Owolabi Omotayo (Water Transporter)
Owolabi Omotayo (Water Transporter)
The Ports and Harbor Bill is a bill that is welcomed because somebody has to regulate what is really going on in the port and by so doing relieve the Nigerian Ports Authority of some responsibilities and also ensure that the ports are properly monitored. While NPA can concentrate on providing infrastructures, we should allow another agency to regulate what is happening in the port, so the ports and harbor bill is very important. However, this should not be the priority for now, the MASECA bill should rather be focused on because it is impracticable and wrong for a nation which belongs to the international community to concession the security of its territorial waters to an individual, it is wrong because at any point in time, this individual or individuals could compromise the security of the nation. So the priority now should be placed on the MASECA bill, when the waters are secure and safe, then we can look at the ports and harbor bill.
Barrister Fred Akhokia (Legal Practitioner)
The stakeholders are the ones that will sensitize public opinion that there is need for us to have a ports and harbor bill, we cannot be running a ports and be running around like eggless chickens and people that do not know what they are doing. The only way to do it is for the press to be in the vanguard of sensitizing and gingering the national assembly to the fact that there has to be a critical analysis of the bill, the way it is now, we are running ports and harbor without any codified law guiding their running, unless we actually make the national assembly see the need. If the MASECA bill is that important, it would not have been withdrawn in the first place, but the ports and harbor bill is there with them and they are just keeping it there, it is very important.
Sampson Chima (Registrar, NIS)
Concerning the bill, there has been a lot of outcry from industry stakeholders due to the increased port charges, this is because there is no regulator of the ports, nobody is controlling the terminal operators, most of them are accused of inflating their charges and this is adversely affecting the economy. So this bill is very important. Reviving the Ports and Harbor bill is as good as reviving the MASECA bill as well as the Chattered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria bill, these three bills are important to the economy, because this is maritime, the ports and harbor bill is very important because it takes care of the port regulator issue. What I think can be done is to go back to the drawing board and look at those bills that have been abandoned; what they should do is to re-call the bill, look at where they stopped and continue the process.
Kingsley Ogbuagu (Merchant Navy)
The only way to go about it is to get the stakeholders to start making the national assembly see that this is a bill that is needed long before now, so they should not dissipate energy on the MASECA bill which I heard is about to be brought back now. I am not saying the bill is not important, but we have to prioritize, we need to have a ports and harbor bill before we start talking about the MASECA bill.
Mazi Joseph Anabaraonye [Registrar, FFAN]
It appears that members of the National Assembly have interest in the whole process of port concession and it was given to another set of people. In a nutshell, except the port concessioning is cancelled completely and the port and harbour bill is re-sent to the national assembly, then we come back to the concessioning of the ports all over again, I don’t think Ports and Harbor bill will ever be passed.
Dr. Babatude Samuel [Registrar, POTEMAN]
It is an executive bill and as an executive bill, I think the ministry of transport is supposed to look into the challenge in ensuring that the bill scales through. In my own opinion, since the bill is an executive one, the federal ministry of transport should be responsible for drawing attention of National Assmebly to ensure the passage of the bill.
Michael Emiko [Stakeholder]
That bill is highly politicized by some few interest groups in government and at the National Assembly, but I must say that as a result of the rush in the concessioning of the ports it will be difficult for the bill to see the light of the day. Presently the house has directly and indirectly jettisoned the bill for some reasons best known to them, but it will be of good interest to come together with one voice and ensure that the bill come to limelight.
Chief Frank Okocha [G.M. Clarion Shipping West Africa Ltd]
The truth is that most of the members at the national assembly do not know the importance of the maritime bills awaiting passage, apart from the ports and harbor bill, we have the Chartered Institute of Shipping Bill and the MASECA bill which have been neglected by the NASS, but I must say that these people do not know much about the bills and that is why the stakeholders in the maritime industry should make them to understand the important of those bills. As it, things are not working for the industry the way it ought to. In my opinion the bill is in the hands of the stakeholders, we all need to work together so that the bills can be addressed by the law makers.
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