Worried by the underdeveloped state of the nation’s maritime industry caused by poor leadership, stakeholders have called for integrated transportation policy and decentralisation of port administration to achieve efficiency in the port system.
According to them, poor leadership has resulted in complete negligence that has led to the decay of port infrastructure especially roads needed for the movement of cargoes in and out of the ports.
Speaking at the second transport leadership lecture organised by Kings Communication, Vicky Haastrup, chairman, Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), blamed bad leadership for the ills plaguing the sector.
She said that despite a huge revenue generated from the maritime industry, the infrastructure around the port is not getting the needed attention from the government.
She added that due to congestion on the port access road occasioned by bad roads, it now takes a longer time for vessels to discharge.
Delivering a lecture titled, “Leadership in a Next Level Democracy: Striking a Positive Balance in Transport Sector”, Mfon Usoro, director-general of Abuja MOU, said having an integrated transportation policy was the only way to achieve an efficient transportation system in Nigeria.
She urged government agencies not to work in silos but to synergise with in order to achieve the set target of a desirable transport system. “Countries that have recognised the importance of leadership in development, which is to motivate people, gather the best tools and work towards achieving its goals.
“Some countries like Nigeria, though they have not yet published their integrated transport policy, are on the way to doing it, which will provide a road map for managing all these modes of transport towards a specified target,” she said.
Emeka Akabuogu, a maritime lawyer, who said that despite concession, Nigerian ports still have quasi monopoly that compromises efficiency, which does not encourage full benefit of efficient competition called for a decentralised port administration.
“Nigeria has different ports and quite a number of terminals that are managed by Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and port services are not being optimised under this regime. But, I believe that port services would be optimised if there is increased competition by different ports such that shippers have a different choice based on identifiable empirical standards as which port they should designate their goods,” he said.
According to him, this can be achieved if Nigeria has a regime where we have port authorities for specific port.
“We have a situation where the moribund or still-born Ports and Harbours Bill made provision for ports in the East and ports in the West. This is not to achieve independence of port administrations but to ensure that there is an administrative system, which sees there is competition on the individual ports as being primary, as opposed to a wholesome administration where there is nothing to encourage,” he explained.
The port, Akabuogu said, is still going to be owned by the Federal Government but the mandates would be specific to individual ports to ensure that the relevant indices for the optimisation of the terminals are achieved.
