By Paul Orie

DELTA State is endowed with the highest concentration of seaports in the country. They are old and new Warri ports, Forcardos, Burutu ports and the Sapele port, ceded to the Nigeria Navy. The State also has Koko port, the deepest natural harbour in West Africa. These ports made great contributions to the economy of the nation and also provided employment to a large number of Nigerians and foreigners.

Painfully, these ports have been shackled by ethnic violence, lethargy on the part of Delta state politicians who have not worked substantially to resolve this mind boggling problem. The parlous state of these ports has staggering implications. First, their economic importance has been drastically reduced and their contributions to the GDP is not encouraging. Second, the Federal Government is being denied revenues due it through the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, and Nigeria Customs Service NCS. The Customs Command cannot beat its chest like its counterparts in Lagos that publish their jumbo quarterly collections of billions of Naira that meet the Comptroller General’s targets. Third, all shipping activities are almost prostrate. Investments in the ports and their environs are been stifled. For example, Terminal Operators in Delta ports have invested humungous sums of money in port facilities which are lying fallow. No sees the huge economic waste. More disturbing is the death of  ancillary businesses like ship repair yards, stevedoring, freight forwarding ship, chandling which are all now dormant.

Warri Port

How can the Federal government allow these ports to remain idle at a time it is striving to diversify the economy particularly when its pet vision is to make Nigerian ports the hub of Africa? The Delta ports are in distress, plunging all economic activities into comatose. The ports can neither generate employment nor attract investments. Marine insurance cannot thrive there any more. This pitiable state of affairs definitely diminished  the hopes and aspirations of Warri boys who have armed themselves with various university degrees including marine engineering, other degrees in engineering, maritime law with the hope of working in the NPA and other companies operating there, but employment opportunities there have been contracted, leaving them in agony.

It is worth stressing that the ports under discussion were the earliest employers of labour in the old Mid Western Region, offering white collar jobs for people from other regions including Yorubas of the Western region, Igbos, Efiks, Ibibios, Ijaws of the old Eastern Region who worked in the ports as clerks, engineers, technicians, cooks and stewards. Most of them were found in Burutu, Koko, Sapele, Forcados ports. Of course, the Urohbos, Itsekiris, Edos, Isokos, old Aboh Division (Ndokwas) were all visibly present there.

These personages gave birth to the Warri boys being referred to here, who were later employed by NPA formations in the region. The port system then offered jobs such as tally clerk, dock labour to several Warri boys who paid their school fees through the wages earned from working at the ports. These opportunities existed because NPA was expanding and absorbing them.

The big multinational companies like UAC and John Holt who were the trading companies in  Delta State before the establishment of NPA were also there offering plum employment and petty jobs for Warri boys  thereby boosting the national economy. Today, those happy moments are no more.

This explains why these boys appealed to   the Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, during his Town Hall meetings in Warri Local Councils. His response, though exhibited the quality of sensitive and responsive leader, but was emphatic. His words, “the cost of dredging the ports is alarming, but we are exploring different  opportunities for the ports to be functional”.  It is pertinent to tell the government of the State the real issues at stake. It is mandatory for the Delta ports to be dredged to allow bigger ships to berth  regularly at the ports. Already bigger ships are now berthing at Lagos, Onne and Port-Harcourt ports.

The regular calls by large ships like the West African Maximum, WAFMAX, vessel, 4,500 TEU and 260 metres long in Tincan Island port, Lagos and Onne port, Rivers State bring joy to NPA management, the shipowners, cargo interest and other business concerns in the port and Nigeria economy. This is because the ports have been dredged to 14 metres. This depth in these ports were achieved through the establishment of Lagos Channel Management Company LCM for Lagos channels, the Bonny Channel Company BCC for Port Harcourt and Onne axis. This feat has allowed LNG vessels to work 24 hours in Bonny channel. In addition to this, the channel companies work assiduously to remove wrecks, derelicts from the port channels including pollution control. All these make Lagos, Onne, Port Harcourt ports safer for navigation of vessels. These are also the efforts the Nigeria  Ports Authority  should make the Nigerian Ports the hub of Africa.

These are clearly absent in Delta Ports and have crippling effects in port operations in Warri ports. What we have now is stagnation, massive unemployment in the ports. These problems are taking its toll on every one, the nation, Delta State and Warri boys.

