…says over 50 govt agencies operate in the ports

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

COMRADE Anthony Emmanuel Nted Emmanuel is the President-General of Maritime Workers of Nigeria, MWUN, and the umbrella body for workers in the Maritime industry. Comrade Nted who is also a Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in this interview with Financial Vanguard, spoke on the five-year old ports concession, moves to establish a parallel agency to Nigeria Maritime Administrations and Safety Agency, NIMASA, proliferation of government’s agencies at the ports among others.

Excerpts

Ports concession is now about five years old. How will you assess its operations?

I have personally maintained that concessioning is the best thing that has happened to Nigeria as far as port services and operations are concerned. I cannot say the same about other government parastatals and how they went about them. But I can only talk about the ports where I work. If you go to the ports today, you will find out that they have taken a new look.

In the Lagos ports for instance, if you go to APMT; the place is well positioned. If you go to other terminals, you will also see positive changes. It is our candid opinion as a union that the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, is better off today, compared to when it managed the ports.

What these concessionaires do is that they pay royalty to NPA and the terminal operators manage the ports apart from other oversight functions the NPA carries out. The efficiency of the terminal operators translates to more revenue to the coffers of government.

COMRADE Anthony Emmanuel ....Whether in terms of equipment, or security/safety consciousness of the port, the people are doing a thorough job

If you also go to Onne port, you will also witness the progress the operators are making. You will discover that the operators, Integrated Logistics Services, INTELS, is doing a very good job and delivering on its mandate. If that company is owned by a black man, today we will be singing a different tune. The company came into Nigeria with one outdated crane and one forklift in Warri. Today, the company is competing with the Nigeria Ports Authority.

The beauty of the concession arrangement is that operators will not be taking away the entire supportive infrastructure they had already put in place. The scheme is “Build and Operate”. All the equipment, property and warehouses you see in Onne and elsewhere belong to the Nigeria Ports Authority. As I speak with you, INTELS has employed about 15,000 Nigerians. If those corrupt Nigerians who stole the nation’s money and stashed it away in Swiss banks and elsewhere were able to get a virgin land and develop and employ Nigerians, today unemployment would reduce to the barest minimum. So INTELS is really doing a good job. But you know the “Nigerian factor and pull him down” syndrome. We are not unaware of criticisms in certain quarters that INTELS is overcharging and all of that. Every business is competitive. Why can’t the critics go to Onne or elsewhere, acquire a virgin land, develop and compete? If INTELS is charging $10 for instance, you can charge $2 and you get more customers rather than engage in idle criticisms. The people are doing a good job and developing their areas of operations. I do not hold brief for the company. I am a unionist. But the truth must be told. If other businesses can emulate INTELS, Nigeria’s maritime industry will be the better for it.

Whether in terms of equipment, or security/safety consciousness of the port, the people are doing a thorough job. They are expanding the jetties, more Nigerians are getting jobs and they are bringing in more containers and more money is accruing to government. There are several investments going into the Maritime industry. Because of the concession and there is over flow of traffic, we now have bonded terminals everywhere. It has added to employment generations directly and indirectly and more money for the government.

What are the major challenges of operators?

On the challenges of the industry, I want to say that government has to look into the activities of customs and other agencies in the ports. Government needs to look critically into the activities of the Customs and Excise duties. We want the government to urgently reform the Customs. We have been privileged to travel to the ports in different parts of the world including the ports of New Jersey, New York, Antwerp and others and we found out how they operate. In Nigeria, what we see in the ports is an eyesore. If we want to do things, we should do them well. If you go to Nigerian ports, Customs will examine a container. When the container comes out of the gate, some Customs officials will come and say they want to confirm whether their colleagues who had earlier examined the same container inside the port, did the right thing.

When the container eventually leaves the gate, it would still be intercepted by those who call themselves Federal Customs. They would begin to chase trailers laden with 40 feet containers on the high ways thus engendering the lives of other commuters. About two hours later you will see the same container on the road.

