Suddenly, attention is turning the way of the minister of transport, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman. Suddenly, questions are being asked about his performance so far and he is being reminded that he has barely three months left as Nigeria’s minister of transport.
He had only about one year to spend in office; having being appointed early last year and the argument is that he really didn’t have ‘sufficient’ time to do so many things.
The minister had the opportunity of listen to the cries of indigenous shipping companies and to listen to the agitation of dockworkers, unemployed local seafarers and a host of other stakeholders; including freight forwarders. These are in addition to looking into the activities of terminal operators and the 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.
Most maritime industry stakeholders did not give the new minister any chance of being able to make sufficient impact; essentially because of the short time that he has. And this was one of the reasons why majority of Nigerian called for the appointment of round pegs in round holes; that is giving the industry a minister who has relevant to professional background.
Unlike most ministers before him, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman 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 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 to be passed before the expiration of the tenure of the current National Assembly.
Outside the port system, perhaps the most important issue that the minister is confronted with is that of implementation the Cabotage Act which became operational in 2004 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.
How can the minister of transport after almost one year still pretend that all is well with the nation’s maritime sector? How could he not have noticed that for as many years as the Cabotage law has been in existence, indigenous ship owners have been crying of continued domination of costal afreightment of petroleum products by foreign flagged ships? How can the minister be oblivious about the continued lamentations of licensed customs agents that terminal operators are ripping them off; all because the ports have been concessioned?
It is not that the minister is entirely unaware of these issues. He has indeed being setting up committees and task forces. At least, he has at various time transferred his responsibilities of taking charge and taking decisions to these ad-hoc creations. Currently, the committee on review port concession is sitting, while the one on review of port charges has submitted its report. He has also constituted another committee to look into the agitation by indigenous ship owners; especially as it relates to carriage of petroleum products and crude oil. Before he was appointed, one of his predecessors in office had constituted a committee on review of Cabotage, but he obviously ignored it. There was also a committee on removal of wrecks and derelicts and abandoned crafts and ships from the Lagos channels.
We are of a strong conviction that Alhaji Suleiman ought to have done better than he has done so far. He probably didn’t know that imbedded in the Cabotage 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.
If he had requested for it, he is likely to have been told that the report of a high-powered committee that was constituted by one 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, rather than call for the report and study it, the minister chose to set up another committee.
Rather than set up to review port concession and even port charges, all that the minister ought to have done was to mount pressure on members of the marine transport committee at the two chambers of the National Assembly to devote more time to and pass the Port and Harbour Bill.
Within the few months that he has been minister of transport, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman has supervised the removal of two chief executives. This is probably his only achievement!
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