Otunba Kunle Folarin is the Chairman of Port Consultative Council (PCC), he is also the chairman, National Seafarers Welfare Board. In this interview with Roland Ekama, he speaks on the plight of the two Nigerian seafarers who were recently freed by Somali pirates, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and other sundry industry issues
What is your assessment of the port operations in the first quarter of the year?
Otunba Kunle Folarin is the Chairman of Port Consultative Council (PCC), he is also the chairman, National Seafarers Welfare Board. In this interview with Roland Ekama, he speaks on the plight of the two Nigerian seafarers who were recently freed by Somali pirates, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and other sundry industry issues
What is your assessment of the port operations in the first quarter of the year?
The first quarter of the year is somehow slow because of the issue that those who make the port busy, like importers will be assessing the economic environment ,whether there will be a change in import duty, whether there will new charges in the statutory agencies operating in the port, so that they can factor that into the cost of importing so there could be new regulations from the Central Bank on how to operate in the port .Usually the first quarter is handled with caution because it affects the cargo volumes that will come into the ports system and also in the beginning of the year to assess whether there will be an early release of the budget and as you know this year for example, the approval for the budget came in the last month of the quarter ,so there were not much that could be done because you cannot continue to operate a system that has not yet been approved. But in terms of actual performance, the ports have been active, but of course cargo throughput has been affected because of issues that I have raised. If you go to the terminals today you find out that there is lower inflow of cargo, specifically when you go to Lilypond ,you will see that cargo transfer to that terminal is low and in actual fact that terminal is almost empty. I believe also that the bonded terminals were also affected. In terms of customs and other agencies who operate in the ports, revenue generation will also be similarly affected, there will be no operational problems, no industrial dispute of note between the customs and those who use the services of the ports, which are: the clearing agents, the contractors, transporters and this has led to no high volume of activities.
The Port Consultative Council has been silence, why is this so?
That depend on what you mean as being quiet or silence because the PCC in the last six months has produced a major landmark document which is; the deep-sea ports development report for which PCC commissioned a thorough project ,which took us to Ghana ,to compare what happens in the region, it also took us to Benin Republic to see what happens in the Francophone nations and that is a major landmark which has affected the policy and has also given the authority a document to work with in terms of policies and we properly notice that Nigeria is the only country in West and Central Africa that has no deep sea port. If you go to Senegal in Dakar they have a deep sea port because they are all on the Atlantic and there is no Nigeria seaport that is in the Atlantic. We have eight coastal states that could actually house a deep sea port and we have to point our attention to that and did a thorough study to highlight the way to go about that. Also we have a standing committee on port operations and that committee produces quarterly reports on port operations and the mandate of this committee includes: monitoring compliance with all port procedure in terms of customs operations,the concessionaires operations, and in terms of other statutory agency in the ports like NAFDAC and SON activities are also covered by the operation's committee which is very active and they produce a quarterly report.
What has been the report for the first quarter?
The first quarter report will be coming up in April because when the quarter ends, it will come out but on the 25th of this month they will submit their report from the 1st of January to the 31st of March 2013.But for last year for example their report highlighted the need to look into destination inspection.
The story of the recently-freed Nigerian seafarers who were held by Somalia pirates has drawn a lot of attention to National Seafarers Welfare Board of Nigeria. What is your reaction to that?
Let me say this straight away, that the issue of piracy is a very big issue. It is not the issue of welfare alone it is an issue of what is happening within the environment which has to do with the Gulf of Guinea of which Nigeria is a member state. Maritime security is an issue that the federal government is taking seriously and don't forget that the government set up committee under the Navy which actually have to look at maritime security because piracy is an issue which will affect the economy of the country and all our international shipping partners might impose some charges on Nigeria- bound cargoes because of perceived difficulties created by piracy or the seafarers themselves will be scared of being on board any ship within West Africa. Therefore the issue of welfare is at the end of all the issues raised by that committee and I will tell you that in the whole of Africa, National Seafarer Welfare Board Nigeria is the only body that has hosted an international seminar and workshop on the humanitarian aspect of seafarers’ welfare after arising from piracy. Then with the present one you are talking about ,immediately it happened, the National Seafarers Welfare Board got in touch with the International Transport Federation (ITF) in London where they have a whole department dedicated to humanitarian and welfare issues to seafarers, thus we are giving them a report because in the past people have an ad- hoc approach to issues like this and it is ad-hoc in the sense that after the ordeal ,you welcome them, you pray for them and I want to say we are not for that ,we are already in talks with one of the seafarers that was affected since their arrival in Nigeria and the Seafarers Welfare Board secretary is already in talks with him and is producing a report. It is one thing to say this is what we are going to do with you but we don't just give out clothes and other materials, but we will ask the person what exactly do you want? Secondly we make sure that we get in touch with the owner of the ship and we will ask if he has any compensation package for the employees. Is he looking at rehabilitating them back that is, re absorbing them back to the job and this are the detailed study that we have to do first. The issue of giving them a kind of succour is okay, but the long term issue is one that is most important to us ,also making sure that they get all their entitlements from their employer ,then secondly we will make sure that they are emotionally stabilised and one of the major things to make them stabilise is to re absorb them back into the system and such study is being done now. And when that study is completed ,it will be forwarded to the International Transport Federation and I am sure that their response will give the next step; so there are three issues to look out for: first is that you look at what humanitarian we can do for them immediately, second, you look at how they can get their entitlement from the employer and finally see how to rehabilitate them and re absorb them back to the system because whatever you do for them can only be for temporary measures . The thing that should be done is to sustain them for the long run and stabilise them which has to do with getting them back to the system and those are the critical factors to look at and also you can only achieve that if you are working with organisations like ITF which has a whole department dealing with the humanitarian aspect of that incident and also to set a template on how do you do with this type of matter in the future.
