With only about one year and two month to stay in office, the new minister may not have ‘sufficient’ time to do so many things, but he surely has sufficient time to do one thing, albeit among several contending issues.
The new minister has to listen to the cries of indigenous and foreign shipping companies; he has to listen to the agitation of dockworkers and now the stringent cries of unfavourable working conditions from employees of Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA). The new helmsman has to look into the activities of terminal operators, freight forwarders, operations of the various agencies under his watch.
To do all these, he sure needs more than 14 months; he probably will need about 14 years (or more) to successfully attend to the myriad of problems in the nation’s maritime sector.
Not many people (maritime sector stakeholders inclusive) gave the new team of ministers any chance of being able to make sufficient impact; essentially because of the short time that they have. And this was one of the reasons why majority of Nigerian called for the appointment of round pegs in round holes; that is giving ministerial nominees portfolios that are relevant to their professional background.
Based on these perceptions, the new minister of transport does not have the luxury of time. And coupled with the fact that he was least expected to emerge as the transport minister, he has a lot to do to meet the numerous but very important aspirations of stakeholders.
The maritime sector has always been a hotbed of conflicting interests; owing largely to the complexity of the sector. A few examples will suffice here. The relationship between operators of the port system namely: NPA, the terminal operators, shipping companies, freight forwarders is yet to be well- defined, hence the need for the new Port and Harbour Bill which is currently before the National Assembly
Outside the port system, perhaps the most important issue that the minister will be confronted with is that of implementation of the Cabotage Act which became effective in 2003 and which is already due for review. The law was enacted to offer job opportunities for Nigerian seafarers by increasing Nigeria’s tonnage via indigenous acquisition of ships. The law was also enacted to boost maritime infrastructure development including ship building and repairs.
Rather than grapple with what to do, the new minister whom we are told had stint at the then-National Maritime Authority (NMA) should try concentrating on some elements of the Cabotage Act. A holistic appraisal of the implementation of the Act will reveal that certain critical aspects have been largely untouched; about seven years after the Bill was signed into law.
For some years, indigenous ship owners have been crying of continued domination of costal affreightment of petroleum products by foreign flagged ships. The fact is that at the moment, foreign registered ships violate Cabotage Act with impunity and disrespect, so much so that Indigenous Shipowners Association of Nigeria (ISAN) has to deploy its machineries to effect the arrest and prosecution of foreign ships for allegedly violating that Act.
Imbedded in the Act are provisions that can aid vessel financing, shipping development and capacity building in the nation’s maritime sector and all the minister needs to do is to ask questions from the permanent secretary, the director general of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency as well as relevant stakeholder groups in the industry.
He is also likely to be told that the report of a high-powered committee that was constituted by one of his predecessors, Prince Okechukwu Emeka is still lying untouched, more than two years after the committee was inaugurated.
In between the pages in the report lies the solution to the myriads of problems which currently bedevils the implementation of Nigeria’s Cabotage Act.
But it takes more than just flipping through the voluminous pages of the report to get the problems solved. It requires the willingness to work because; the minister will be required to work closely with both NIMASA and the marine transport committee of both chambers of the National Assembly.
In between the pages are recommendations which fall within the purview of NIMASA; they are simply, issue that the agency can handle once the minister gives the go ahead.
For instance, the review committee had submitted that process leading to the granting of waiver clause is over-bureaucratic and not very transparent. It also submitted that “foreign vessels are allowed to operate, pending the consideration of their waiver application, provided they have settled equivalent debit notes. The vessels start operating before their waiver applications are approved. Some even complete their contracts and leave without their waiver application being approved”.
It is a known fact among ship owners that most of the multinational companies operate without obtaining the mandatory waiver once the fee is paid, sometimes they also exceed the statutory period.
The minister does not need any further prompting than to cut the bureaucracy associated to waiver and also reduce NIMASA’s preference for collection of waiver fees than ensuring strict compliance with the clause.
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