The Death Of NNSL And The Quest For National Fleet

While playing host to members of the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners recently, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council; Mr Hassan Bello drew attention of his guests to the unenviable status of Nigeria as a self-styled maritime nation.

He told the master mariners what they ought to know. “Unless we have ships, we are just pretending that we are a maritime nation, forget about the cargo or coast line or the waterfront or ports", he said. His point: unless and until Nigeria begins to own vessels, it cannot be considered as a maritime nation.

He had also charged the association, which was led on the visit by its President; Capt. Ade Olopoenia, to be a part of the movement that will galvanize support to rebuild a national fleet for Nigeria. The fleet, he stressed is important if Nigeria is to compete favourably with the rest of the shipping world.

The Shippers’ Council boss reminisced on the glorious days of the Nigeria National Shipping Line (NNSL) where master mariners and others were trained and worked aboard Nigerian-flagged vessels. Of course, his guests were also part of those glorious days.

The Nigerian government acquired 100 percent of the company in 1961. It was previously operated on a 51 percent share owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria and 49 percent share owned by two British companies as technical partners- Elder Dempter Line Limited and Palm Line Limited.

The story of NNSL is a confirmation of the fact Nigeria has a history of ship ownership. The federal government had been actively involved in ship ownership, especially through the NNSL before it was liquidated in 1995. A second attempt through the Ship Acquisition and Ship Building Fund (SASBF) equally hit the rocks and that is why we are today (rightly) a maritime nation without ships.
The demise of the NNSL heralded a total disappearance of the fleet of the vessels that provided the sea time training opportunities for the seafarers, as cadets from maritime training institutions that served on board the NNSL vessels were also under its sponsorship.
While the defunct NNSL at a time had a fleet that is in excess of 21 bulk carriers, beneficiaries of the SASBF could only account for a few vessels that could not stand the test of time. Sadly, none of the few ships that were bought with the SASBF is still sailing. Some beneficiaries did not even purchase any ship with the loans that they got.
And since the failure of both the NNSL and the SASBF, the question has been how to get the country back on track as a ship-owning nation.
While some have argued that government’s direct participation in shipping through tonnage ownership is no longer in vogue, especially as most African nations have done away with the idea, it is also arguable that government can not completely divest from this core sector of the nation’s economy.
We note that there have been feeble attempts on the path of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to galvanize the finance sector, especially banks to embrace ship financing. Although the idea of partnering with the banks predates the present management of the agency, it has not been well taken advantage of by the present management of the apex maritime regulatory body. It’s been the same with previous managements.
Equally disturbing is the fact that, not until the Cabotage law came into the center stage, there was little or no interest on the part of the financial institutions to be a part of efforts that were aimed at boosting indigenous fleet.
When government threw its weight behind fleet expansion, there was no Cabotage. We make bold to state that the Cabotage law has not so much enhanced ship acquisition, neither has it enhanced the fortunes of indigenous ship owners.
Our thinking is that since one of the core functions of NIMASA is enhancement of indigenous bottoms, it should not wait until the nation becomes a ship-less one, due to depletion before it begins to fashion out a workable and sustainable way to boost our indigenous fleet.
But, there also exists a big disagreement about how to go about reinventing Nigeria as a ship-owning nation, once again.
While some stakeholders are of the belief that the right path is through revival of NNSL, others feel that, it is too late in the day to venture into it.
For instance, a former acting managing director of the erstwhile national carrier; Capt Abiodun Omoteso argued that Nigeria cannot go and buy any container carrier, bulk or RoRo carriers to compete with the western ship-owners who own the cargo.
To buttress his position, he noted that no African nation currently operates a government-funded national carrier , even across the world except in Iran and Iraq, which is not for profit, but to keep the them afloat whenever they are sanctioned by the west.
While not totally disagreeing with Capt Omoteso, we are however of the opinion that NIMASA should take its mandate (especially in the area of ship ownership) more seriously by designing a format that will save the nation from the embarrassment of being a ship-less maritime nation.
One of the most painful fall-outs from our present status is that our maritime boundaries have become exposed to massive influx of foreign ships and foreign seafarers from different parts of the world with different nationalities thereby jeopardising Nigeria’s national security.
Whatever it will take, there must be a deliberate policy to make Nigeria own ships once again. If the option of a wholly government owned outfit is no longer practicable, we are sure that local players can be supported to get on board.
The few supply boats that we have can not qualify for a maritime nation. A deliberate collaboration between government and the private sector may just be the answer.