Chief Osita Chukwu Patrick is the Coordinator, Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers Exporters Coalition and he spoke with our correspondent Roland Ekama on the recent visit by the Senior Special Adviser to the president on maritime affairs; Mr Leke Oyewole to the ports in Lagos. He also spoke on port operations and other sundry issues.
Looking at Customs from 1960 to date, what is your assessment?
Chief Osita Chukwu Patrick is the Coordinator, Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers Exporters Coalition and he spoke with our correspondent Roland Ekama on the recent visit by the Senior Special Adviser to the president on maritime affairs; Mr Leke Oyewole to the ports in Lagos. He also spoke on port operations and other sundry issues.
Looking at Customs from 1960 to date, what is your assessment?
I will not say they have done too badly, but they need to do more in order to improve. But back then was when Customs was Customs; they will not intimidate, molest, harass or use offensive words on people, unlike today that when you get to some offices, they will tell you to get out of their office; the office is a public office and not their office. I always tell them not to make such statement anymore. It is Nigeria Customs service office and not their office.
How would you describe the maritime industry so far in 2013?
We have tried. It took America and Britain a very long time to get to where they are today. Our problem is lack of focus towards facing the challenges we have.
We have a lot of sycophants in the industry who will not tell the truth. We need attitudinal change both with the freight forwarders, shippers, Customs and all the port operators and to put an end to this, all hands must be on deck.
Looking at the committee set up by the Minister recently, do you think it is the right step to take?
It is the right thing.
But previous committees have failed because it was alleged that they have been using the wrong people?
You have to use the people in the industry so that they will be able to tell you what is happening in the industry. Don’t use somebody because he is your friend or on political ally.
If you use the right person, the industry will move forward even when they wanted to establish port reform committee, I told them to use experts. The special adviser to the President on Maritime, Mr Leke Oyewole has shown commitment by coming out to change and push the unpushables. That is what is called commitment. He was able to say what the minister could not say. Quote me anywhere, the minister was not able to push those unpushables that Leke pushed. Leke said; “you cannot create a bottleneck and we will sit down and look at you even if you have political backing”.
When the special adviser came to the port, he gave an ultimatum of 30 days to the defaulting terminal operators, the Minister later came to set up a committee, what can you deduce from this?
Those people that feel they have people behind them are trying to stall the adviser’s effort, but they can never succeed. I am going to support him even up to international level. Leke Oyewole should be given more chance to perform. He has a lot in him and he has not even been given chance to give one tenth of what he can do. He knows the nooks and crannies of the industry and he is able to tell the president exactly what is happening. If you make him the Minister in charge of the ports, under few weeks he will turn around the ports.
Is Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers Exporters Coalition a registered entity under Corporate Affairs Commission?
We are registered. We have written them, we have sent our men there. All our people are there; men and women. The process is going on, if someone is processing a registration and has paid, what else? CRFFN should carry all the associations along. Those who believe that they are the umbrella body are trying to put some dents on some of the associations. We are ready for anything to make things work.
What do you think is behind some of the problems of the terminal operators in recent time?
The NPA is the landlord; they should be able to monitor the terminals to be able to know when they are full with containers. They should not give rooms to continue to pack the terminal with containers at the expense of the terminal operators. When you collect money to say this vessel can berth, it means you are causing confusion. They even go ahead to do ‘PR’ for ships to berth without minding that the terminals are full of containers. It’s not all the terminals that are bad, go to Ports and Cargo terminal, I rate them the best in the whole federation. I was not told but I went there myself and saw everything. Nobody told me to rate them but I did that based on what I saw on ground. This is followed by Five Star Logistics, followed by ENL, if you see the trucks, you will know them. We would soon make them available to you how we have finished rating them. You will see the committee, the scores and those that took us around for inspection.
It has been alleged that Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers Exporters Coalition is only on ground in Lagos, how true is this?
How can we be in Lagos alone? We have representatives in Port Harcourt, Calabar and Warri but because of monopoly, they were able to push them aside. In Port Harcourt Container Terminal, we have office and if we don’t have, how would we have gone on the zonal tours? We have done what most associations cannot do. We have shown them how to operate to achieve best practices.
Looking at Lilypond, how do you think it can be revived?
The only way to revive Lilypond is to allocate vessels to it; not even containers and Customs should quash the issue of rotation number. Customs is Customs and their account should be one. The issue of code as to where you pay money should also be stopped because the issue of finding out who has generated the highest revenue is causing further decline to the fortune of Lilypond
It should be that when vessels arrive the ports, Lilypond should handle this and others should handle that, in order to give it a lifeline.
Considering the congestion at TICT, don’t you think it is advisable to transfer some to Lilypond?
They should forget about who is in Lilypond or Apapa, they should push containers to bonded terminals and push customs there as well and let them work. The backlog of containers should be removed to make way for others to come in.
If Shippers’ Council is made the commercial regulator in the port, do you think they will perform well?
It is the best thing that can happen to transport ministry. That will be a credit for the ministry. In fact, they have been there performing the function even when they were not given the role. They have been there for us. NPA’s job is defined, NIMASA’s job is defined, and Shippers’ Council should be the commercial regulator, there are no two ways about it. I know they will perform, but I am considering the work force.
Without the Ports & Habour Bill passed into law, do you think it is possible to make Shipper’s Council a commercial regulator?
If there is an emergency, the bottleneck of law cannot help us. What does it take to make law or to amend law? We are talking of exigencies here. Once it is said, approved, it becomes law.
It is alleged that your association is a one-man show, how can you react to him?
When people criticize and challenge us, it makes us stronger and better. We are waxing stronger. We are being criticized because of the way we say it; others reserve, but we say it all without reservations.
What is your relationship with the EFCC like, and how many cases have you reported to it so far?
The relationship is to flush out corruption from the system. It is, for any corrupt tendency to be checkmated. There are many cases, some are in the court and some are under investigations.
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