have no other council. The ideal thing is to transfer the Council to Shippers to run as a private entity while they have the overall agency to look at the activities of all the stakeholders.
Pius Ujubonu (ANLCA Chieftain)
The present regime is restructuring MDAs to reduce the cost of governance. I guess the content of NTC Bill may be sustained as objects that would be applied to reinforce the regulatory impetus of Nigeria Shippers’ Council. On the other hand, the structure could also be subsumed into the Nigeria Shippers Council as a Department or a Directorate.
Barr. Emmanuel Ohambele (AREFFN Chieftain)
The NTC Bill is wider in terms of coverage than the new bill sponsored by the Reps. The new Bill covers the port alone while the NTC has a wider range. It also has some duplication. I would prefer the NTC bill. Let the Shippers Council regulate the shipping aspect of the maritime industry. There are overlapping functions in the port. The Shippers Council is currently spreading its tentacles to areas like trying to do the job of the CRFFN. We pay operational fees for the Shippers Council and also to CRFFN, then the question is who is regulating who? If the Federal Government should adopt the Oransanye committee report, you would see that it will take care of all these modifications of government agencies. The government is trying to curtail the expenses of government expenses.
Engr. Matthew Alalade (Former President, Merchant Navy)
There are lots of things at stake now. The Oransanye committee report is pushing for most of the agencies to collapse into one or two. So we don’t even know if it will affect it or not yet. We don’t know what the federal government is planning now. Probably they will collapse it to the Shippers Council or NIMASA. I know that the President is serious about this Oransanye report. The NTC is a transport policy and I believe we must have a transport policy that will guide us including our institutions and schools.
Fwdr. Francis Omotosho (Registrar, NAGAFF Academy)
Well, it is obvious that once the new bill aimed to repeal the Nigerian Shippers’ Council Act is approved and assented to by Mr. President; it will definitely subsume the old National Transport Commission Bill (NTC). No doubt, the NTC bill is somewhat controversial and complicated, as its objective is to undertake and regulate all economic activities in Nigeria’s transport sector. Hitherto, the bill did not go down well with so many other agencies, even at the Federal Ministry of Transport. However, this new bill also poses some reservations to some government agencies in the maritime sector if the name is not properly coined and formulated to reflect the focus objective of the Shippers’ Council. To put this new bill in its proper perspective of objective as emphasized by the founding fathers of NSC then the name must change to National Logistics and Port Economic Regulatory Agency, to regulate all economic logistics costs of Import and Export Services: Tariff, Rate and Charges.
Innocent Elum (BoT Secretary, AREFFN)
Well, my take is that both the Nigerian Shipping and Port Regulatory Agency Bill and the National Transport Commission (NTC) bill should be merged for operational efficiency and cost effectiveness. This is because there are traces of overlapping functions between the two bills.
