Professor Sylvester Monye is the Special Adviser to the president on Performance monitoring and evaluation. He is currently the chairman of Port Monitoring committee. He spoke in that capacity to the press late last year in Lagos on the committee’s assignment. Roland Ekama was there for Shipping Position Daily. He put this excerpt together after the media chat..
On failure of terminal operators to take back their empty containers promptly
Professor Sylvester Monye is the Special Adviser to the president on Performance monitoring and evaluation. He is currently the chairman of Port Monitoring committee. He spoke in that capacity to the press late last year in Lagos on the committee’s assignment. Roland Ekama was there for Shipping Position Daily. He put this excerpt together after the media chat..
On failure of terminal operators to take back their empty containers promptly
I will say it is a scam, because we have the mandate of the president to clear the roads and the empty containers that is all I can tell you. We recognize the fact that it is a scam; the shipping lines are not allowed to keep the containers out on the roads, they must create a holding bay where these containers will be offloaded and then pick it when they are ready to pick it, but not to leave them on the road because it’s a mess to the road users, in fact it is an embarrassment to anyone who is a Nigerian. The intention of the government is to clear it and the shipping lines with the owners of the containers will be held responsible for any containers that we see out there again.
On the 4000 containers that have piled up in the ports
I am delighted that you noted in your remarks that I talked about institutionalization. We cannot continue as a country to do this type of exercise on a regular basis, it is really time- consuming and costly for those involved because the objective of this exercise is to clear the ports once and for all and put in place measures to ensure that it does not re occur again which is the whole idea of institutionalization. So, we will have operational guidelines developed by Nigeria Port Authority, NPA as landlord in the ports will ensure that such do not occur again. We are also working on regulation so that everybody knows how to conduct themselves at the port. Also in regards to the other question of other ports, first of all lets acknowledged that Lagos ports that is the Tin Can Island and Apapa port make up 60%or 70% of our shipping operations in Nigeria, but our meeting in Abuja include people from Port Harcourt, Warri and Calabar. Therefore it is nationwide because what we are doing here will be replicated in every single port in our country, so it not about Lagos alone and we are going to take a holistic approach to the problem and have a longer lasting solution.
On the logistics put in place and the time frame for the committee
There are some documents which will be made available to everybody on the time frame for every single operation that we want to embark on, the deliverables are listed and the time line for achieving those deliverables which I will give out after this time out. In terms of logistics, the Nigeria Port Authority has put in place an excellent logistic arrangement to ensure that those containers move out of the port; hitch free with minimum disruption of traffic within and around Lagos. It will also involve significant moving of traffic at night, not only in the day and the bulk of the movement will be on barges as well as movement in the night but we have a target that we must move these containers out within two weeks.
On the possibility of achieving 24 hours cargo clearance where there are problems of power outage in the port at night?
I am sure you are aware that the port operators that is the terminal operators operates 24 hours in the port, they have all the power system on ground in fact one of their complaints is that they generate their own power and what that means is that it is not only containers that are brought in as you know. They are cargoes that come in and needs to be offloaded on 24 hours basis, so regardless of the ports, the terminal operators on their part operate 24 hour, but despite that we insist that customs ,immigrations and other agencies all are allowed to operate in port must operate 24 hours. However, I said that at the beginning of my presentation that currently these guys are idle because people do not know yet that our ports are now operating on 24 hour basis. You may recall that the president said he wants to transform Nigeria and this part of the transformation. It was in 1968 0r 1966 that the lights in our port were switched off, so we are switching the lights on at our ports during this regime, so it is something too applauded.
On the provision of adequate security within and outside the ports for clearing of containers and for doing business at night in the ports?
