Mr. Mohammed Sani Bala is the Secretary General of Lagos State Truck and Cargo Operators Committee (LASTCOC. He also serves in the same capacity in the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), In this interview with Joshua Yousouph, he dwells on issues affecting trucking in Lagos, and associated matters.
How will you appraise the maritime industry so far this year?
As far as I’m concerned, the maritime industry is on the path of becoming one of the efficient ports across the globe. This is due to some key policy decisions that have been implemented by the port regulatory authorities like the Nigerian Port Authority, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, as well as the Nigeria Customs Service. We have policy decisions like the Time Release Studies by the Nigeria Customs Service. We also have the National Single Window policy, Port Community System, Port Infrastructure Renewal, and the recent signing of an MoU between the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the Nigerian Railway Corporation for seamless evacuation of cargo from seaports to Inland Container Depots across the country, which I believe will go a long way in bolstering the position of the Nigerian ports as the leading maritime sector in West Africa. It will also enhance port facilitation, ease of doing business, seamless evacuation of cargo, improve our port efficiency, improve revenue generation, accountability, and economic growth and development of the Nigerian economy.
How would you appraise the first-year tenure of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy?
Well, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy minister has performed excellently due to the fact that he has tremendously raised the marine revenue generation by 92 percent; for instance, from $126 billion to $242 billion through the Nigerian Port Authority and NIMASA through the deployment of modern technology. If you look at it, the ministry has emerged as the best-performing ministry in terms of Ease of Doing Business ranking by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC). He also gingered the joint implementation of the Nigerian Port Process Manual on board Vessels and Operation Port Corridor. He also introduced a comprehensive four-year key performance indicator implementation to guide the ministry and the agencies under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. So, while acknowledging this achievement, we are yet to feel the impact of the Minister in the haulage sector of the maritime industry because there are so many problems that are taken a serious toll on the transportation business. Like this issue of multiple checkpoints of extortions on both in-bound and out-bound sections of the port corridor. We have governmental and non-governmental extortion bandits that are extorting truckers, sabotaging haulage transport in the morning, afternoon, and night. They operate 24 hours. So, their activities are really affecting our business seriously. So, we need the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, to address these activities and issues that are affecting the transport sector. They should find an everlasting solution, so that the truckers will be able to serve efficiently and profitably without harassment and intimidation.
Why do you think it has been difficult for the government to eradicate extortions on port access roads?
It is because there is a lack of political will. Look at Lagos State; when the Lagos State government said they don’t want okada riders and they implemented a ban against okada, they deployed a task force to go after the riders and their motorcycles on roads that are banned. This is because there is a will by the government. So, we would like the federal government and the state government to replicate this same will to address this issue of multiple extortions along the port corridor as well as the ECOWAS corridor along Lagos-Badagry Expressway. Most of our trucks now look damaged, not complying with minimum standards as a result of damage done to them by all truck bandits on the road. Last week a container carrying exports fell just close to Ojo Barrack along the ECOWAS route. This is an export that is going to generate foreign exchange for the country. These hoodlums brought it down just because of extortion. The hoodlums took away the battery cover and disappeared. So, we need federal government intervention. We need a serious political will from both the state and federal government. They should convey an emergency summit on how best to tackle this problem of extortion along the port corridor as well as the ECOWAS international corridor along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. According to the Taxes and Levies Act of the Laws of Federation of Nigeria 2004, sub section 2, nobody is allowed to mount a roadblock in any part of the federation for the purpose of collecting any tax or levies. So, we need the federal government to invoke this law against all these hoodlums that are mounting checkpoints along the Port Corridor and also the ECOWAS Corridor in order to promote trade facilitation and the seamless evacuation of cargo and ease of business in general.
How will you appraise the electronic call-up system at Lagos ports?
