Boldly advertised on the website of the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) is what it had done (?) to make the nation’s ports ISPS Code-compliant. According to the agency, it already has in place: Perimeter wall fence, Access Control, Light, CCTV: Patrol and Port Pass.
On the face of it, these are all that would probably be needed to make the ports ISPS Code- compliant.
The code embodies a comprehensive set of security measures introduced by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
Boldly advertised on the website of the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) is what it had done (?) to make the nation’s ports ISPS Code-compliant. According to the agency, it already has in place: Perimeter wall fence, Access Control, Light, CCTV: Patrol and Port Pass.
On the face of it, these are all that would probably be needed to make the ports ISPS Code- compliant.
The code embodies a comprehensive set of security measures introduced by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
And about two years after the flag-off of the all-important code in 2004, the then-minister of transport; Dr Abiye Sekibo had also boasted to a visiting special delegation of United States security personnel that: "Since after ISPS introduction, we are the first in Africa to be ISPS code compliant."
"Almost all the country’s oil and gas installations and other shipping facilities are ISPS code-compliant”, even as he added that, government has placed security agencies at the ports on full alert to avert any unlawful acts in shipping and other maritime businesses.
According to NPA, all the nation’s port have perimeter wall fence in order to prevent unauthorised persons from gaining entry into the port, in addition to access control gates that are manned by its Security operatives. All the port users are properly screened at the gate to ensure that only those with port permit and have genuine business to carry out are allowed access to the port, it says.
It goes further to state that “the entire port premises are well-illuminated at night for the safety of the vessels in our ports. There are also back-up generators in the event of power failure.There are Closed Circuit Televisions installed all over the ports to monitor the activities of port users. The CCTV is been manned 24 hours by the Security Department and the Port Terminal Operators (PTC).”
If Nigerian ports have all these, there would have been no justification for the US Coast Guard officials to rate our ports too low, and to follow it up with a threat to stop patronising our ports and oil terminals.
And if America had not issued the threat, there would have been no need for the recent high-profile gathering in Lagos where the issue of ISPS Code took centre stage and where government and its agencies admitted that the nation’s ports are far from being ISPS Code compliant.
That brings us to the most pertinent question: how did we get to this level of zero compliance; at least from the level that the then-minister of transport said we were? Or is it that Dr Sekibo was only fooling us when, in actual fact he knew that we had nothing on ground to qualify us for an ISPS Code compliant nation.
Funny enough, the ports are still marked as being complaint to the dictates of the ISPS, when in actual fact the managers of the nation’s ports know that the ports are far from meeting the standards.
May it be said that being compliant is not about painting our ports and putting barricades at the terminals, it’s not about putting clueless and half trained security personnel at the entry and exit points, it is also not about forming associations (we know of the existence of a group of chief security officers of the various ports and terminals who meet monthly under the aegis of Port Facility Security Officers) which have turned itself to a social gathering where stale information situation reports are shared monthly rather than as events unfold at the duty posts.
Being compliant is certainly not akin to using the police and customs officers to harass hapless customs agents. If the ports adhere to the modus operandi of the ISPS code, it would have been extremely difficult seeing the army of ‘port users’ who throng in and out of the ports and who mill around the various ports daily.
Finally, now that it has been agreed that the ports are not, then someone should ask questions about how the huge funds that were provided to certain officials were expended, especially in the build up to 2006.
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