Nigerian Maritime and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Director-General Dr. Dakuku Peterside has advocated the need to increase the tempo of public debate to generate a groundswell of consensus that will motivate Nigeria into taking the required action for the benefit of the nation’s ports.
He spoke when the leader of delegation and Chairman of Editorial Board of The Nation, Mr. Sam Omatseye and the Chief Strategist of Epsilon Limited, Mr. Amechi Chukwujama, came to brief him last Friday about preparations for a proposed port reforms conference being organised in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Transportation.
The conference will hold on March 30, 2017 at Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Peterside, who was with his Executive Director (Finance & Administration) Mr. Bashir Yusuf Jamoh and Executive Director (Marine Safety & Shipping Development) Mr. Joseph Rotimi Fashakin, an engineer, pledged the support of NIMASA to the event.
He emphasised that NIMASA was committed to positive ideas that would help reposition the sector and realise the change agenda of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Jamoh, while supporting the conference, made a case for the inclusion of the railways in the intended ports reform idea to serve as a bulwark for bulk clearing of goods.
On his part, Fashakin hailed The Nation for promoting the conference and noted that the media has a strong role to play in creating public awareness about reforms in ports administration as well as in agenda-setting, raising awareness, monitoring and holding public actors accountable.
Omatseye said the ports reform conference is about bringing together agencies connected with the administration of Nigerian ports to create a hub for seamless business transactions.
He said even though the problems of the ports were well-known and has been the object of various talks, the discussions should continue until Nigeria is fired enough to reach a consensus and come up with an acceptable template with defined timelines.
He added that for the port system to succeed, the Federal Government and its agents need to carry along maritime stakeholders.
Omatseye stressed that a peer-facilitated platform was needed to hold the agencies accountable to the goals jointly agreed.
Chukwujama told the NIMASA D-G that although there had been a number of positive developments in the maritime sector since 2006 when the port reforms programme kicked off, no one could deny the fact that the nation’s port system was underperforming compared to other world class ports, especially with respect to accountability and transparency, cargo turnaround time, revenue generation, ease of evacuation of cleared cargo and security within the ports and territorial waters.
The forum, which is in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s quest for accelerated economic change and anti-corruption crusade, will bring out ideas and plans to reinvent the Nigerian maritime sector and boost the economy, increase government revenue and create jobs and ease the burden on port users.
The facilitators for the conference with theme, “Making Nigerian Seaports World Class,” will be drawn from Nigeria and South Africa.
Why public debate on port reform is vital, by NIMASA D-G