We have a mandate from the president and that mandate is to clear the port, my colleagues from the Nigerian Port Authority. I have no interest with his work ethics and conducts, all I am interested with is that since he is working with the government will do what he is told to do by the president who was elected by the people, because the people gave him the mandate to run this country, so he is one of the millions of people assisting him to achieve his mandate in the country, so he has to do what he is told to do. Whatever the work ethics is, I am not interested, what I am interested in is that he will conform to instructions. Similarly, those concessionaires that we are talking about must abide by the spirit and letters of their contracts, they are not the owners of the ports, and they are here on a temporary basis subjected to good behavior and good performance. The fact that they have such in the past those not mean it will continue, I also said that we are working on getting guidelines from Nigeria Port Authority so that everybody will understand what their responsibilities are at the port .We will also work to get a regulator put in place so that everybody’s conduct will be regulated and these are process of re- institutionalizing the good practice that is common everywhere. Taking about moving cargoes at night, most of the smuggling is done in the night; they smuggle into Nigeria and drive into the country without been bothered about security. On a more serious note, as we speak, trucks move at night, they move routinely at night; in fact in most civilized part of the world, trucks move mostly at night, not during the day, so that is what we want to do .We are pessimist as Nigerians, remember when banks were talking about using ATMs, everybody said it will not work because of fraud, but as at today, it is working very well, also when GSM came out, most people said it would not work because there is no electricity and power in Nigeria, but today what do we have ? GSM has come to stay and why do you think that moving your cargo from here to Ibadan will not work, already people are moving at night; I am sure you are aware about that even buses and at the peak of our problems with armed robbery buses were moving even with attacks by the robbers .I don’t know the last time you read a story of robbery attack on buses. It is rare these days, certainly is not in any frequency that we are accustomed to, so I have no reason to believe that it is an impediment of crime of possible threat of armed robbery is a consideration for us not to operate under 24 hours when in fact Cotonou opens 24 hours.
On tanker drivers that park indiscriminately on the road and also the poor state of the port access road?
The tankers within the port environment will be moved, I want to say that we will clear Lagos roads and people of Lagos will be happy and I am sure that the Governor of Lagos State will be happy to hear this development because the roads are all messed up with trucks, tankers and trailers.
On mandate of the president to long term measures?
Thank you, one of the benefits is that you should learn from your previous mistake that is one major advantage .We recognized some of those weaknesses ,if you take a list of the deliverables that range from immediate, two weeks ,one month to seven years including the building of railway lines and rehabilitations of existing railways into the port and outside the port which are in picture so it a short medium and long term, but the key is not whether it is long ,short or medium term project, the key is to put in place a system that will ensure that it lasts, whether it means by legislature or gazzetting of this action or anything that requires this action must be done to get good result because of the mistake of the past, therefore I do not want a situation where I will come, I do not want a situation whereby I will lead another port committee, we do not want to be treated like committee and say; we have seen this type of committee before, very soon this committee will go and another one will come no, we want to ensure that regardless of who takes over in the next administration, the system continues to work and this what happen in other countries. Now the nearest port to use here is Cotonou, regardless of who is the president, the port is independent of the president because is a system of its own and we need to put the system in place which the president is doing and that is the whole essence of the transformation, it is not about move the containers and later we go back to square one.
On Customs preparedness for 24- hour cargo clearance from the port, and publicity for the assignment
I won’t speak for Customs, but you already said even in your remarks that you were there and some customs official said to you that they are agents of the government. But from his comment it has nothing to do with the customs. However publicity is not my mandate but let me say this that the port owners are NPA and NPA has a duty to increase their revenue base. It is in the president budget speech go and read it up and have a full knowledge of what I am talking about. The president said we have to increase non- oil revenue through agencies such as the Nigerian Port Authority, so it is their responsibility to create awareness. Now we are briefing the press and your duty is to report what is happening and we are using you all. I will be surprised if your publisher says that other media houses are reporting and you are not reporting, so it is not a question of we are using the press rather it is your responsibility for the money been paid to do your work diligently on that sector and something is going on in that sector and you do not report, then what kind of a press man are you. So it is not a question of being used, it is about you getting first information about what is happening in the sector and informing the public. Your paper is sold on the basis of information that it’s conveyed to the public ,so I buy your paper based on the information it conveys.
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