Ministry of transport, bpe disagree over ntc bill … As Senate tables bill for Second Reading

Even as the Senate is set to subject the much- expected National Transport Commission (NTC) bill to public hearing soon, a sharp division between the Ministry of transportation and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on the content of the bill has emerged.
The ministry and the BPE have at one time or the other been accused  by the National Assembly of deliberately slowing down the process of passing the bill, a development which necessitated the introduction of the bill a s a private member bill at the Senate last year.
Sources close to the Senator Gbemi Saraki-led House committee on marine transport confirmed to Shipping Position Weekly that the bill is set for the statutory Second Reading after which it will go for public hearing during which stakeholders including the ministry and the BPE are expected to canvass their positions.
Even though no ministry official was willing to be quoted on the face-off, it was however confirmed that the issue of the controversial bill and the position of the ministry came up at the retreat which held recently  in Lagos between the minister of transport Alhaji Ibrahim Isa Bio, top ministry officials and chief executives of agencies under the ministry.
Sources at the meeting confirmed that ministry officials who have been opposed to the BPE version of the NTC bill convinced the new minister that if passed as been proposed by the bureau, the proposed NTC will erode the powers of the ministry.  
The BPE is proposing a holistic transport and aviation sectors regulatory agency that will act as both commercial and technical regulator and be independent of the two ministries. 
“Under the BPE option, the NTC is expected to vet all licenses, approval and authourities emanating from all sub-sectoral agencies, which means that the agencies may no longer need the ministries again, except for policy directives”, our source explained.
Our source further confirmed that there are three divergent interests; the one which favours the transmutation of Nigerian Shippers’ Council to NTC, the one from the BPE and the position of the ministry of transportation.
“It is on the strength of these diverging stands that the Senate decided to consider the private member bill and I want to assure you that all stakeholders will be invited to the public hearing to make their cases.
However when contacted, the spokesperson for the BPE, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe expressed happiness that the bill is making progress at the Senate, even as he accused some unnamed individuals and bodies of “lifting the contents of our bill”.
He disagreed with the position of the transport ministry, insisting that “what the ministry is supposed to do is formulate policy, not manage the agencies under it, the regulator can not be under the ministry”.  
He argued that for the transport sector reforms to yield maximum result, there must be a truly independent regulatory agency, the umbilical cord between it and the ministry must be broken”.