If we look at the economic loss, and the grim ordeal the truckers went through before the deployment of the call-up system and compare then and now, we will see a significant improvement in terms of access to the port. You don’t have to be buying tags of about N200,000 and above, without even having assurance that you will get to the port. With the introduction of the electronic call-up system, truckers don’t have to go through any government security or traffic agency to access the port. So, what they just need to do is open their smartphones and book for Eto call-up with N21,500. When it’s time, they will be back from ‘pre-gate’ enroute the port. So, there is a serious improvement. The coming of a call-up system has brought a kind of relief. It’s a watershed in the maritime haulage sector. So, it has promoted the ease of doing business and seamless evacuation of cargo to and from the port. Despite the achievements by the eto call-up system, there are some challenges that I see interfering with the efficiency of the system such as the efficiency of terminal operations. The operation of our terminals which is somehow slow is seriously affecting the batching of trucks through the call-up to the terminals. Trucks will be released from the Pre-gates and they spend several days without entering the port because of the nature of the terminal operations, which is asthmatic and very slow. So, I would like the Nigerian Ports Authority to see what they can do to enhance terminal operational efficiency and also see how they can address the multiple extortion checkpoints that are between pre-gates and the port terminals because these extortion checkpoints do affect the movement of trucks. So, truck drivers that are unable to settle those at the checkpoints are often delayed from accessing the ports which also affect the batching of trucks from the eto Pre-gates to the terminal.
Recently, TTP proposed eTag technology for trucks. How effective has it been?
It is yet to be implemented. I think they are yet to approve the deployment of the technology. If the e-tag technology is deployed, it will address the issue of call-up racketeering. Only trucks that book will be able to access the ports. A call-up that is booked for truck ‘A’ cannot be transferred to truck ‘B’ under this arrangement. So, it will address the issue of call-up racketeering, theft of identity where one truck has multiple identities. It will even checkmate the activities of people that are diverting containers. You will be able to have a record of all the trucks that enter and come out of the ports. So, if anything happens, we will be able to trace the origin of that truck.
Sometimes last year, a body of truckers LASTCOC was inaugurated, but it seems as if LASTCOC has been silent for a while. Why is this so?
We can say LASTCOC has only been silent in the port corridor because the port corridor is not LASTCOC’s jurisdiction, but LASTCOC is very active outside the port environment in addressing the issue of hoodlums harassing truck drivers and also going after hoodlums that are extorting trucks. If a truck breaks down, there are emergency numbers that you call and the LASTCOC zonal representative will come to your rescue immediately. So, LASTCOC is only active outside the port corridor. So, we’ll see how we can establish a cordial working relationship with the port authorities in order to promote trade facilitation and to address the evacuation of cargo as well as the problem of extortion along the port corridor. LASTCOC embarked on a zero-route clearance effort at the Tin-Can Port corridor. We mobilized our members to ensure free flow of traffic at the Tin- Can – Mile 2 port access road which brought some sense of relief to road users.
There are indications that there are still some divisions and factional groups among some trucking associations, particularly in NAMTOP. Why is this so?
This problem arose from a power tussle between two factions. We have the Alhaji Lukmon Zangalo’s faction. We also have the Alhaji Moshood Adisa’s faction. So, the matter was taken to Lagos State High Court. We are awaiting the judgment from the Lagos State High Court, nobody or faction is allowed to parade itself as representing NAMTOP in interaction with authorities and relevant stakeholders. So, the matter is still pending before the Lagos State High Court. Anyone or any faction parading itself as representing NAMTOP or claiming to represent the NAPTOP is committing contempt of court. So, we have to wait for the outcome of the court judgment, before any faction can claim to be representing the NAMTOP leadership for now.
There was an alleged disbandment of COMTUA. But recently it seems as if COMTUA is coming up again in the news. What is your take on this?
Well, based on the evidence on ground, the associations that formed COMTUA also came together and dissolved COMTUA sometime last year and they said that COMTUA does not exist anymore. Anybody that is parading COMTUA is doing so illegally and an imposter because COMTUA is not registered and not a legal entity. It is not recognized by law and it has been disbanded. So, COMTUA has been disbanded according to the founding associations.
