Oluyinka Onigbinde
The founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF); Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has urged all players and stakeholders in the maritime sector to support the Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) Sen. Rabiu Kwakwanso to become the next president of the country come 2023.
Aniebonam said this while speaking at a press briefing organised by Prime Maritime Project (PMP), a Maritime and Transport Logistics-centric organisation.
Aniebonam who also doubles as the founder of the NNPP, stated that there is a system breakdown in the country, while adding that the new Nigeria desired by Nigerians can be given to them through the NNPP.
He described the presidential candidate of the NNPP as a special breed who can help resolve challenges confronting the maritime sector and the country at large, if given the support.
According to him “NNPP has been working for the past 21 years and what you see now is a result of years of sacrifice.
“Politicians tell all sorts of lies and nobody is holding them responsible, maybe because of the poverty in the land, there is system breakdown and Nigeria has never been divided like this
“Look at it, Apapa is completely down. The hotels are shutting down because there are no roads, but when the going gets tough, the tough get going
“We believe God has come to look at Nigeria as an entity. NNPP is a child of circumstance arising from what we saw and we believe it’s better to fight from the inside (maritime industry) because when you have access to the sea, you have access to the world.
“Every Nigerian is looking for a new Nigeria and that’s why I believe that God is working with us because our party is NNPP.
“Kwakwanso is a special breed and I believe he will perform wonderfully well” he stated.
Speaking earlier, one of the organisers of the event; Mr Asu Beks a senior maritime journalist informed that the resources in the maritime sector is worth over N91 trillion and as such there is need to engage all the presidential aspirants as to how they intend to resolve the challenges in the maritime sector.
“We feel that this sector cannot be taken for granted any longer and so we came up with this idea to challenge the key presidential aspirants, as we speak we’ve already sent out letters to them they have the itinerary, when we are going to engage the candidates one after the other and so the first to take up is the NNPP aspirant
“We have invited all the critical stakeholders in the sector to a town hall meeting with the candidate of NNPP.
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“Also for the past eight years most of the appointees have been politicians and as such we have found it very difficult to drive the sector because they come with their political interests and not the interest of the sector and then we are also saying we are overdue for a maritime ministry so there are lot of issues to be thrown up on that day.
On his part Mr Kingsley Anaroke lamented that many of our ports are old and are due for rehabilitation.
He also informed that despite the huge resources and the contribution of the maritime sector to the economy, the Nigeria Bureau of statistics (NBS) has not deemed it fit to recognise the sector while stating that the sector should be given the attention it deserves.
“We are saying let’s play this politics with them, if they can offer us what we want, we will give them over 15 million votes in the maritime sector” he added.
The forum is expected to offer the Kwankwasiyya Movement leader the opportunity to enter into a social contract with the stakeholders on what they should expect from the NNPP government should the party come into power in 2023.
The event will be chaired and moderated by a maritime technocrat, Otunba Kunle Folarin, who is also the Chairman, Nigerian Ports Consultative Council (NPCC), the organisers added.
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