One of seafarers confirmed that he is about to lose his sight, what then can be done to assist?
The humanitarian aspect will attend to the individual. I am losing my sight ,I am not feeling okay are all medical issues that have to be looked at on the basis of individual needs and I am sure if for instance you have a seafarer who comes forward to say that he is losing his sight and he approaches the National Seafarers Welfare Board , we will look for what we can do immediately about that; which is a humanitarian aspect, but sometimes the issue of medical is also in the condition of service for his employers to attend to and we can ask his employers that at the point and time of this medical issue, he was under your employment and whether he can look into it. In other words, we try to form a bridge between him and his employer because I am sure that in many positions you will find in the condition of service a lot of benefits are there which is already agreed upon by both parties because there is always an agreement between the employer and the employee at the time of engagement, particularly in seafaring there is a standard agreement that is entered to either by his manning agents (some of them did not get to the employer direct ,some get to employer through a manning agent) who recruit crews for ships on demand.
Attacks on vessels on our waters are becoming alarming, what do you think can be done to curb the menace of piracy?
Like I early said that this is a major issue, it is not an issue to be talk about by just talking to reporters .The issue of piracy (to be quite honest with you) is that the Nigeria government is trying a lot through NIMASA and through other bilateral approaches because like I said it is an issue for the region, it is an issue for all the countries in the Gulf of Guinea to have a response. Ghana, Benin Republic, Togo, Cameroon and Nigeria need to respond to the issue of piracy. You must be aware that NIMASA had a platform with Benin Republic which Nigeria intervened at a time to supply patrol boats to man that region. The federal government through NIMASA is acting to set deterrent in that area and even the pirates are aware that there is a deterrent, there is a force that is ready to combat it. Also, within Nigeria territorial waters, the Navy is there to form a deterrent to any issue of piracy. Maritime security is a major issue that has to be well thought-out. But, I think that the issue of piracy is a phenomenon that is happening in most regions in the world where there is international shipping. The IMO has got a procedure on ground whereby it can be adopted by many country in dealing with piracy and what is happening in Somalia has drawn the attention of the international community and even many state in that region to the menace of piracy.
In the Niger Delta region there have been series of report of attack on vessels, what is your take on that?
We will not like to comment on the issue of the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta is a national issue and what has been happening there recently, nobody at least outside the security agencies has got a full information to be able to comment that this is piracy, militancy or this is terrorism, but we are very much concerned at this stage about what happens with the sea-borne trade and I would like to end my comment on that with due respect. It is good to have very incisive information to determine whether if it is within our reach to make a comment and I want to stress that we are not commenting on any issue on the Niger Delta.
What can be done to better the lots of the Nigerian seafarers?
The issue of seafarers is not an issue of welfare alone because when you talk of welfare, you are looking at everything been equal , there is a part that needs help but when you talk of seafarers issues and development ,you have to situate it in proper perspective that is, there should be a national goal and again we should ask why we talk about seafarers; we talk about seafarers not only about welfare ,we talk about seafarer as a component of Nigeria development, seafaring as a part of the shipping industry and as part of the maritime sector because when you are looking at the maritime sector you now see that Nigeria international trade is very huge and over 150 million metric tonnes of cargoes enter Nigeria, according to statistics last year over 5,300 vessels called at the port last year too and issues that have to do with seafarers is employment and not really welfare because they want to be employed and if you look at the size of the opportunity whereby 5,300 vessels call in a country and we have about 10% of Nigerian-flagged vessels and they are employing Nigerians virtually you are taking a sizeable number of seafarers out of unemployment. Then the issue is – do we really have these people or do we have a class of people that is only one sided in seafaring.
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