It was jettisoned due to politics —Ibeke

By Godfrey Bivbere

STAKEHOLDERS in the maritime industry have expressed worries over the abandonment of the report on the presidential committee constituted by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, expected to create about five million jobs when implemented.

NIMASA

The former government had constituted the committee to look at actions to be taken to fully exploit the maritime industry.

The stakeholders are of the view that the Buhari led federal government is not concerned about the maritime industry despite the huge revenue generated from it annually.

They explained that the federal government seems to be satisfied with what they get presents from the sector when they could get far more.

Stakeholders are of the opinion the industry could, apart from creating the number of jobs mentioned above, also generate about seven trillion naira annually.

They noted that revenue from the industry can fund the annual budget of the country.

Speaking on the issue, former Chairman of the Indigenous Ship-owners Association of Nigeria, ISAN, Isaac Jolapamo, wondered why the present government abandoned the recommendations of that committee.

Jolapamo explained that Jonathan’s administration set up the committee following a position paper by ISAN on potentials of the industry, stressing further that ISAN was visited by the presidency then and based on their presentation the Presidential committee was constituted.

He stated: ”If you could recollect that the basis for Jonathan’s presidential committee was on our paper presented to show that the industry is capable of creating up to five million jobs and save trillions of naira that can sustain the annual budget of the nation. And we were able to show this from facts that were provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.’’

Managing Director of Kotzmatz Media Konsukts Ltd, Okey Ibeke, told Vanguard Maritime Report that lack of continuity is the major problem of the Nigerian government.

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Ibeke explained that after the elections in 2015, there was a clean sweep of the heads of all but one of the agencies in the sector, resulting in a new beginning for the new government which he noted should not have been the situation.

He said what the present government should have done was to set up another committee to review that report before constituting an implementation committee.

According to him, “Government should have set up a committee to critically look at the report and adopt it. Not only adopting the report but set up an implementation committee that will comprise the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, shipping companies and others in order to map out a modality on how to go about achieving the aim of setting up that committee.

“But unfortunately, because of inconsistency in policy, and change of government, when this government came in, NPA Managing Director was removed, NIMASA Director General was changed and the members of the committee where no longer in power.

“So this government because of political reasons really doesn’t want to take a second look over the report. It is a lack of continuity. The problem is that each government that comes wants to do its own things differently apart from what the old government had done which is a big disservice to maritime development in Nigeria.

‘‘There is a new minister of transport, there is a new director of maritime services in the ministry of transport, so everything was just abandoned which is the major hindrance, not only to the maritime industry but the economy of Nigeria,” he concluded.

Chairman, Ports Consultative Council, Kunle Folarin, urged Government to ensure that the industry is reformed, restructured and well-regulated for it to unlock the untapped fortunes.

Expressing worry that there is currently a lack of focus in the industry, he called for greater cooperation among government agencies to ensure a viable and competitive maritime sector.

Folarin attributed the under-performance of the sector to factors such as; lack of synergy in conception and execution of projects; conflict in directives; and ego, as agencies flex muscles on superiority, among others.