Government should carry out a thorough overhaul of its agencies with a view to pruning down the number of agencies in the ports. There are over 50 government agencies in the ports at the moment. They should work as a team. If there is a container to be examined, all of them should do it at the same time. But what we have is a situation where Customs officials would examine a container, and when they leave, Immigration officials would come for their own examination, when they finish and leave, officials of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) would come. Immediately they leave, NAFDAC officials will come. The list goes on and on. At the end of the day, you frustrate the importer. Besides, there is rampant extortion by these agencies. On the long run, the consumers bear the brunt by way of higher prices of products and services. We really need total reforms of their operations. They should be working as a team instead of at par. It is a common knowledge that a lot of extortion is going on and at the end of the day the masses bear the pain. We need to borrow a leaf from Egypt. Egypt had one of the worst ports in the world before, but after reformation it is now one of the best and a reference port.

There was a time the union raised alarm over midstream operations by oil companies. Has the issue been resolved?

Not at all, it is even increasing. There are several illegal activities of some oil companies and shipping companies in midstream operations and private jetties that are injurious to the nation. This is possible because nobody is monitoring their operations. There ought to be a stevedore that should work in the vessel. With a stevedore in the vessel, there will be dockworkers, Tally clerk to take inventory and security to monitor what goes on and reports back.

If there are arms and ammunition, they will be discovered. But today, all kinds of illegal activities are involved in the operations in the offshore and private jetties because they operate in secrecy contrary to government directives. No tax is paid to government; dockworkers are not paid because they are prevented from going to the vessel, same as Tally clerks and onboard security men. Our investigations have revealed other unwholesome practices.

The nation is losing billions of Naira annually to the unscrupulous activities of some of the oil companies and shipping companies as well as agents. We have called on the President to impress it on NPA to enforce the rules and live up to expectations. Like I said, the stevedoring companies serve as the eyes of the government. The customs will come on board the vessel, examine it and leave while the stevedoring company will remain on board the vessel until it discharges whatever it brought.

The job of the stevedore is to engage the dockworker who will do the loading as well as the off loading; the vessel should be tallied one after the other by Tally clerks to ensure that what exactly the vessel claimed it brought is what is inside it. But because of the unethical practices of the oil companies and shipping agents, they do not want to see the stevedores. They want to cheat government by under declaring or so that nobody will see what they brought into the country. We want to call on federal government to come out with a strong statement that before any vessel discharges in the midstream or anywhere, the stevedoring company must be on board The reason is because the dockworkers are very inquisitive and they hardly compromise. If that happens, the security agencies will be notified. That is why they don’t want dockworkers where they are discharging.

Why is labour opposed to moves to establish a parallel maritime safety or security agency in the industry?

We have the belief that all of us are Nigerians and working in the ports, for me, is a privileged. We believe that as unionists, we are major stakeholders in the governance of this country. So, when we see anything going wrong, we should draw the attention of the authorities, President Goodluck Jonathan and indeed, the Federal Government to make better and informed decisions or policies as it were.

The issue of parallel security/safety outfit in the maritime industry is a clear indication that a certain group of people, want to milk the nation dry. We have NIMASA which is an agency of government saddled with the responsibility of manning the nation’s water ways, regulating the activities of dockworkers including the Cabotage law, and other issues relating to maritime activities. The Marine Police is there in conjunction with the Nigeria Navy, you also have the Navy in conjunction with NIMASA.

All of them are working together to strengthen the security within the nation’s territorial water. It beats one’s imagination, therefore that a group of people would wake up one day and begin to propose the establishment of a parallel organ of government, ignoring the cost implications of such moves. We insist that Nigeria does not need proliferation of related agencies now but energizing and encouraging existing agencies.

