Last week, the minister of transport, Alhaji Ibrahim Isa Bio lampooned the management of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for allegedly not having a development plan for the nation’s seaports. He consequently charged the Abdusallam Mohammed – led management to produce one. He chose an auspicious meeting with visiting members of the executive council of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) to open this seeming can of worms.
“Unfortunately, no master plan from NPA to carry to the (Federal Executive) Council for approval”, he reportedly lamented. He therefore directed that the organisation should bring forth a development plan which he can in turn present o the Federal Executive Council.
According to the minister, any organisation without a developmental plan will continue to drift and there would be no measure of improvement. “Let the NPA have a 25 to 30 years port development plan. NPA has the capacity and the resources if they can only plan,’’ he said.
The minister was also quoted as acknowledging that both Apapa and Tin Can Island ports are currently choked up, owing to growth in the nation’s cargo throughput and no corresponding growth in port infrastructures and lack of expansion.
Lamenting further, he had told the journalists that for 20 years, port infrastructure had decayed, with no good port access roads and no rail.
At first, a casual observer will read that story and conclude that the present management of NPA is not a proactive one and that it lacks vision.
While not speaking for NPA or its management, we will however (as a stakeholder in the Nigerian maritime industry) like to bring out some salient facts which we believe need to be brought to the fore.
We are aware that NPA has as far back as January 2009 advertised for expression of interest for the provision of consultancy services for the development of national Port Master Plan. We are also aware that at least 18 bids from 15 companies were received for the tender. Three of the companies are foreign based and they include highly respected, Royal Haskoning of Netherlands, CARES Consultant of United Kingdom and CPCS Company of Canada.
As far back as February last year, the managing director of NPA had at a stakeholders meeting in Lagos unfolded efforts that are geared towards evolving a maser plan.
He had told the gathering which included concessionaires, shipping lines and others of the immediate need for the evolution of a comprehensive port development master plan, which according to him, “would improve the capacity of the nation’s seaports, as envisaged in the proposed 25-year Port Development Master Plan for the Nigerian Ports Authority” It is the surest permanent solution to solving port congestion problems, he had said.
“I know that when we say 25 years, people will say it is quite ambitious. I believe it is, but I believe that any good plan can provide a very good guide for the first 10 years. After those 10 years, you will have a very good road map and that is what the plan is”.
On this premise, we think that it will be wrong and unfair to open the management of NPA to such ridicule.
If there is lack of cordial relationship between the minister and managers at NPA, then the best option is to seek peace and not to seek to wash the dirty linen in public. As the supervisory minister, it will pad his profile if the development plan is eventually tabled at the Federal Executive Council meeting. There is no evidence that he has been disobeyed by NPA management on this mater or on any mater for that mater.
It probably did not occur to the minister that he also shares in the blame if indeed there is no development plan for the nation’s seaports. From what has been sated above, the issue can no longer be absence of a plan, but perhaps a disagreement over modalities.
The obvious failures of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria are as much the failure of the supervisory minister of power as that of the management of the agency. Not many mention he management of PHCN, but the minister is already dubbed a failure.
As for the minister of transport, since NPA has already gone far even to the pint of receiving tenders from some companies, what is left is to take it up from there and not to shift blame.
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