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By Godwin Etakibuebu
The review of Otunba Kunle Folarin’s interview could be running for months if the momentum of his narration during our encounter with him were to be followed. I revealed from the first write up, two Fridays ago, that the man conceded for one hour interview; before we met, but at the end, we squeezed something over three hours from him. Staying with this shipping encyclopedia of all times, for that long, would offer enough material to produce a book or books.
Yet, l have to bring the interview to a close today – hoping the little tip of the iceberg revealed about the Nigerian Maritime industry, through this interview, opens that essential window of insert to the reader, in knowing why Nigeria could not “bring home the dividends of Shipping”. Like many other areas of the Nigerian Statehood endeavours, we missed and messed it up – we screwed the golden opportunity we had. “There is water everywhere but yet none to drink”, is our national sad story. Why?
We got nearly everything wrong even when nature adored us with the largest and most lucrative maritime environment in the globe. We could not even differentiate between the ease of doing business from the cost of doing business in our ports, leaving us with one nasty option – carting away doom in the place of boom.
Enjoy the reading.
What happened that the Concessionaire Policy did not deliver?
It is not in your mandate, how can you deliver on what is not in your mandate? It is not a core mandate as it was in the National Maritime Authority shipping policy. That was a very elaborate document about cargo sharing; about manning of vessels, shipping development, funding shipping development etc.
But the shipping policy of 1987 specifically is a superior document in developing indigenous shipping because it provides the ways and means of achieving. Enablement is important and key. What was done to make sure that there is enablement so that the shipping firms and companies can develop within the maritime space? That must be your question. We are saying it was there before, but it was lost from the concession and NPA also lost the cargo rights.
But then, we can go to why we had concession. Was it just a dream or wishful thinking of the ministers and the government people? It depends on your perception. My perception is we need to improve the quality of ports services. The central aim of concession is three, to increase productivity in the ports, to increase investment avenues into the ports and to reduce the cost of doing business in the ports.
Reduce cost of doing business?
The cost of doing business which is now being called the ease of doing business is procedural in terms of documentation procedure policing the ports community, the single window system and reducing bureaucracy in the cost of doing business. The cost of doing business is a parameter that hinders Nigeria being competitive in the West and Central African region. If you think that 60 percent of West African economy is domiciled in Nigeria, if you think that over 1.2 million dollars enter Nigeria through the formal sector every day from the West coast for goods and services they demand from Nigeria, you will know that the transport sector is key and germane to our economic development.
What happened in 2010 is the reality of financing the economy and the reality of increasing the social lives of the people. The reality of making Nigeria competitive economically and even getting the political leverage we need to survive in the world of today.
In 2014, after all the discourse, President Jonathan called a conference of key stakeholders. I was invited; Olisa Agbakoba and other key players were also there. The focus was to discuss how we can leverage on the maritime economy to develop Nigeria. I delivered my paper and made a projection about what will happen to the maritime sector till 2043. That projection might be a tall order to us but it is a child’s play compared to the Chinese; that had, at that time, gotten its Shipping Master Plan Policy till 2050 already approved.
What were the conclusions?
We decided to look at it and identify what investment we need to maximize for the returns we expect from the Maritime Sector and policy changes to make. It was then we realized that the port corridors were a bit congested; we realized that we needed to look at other ports if they can take cargo from Lagos ports.
Of course, we have Delta and Eastern ports – or did your Committee not think of them?
The issue is that the other ports you have mentioned have both technical and commercial deficits. The economy of that region, Delta State, had collapsed before 2010 when we were looking at it. Do we have the vibrancy of the oil companies and that of the timber companies? The demand by the economy of the place for shipping, for raw materials, for rubber, for industries, for consumption has decreased. Who dictates what cargo comes from where? It is the consignee – it is the owner of the import or export who dictates what ship should come. Sapele also had collapsed and then the Navy had taken it over Sapele for whatever reason. The Sapele plywood factory collapsed. We saw that demand for cargo, for industrial raw materials, for export of finished products had declined. The commercial deficit was established.
Then you move on to Port Harcourt. The Port Harcourt hard quay was created specifically for export of coal from Enugu. That was why the rail line was extended from Enugu to Port Harcourt hard quay. The railway services collapsed. There were no rail services again. How do you service the port? You must know that a port thrives on multiple dimensions of cargo supply, cargo demand, cargo evaluation, transport, export and import. Then the people said that let us have the Onne Deep Sea Port. It wasn’t called Onne Deep Sea Port before; instead it was called Onne Lighter Terminal to receive oil services cargo.
What are you driving at now?
What l am saying is this: there must be an established guarantee of sustainable demand and supply. The Federal Ocean Terminal otherwise called Onne Deep Sea Port is several kilometers from Bonny which is a natural port site.
Till date, Nigeria has no port on the Atlantic Ocean. Other countries have ports on the Atlantic. Abidjan is on the Atlantic, San Pedro is on the Atlantic and Freetown is on the Atlantic. All the ports in West and Central Africa are all on the Atlantic except for Cameroon.
No good news?
So we moved into an era of 2014, when President Jonathan said we can do these things but it was left into the hands of bureaucrats. From 2014-2019, we are still here. Like the Aso-ebi that everyone wears at a party, every State is now saying they can develop their own sea ports.
What are other countries in the West Coast doing to counter us?
Benin Republic is building a port just 10 kilometers from the Nigerian border. Your competitors’ ability, your competitors’ operations, your competitors’ plans must also be your concern. But has Nigeria woken up to that reality?
What is the way forward?
We need to focus on areas that can produce, employ and create wealth. What are those areas in the Maritime? We need a multi-modal transportation to factor into the cost of operation in order to make the cost competitive. We need to bring the railways back, it may be expensive but we can make it gradual. Bring the alternatives that we have, the pipelines; bring them back to sustain the multi-transport need for cargo evacuation and cargo delivery. If these are done, employment will be generated, entrepreneurs will come and run the terminals and of course the investors will become wealthy.
With all these definitions, will it be a wise decision to borrow US$3.8 billion from China for building another port in Warri as being proposed by Hadiza Bala Usman of the NPA?
When you talk about things that need analysis, you cannot get an absolute Yes or No answer. Within this discussion l said deep sea policy is becoming a trend and you mentioned Aso-ebi, without any deep thoughts of need, wants and sustainability. So, what goes for answering the Warri endeavor s also applicable whether it is in Bakassi or any other place.
Did Otunba Kunle Folarin answer this last question on the borrowed US$3.8 billion to build another port in Warri?
Be the judge as the curtain is hereby drawn.
- Happy and prosperous New Year in advance
Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
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