It is also our belief that what the Federal Government should do, is to adequately fund the Nigeria Navy and other maritime agencies to enable them discharge their functions more professionally to guarantee a safe maritime environment. We maintain that this cannot work. You cannot be having two parastatals doing the same functions, it doesn’t make sense. That was part of the reasons why we are opposed to the move. Do not forget that we had earlier issued a threat-that if they go ahead to pass this bill, we will have no alternative than to withdraw the services of our members, to draw the attention of Mr. President to the abnormality.

You will recall that when we got a hint that the matter was coming in the senate, we petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan, alerting him of plots by some highly placed individuals in the presidency through the Presidential Implementation Committee on Maritime Safety and Security, PICOMSS, to establish another Maritime Security and Safety Agency after it was unanimously rejected by stakeholders at a public hearing in 2010.

In the petition, we drew the attention of Mr. President to the unacceptable move by PICOMSS to establish another Maritime Security and Safety Agency in spite of opposition to the move. We reminded him that in January 2010, a draft bill caption Maritime Security (Establishment) Bill 2009 was proposed. This draft was presented to the National Assembly and public hearing was held on January 13, 2010. We reminded the President in the petition that stakeholders were unanimous in rejecting this bill on the ground that the authority, function and financing of the proposed agency is a clear duplication of an existing Federal Government Agency, i.e. NIMASA. We are alarmed that in spite of the total rejection of this draft bill by stakeholders, another strong move is being made by few but powerful self-seekers to actualize their dream of a parallel Maritime Security and Safety Agency to the detriment of our national interest. We cannot afford to watch passively while money meant for development is diverted to the duplication of an existing agency.

It is on this basis that we call on Mr. President to halt this move. We wish to state that NIMASA since inception has been able to restore sanity in the Maritime sector in conjunction with Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, and therefore deserved to be encouraged. Considering the importance of Maritime Security in international trade, we strongly advise that rather than engage in duplication of government agencies as portended by the draft bill, the present section/department of NIMASA engaged in security/safety services be strengthened and professionalised through appropriate funding for greater efficiency and performance.

You are aware that the Nigerian Armed forces are organised along the key modes of transportation in Nigeria in such a professional way that the Nigerian Air Force is in-charge of the Nigerian Airspace, the Nigerian Army takes care of the land territory while the Nigerian Navy keeps surveillance on our territorial waters. It is noteworthy that NIMASA has been effectively collaborating with the Nigerian Navy and the Marine Police in this regard. We once again call on Mr. President to halt this bill. Again, we want to also warn, if however the bill is passed in defiance of its total rejection by stakeholders, we shall be compelled to shut down our seaports nationwide in protest over the imposition.

Who is responsible for the training of dock workers?

I think the responsibility of training dockworkers lies with NIMASA. Part of the functions of NIMASA, is to regulate the activities of dockworkers as well as provide welfare services to them including seafarers. If I say that NIMASA is failing in its statutory role, I will not be fair to that body. In 2010 for instance, NIMASA trained over 500 dockworkers all over the port. But last year because of the constraints associated with late approval of its budget, it was unable to do that’ coupled with instability of its management which has continued to plaque the organisation in recent times.

But we have met with the management of NIMASA in this regard and it has agreed that before the last quarters, it will be able to train more dockworkers and seafarers. But on our part as a union, we were able to train about 1,000 workers last year. They included Nigerian Ports Authority workers, dock workers and seamen. The union was able to take almost about 56 workers to South Africa, Dubai and Egypt, to equip them for the operations of the work. I also think that NIMASA is going to do more this year, since the budget has been approved.

What will you say about the quality of graduates of the Maritime Academy Oron?

I have not been to the school. But the information we gathered is that they do not have enough equipment seamen require for effective training. But experience has taught us that it is when you get on board the vessel that you train yourself-because you will see those who have been working on board the vessel for several years who will give the new entrant proper training, coupled with what he learnt from the academy. If anybody tells you that the products of the academy are half-baked, it is totally wrong. We think what the government should do, is to increase funding to the academy so that the management will be able to raise the standard of the institution.