Another major problem is safety which arose from the ethnic crisis in the state before the return of democratic rule in 1999. Its effect remains disastrous. The activities of bandits constitute great malice in Delta Port channels. But this is not stricted to just Delta as Lagos, Onne and Port Harcourt are also afflicted with this malady.

The Warri crisis of 1990 as earlier mentioned, reduced the economy of the nation and Delta state with the attendant sharp drop in ship calls, ship traffic and cargo throughput. Next, was the closure of many companies including oil companies operating in the area that relocated to Port Harcourt for safety. This was the result of security challenges in the Warri area coupled with piracy.

The intensity of this problem was what the civilian administration of Chief James Ibori inherited in 1989 and he responded urgently to achieve some measure of peace which his successors – Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and the present governor, Dr. Okowa is building on. The safety problem in Delta port channels has significantly improved, but the low patronage of the ports has not. Ship traffic and cargo throughput  are still not encouraging.

These problems became a source of worry to port users whose businesses remain under threat. The national and international maritime industry, not just only Delta State are worried. This was why the Port Consultative Council PCC, under late Alhaji Kareem visited both the administrations of Chief Ibori and Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan to chart a course to resolve this problem.

The Olu of Itsekiri, His Royal Majesty, Ogiame Ikenwoli and his large entourage including Dr. Uduaghan visited the Nigerian President, Mohammadu Buahri in Abuja on the need to remove the restrictions hindering port operations in Delta ports including safety issues. I expected the Itsekiri monarch to have mentioned the Inland Container Depot, that was earmarked for Koko which the state’s political leaders do not discuss. His efforts must be commended.

The ports must not remain dormant, enough of the years of inactivity. Port operations must resume in these seaports to boost national economy. Today, the violent clashes, youth restiveness, piracy and banditry in the port channels have dropped. The ports are safer now for ships trading in the Delta ports.

Happily, there is approval to dredge the port, but the money to execute it has not been released. The news of the approval, raised the hopes of Warri boys, port operators and even among the Itsekiri monarchy and his chiefs. We are hopeful that the sad experience of Calabar port dredging would not be the lot of the Delta ports.

The stagnation in Delta ports also has disastrous effect on the catchment areas such as Kogi, Abuja, Kaduna, Jigawa, Kano, Anambra, Enugu, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi and Yobe States which they are meant to serve. The ports have failed to perform this national economic duty, leading to Lagos ports congestion and the chaotic situation on Lagos roads.

The huge investments made in the ports by Terminal Operators must not go down the drains.

The operators have deployed men and materials to their concessioned areas.

The management of NPA has also taken some impressive measures in upgrading the old Warri ports. The authority also has embarked on the reconstruction of the new port. The management of NPA is still working strenuously to upgrade more facilities in the ports. There exist some cogent reasons why port operations must resume in Delta ports. The situation in the port environ is not as grim as in the past with the achievement of a better peaceful atmosphere. The management of NPA is still rehabilitating the sub structure of Warri ports with sincerity.

This is a moral and political challenge to Delta state politicians – the PDP and APC. What baffles me is that many of them are maritime business operators, some have plum political appointments from the APC control led central Government. They must come out to extricate us from this quandary.

It is sad that our political leaders pretend not to be aware that Nigerian Shippers Council, a parastatal under Federal ministry of Transport, had since earmarked Koko as the location of Inland Container Depot ICD for the South South zone. Do they want this opportunity to elude Delta State and the South-South. This is a project with huge economic potentials.

Our political leaders working in concert with the State Government, Dr. Okowa and PANDEF leadership including the business class who stand to profit more from the ports, should passionately appeal to the Federal Ministry of Transport and the management of NPA to appoint a Channel Management Company to dredge the port channels, remove wrecks, derelicts and also clear the siltation in Forcardos channels  to make navigation of ships uninhindered.

On safety of the Delta waterways, our leaders should also implore the Honourable Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi and the leadership of Nigeria Maritime Administration Agency NIMASA including the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Air force to deploy their facilities to ensure that the water ways are secured. These are critical assignment that NIMASA under the leadership of Dr. Dakuku Peterside along with the Nigeria Navy and Airforce, Partners of the famous MOU on Safety in Nigerian territorial waters will execute patriotically. What they need is adequate funding. On the part of NPA, its management under Ms Hadiza Bala Usman will gladly rise to the challenge without hesitation. The authority is also perturbed by the problems of Delta ports.

Warri boys are still crying and waiting for the resumption of port operations and other business in Delta ports.

Paul Orie, a Public Affairs Analysts wrote from Lagos.