•Plan by NIMASA to float another national shipping line is antithetical to the privatisation programme
Government, it seems, works in wondrous ways in the sense that the more it reforms, the more it refuses to change its ways. Take for instance, in the last three or so decades, the buzz word among economic managers has been ‘privatisation’ of public companies and businesses. Large bureaucracies have been established in the pursuit of this objective. Many government- controlled businesses have been passed to private hands over this period and many more are on the line.
To augment the argument against government ownership of commercial businesses, numerous state -owned firms like national airlines, shipping lines and telecommunications companies were run right into the ground, irrespective of their mammoth sizes.
It is in this light that we worry at the announcement by the apex maritime regulator, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) that it has secured approval from the Federal Government to set up a new national shipping line. NIMASA’s director-general, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi, made known this new policy at a workshop, revealing that the new carrier may set sail in about six month’s time. And that is about 24 years after the last one – the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) was caught up in a disastrous storm. The NNSL was an exceptionally pathetic case and represented the best reason why government must never dabble into any competitive business venture.
At the peak of its glory in the late 1970s, NNSL was among the largest carriers in the world, boasting dozens of fleets of ship. But in less than two decades, the company capsized, so to speak, with all the ship seemingly vanishing into thin air and no one having given account of what transpired till date.
Today, NIMASA plans to take us back to those days of official profligacy if not brigandage when national assets were nobody’s assets. Even though the NIMASA management claims to be considering a public-private partnership this time, we still need to be wary because what is at stake is our common wealth. While we concede that it is within the purview of NIMASA to embark on such a venture and that the failure of a previous effort should not mean a foreclosure of the idea of a national carrier, there are, however, a few points to ponder.
First, we must take detailed stock of what transpired at the NNSL and how it met its ignoble end so that we may be better guided this time. Second, are national carriers still in vogue in the face of aggressive reforms and privatisation of government businesses? Third, and perhaps most important, the NIMASA management must remember that floating and running a shipping line is not its core business. It must prove a certain level of mastery and efficiency in its primary duties which include safety of our marine coastlines; regulation and development of shipping and maritime business in Nigeria as well as maritime environmental concerns. It is also expected that NIMASA would carry out a thorough cost-benefit analysis to determine that the decision to set up a national carrier is an economic one and not an ego trip.
While we urge NIMASA to concentrate on its regulatory functions, we also wish to call its attention to the security lapses on our territorial waters which have left them prone to incessant attacks by pirates in recent years. The recent burst of oil theft on our waters which has assumed an international dimension calls for a drastic review of NIMASA’s mode of operation in order to get it up to speed in its core functions.
NIMASA would add more value to Nigeria’s maritime and shipping industry if it jettisons the idea of floating a national carrier and devote resource and energy administering the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund and drive the development of indigenous shipping lines. That seems to make more economic sense, ultimately.
