Simeon Nwonu is a maritime expert. He is one of the leading voices in the freight-forwarding sector of the maritime sub-sector of Nigeria’s economy. In this interview with ANDREW UTULU, he spoke on the need for compliance to the rules and regulations of transparent business transactions in the sector as the way forward in 2018.

Can you give an overview of the maritime sector as part of your assessment of the sector in 2017?

Basically, in 2017, the economy was so bad, and once the economy is bad, it affects every other sector, and our maritime sector is not an exception. If you are conversant with Apapa Ports, you will know that there was almost a total collapse of activities in the last one year and the reasons were obvious, the roads have become a thorn in the flesh of the system. The roads are nothing to write home about. A lot of money was lost by private entrepreneurs, importers, exporters including freight-forwarders. They all lost money because they experienced difficulties. Many closed shops. It means that you as a freight forwarder was affected, the importer was affected, the shipping companies were affected. So basically, there was total loss of money in the sector last year.

Corruption is something that has become endemic in the system. If you go out there you, you will see the queue of the container trucks on the road. Why are they there? They are there because of corruption, because agencies that are supposed to facilitate the movement of the trucks are collecting money. The money they collect is not N1 or N10. According to sources, they collect from N30,000 upwards. When you pay the money, they allow your container to enter. So, you begin to quantify the level of loss in terms of port operations, so you begin to imagine if the government is sincere in the issue of fighting corruption. Sometimes, there seems to be a kind of conspiracy because the police is there, the LASTMA is there, the NPA officials are there and all these things are happening. It means they are all involved with what is going on.

Can you give us the estimate in Naira and Kobo of what was lost last year?

The loss may be very difficult to quantify. What I can tell you is that every day, from the month of January to December, I know the industry lost over N5billion every day. Do you know that by the month of May last year, it would take a truck driver or freight-forwarder about N45,000 to N50,000 between January and May last year to move a truck load of goods from one point to the other. This payment is to take his container from Apapa to say Alaba International or from Tincan to Trade Fair all in Lagos. As I am telling you now, we are paying about N250,000 for the same container. It costs between N700,000 to N800,000 to take container to Onitsha. The bottomline is that the roads are bad. Surprisingly, the ports are the gateway to the nation’s economy. So our concern is that the government is not paying attention to rebuild the decayed infrastructure especially the roads. Why are they not paying attention? A lot of damages have been done as a result of that, so we begin to wonder, are there any conspiracy against the operations in the maritime sector in Nigeria, particularly the Western zone. The government should come out with concrete solution to the problem. The Apapa, Tin Can Island up to Coconut, even down to Mile 2, then from Apapa to Western Avenue need government attention.

How would you access the activities of NIMASA, NPA and NSC in trade facilitation in 2017. How favourable were they to the importers, freight-forwarders, shippers and agents?

I think we should start from the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC). The Council has done a lot. I respect the management of the Council. They are technocrats. They are people who are generally concern on how to move the country forward. From what they are doing, you begin to see a kind of desired intention to work for the people. If you look at the advocacy, if you look at the different fora they have worked in 2017, they were all geared towards making the maritime sector better.

So on the part on Shippers’ Council, they have done so well. We appreciate what they have done, we still appreciate what they are still doing.

On the part of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), yes the MD of NPA has not done very badly. She is also doing her work and doing it well, but my concern is that her subordinates particularly the field operators; I should say are making her work difficult.

They are making her desire to find a better way of doing business difficult and impossible. This is because when you go out there, you will see NPA staff doing some things that you will say I am sorry for Nigeria. So the MD of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, should set up a special task force to monitor the activities of NPA officials on the road.

Then on the part of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), they seem to be running a secret organisation, they are not open. I don’t know whether this is because their operations have to do more with the high seas. We may not be able to properly assess them. But, the bottom line is that I don’t think that they have fared so well. This is because the Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside seems to be more involved in politics than doing the agency’s work. It is better to give that job to a more seasoned maritime operator. If you can remember, when he was appointed, a lot of people rose against his appointment, they kicked against it, saying the man will not do the job well. I think what those people said then is what we are witnessing.

Coming back to the Shippers Council, which you said performed credibly well, there are pockets of complaints by importers, freight-forwarders and agents over arbitrary charges by terminal operators, shipping companies and NSC has not been able to control these charges as the Ports Economic Regulator?

That is true. I am one of the persons that said that Shippers Council initially have not fared well in that aspect, but it is not their fault. This is because they were given responsibility without authority. The government gave them responsibility but they lack the power and authority to execute the responsibility. Otherwise, I know that a lot of complaints have been made to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council concerning what I may call extortions by shipping companies and terminal operators. The charges are very high. They are now even more higher. Shippers Council as the Port Economic Regulator has their hand tied. Apart from that, they lacked the authority to exercise their mandate. Take for instance, though the matter between it and the terminal operators and shipping companies has been in the court of law. They took Shippers Council to court. The matter is subjudise. But the government should come out in concrete terms, and mobilise Shippers’ Council with enforcement agents like the police, the same way they did to Standards Organisation of Nigeria, the NAFDAC, and some other agencies. This enforcement agents will go all out there and enforce the law.

They have to enforce the law because nobody is above the law. The shipping companies and terminal operators behave as if they are above the law. Do you know why, this is because most of the owners and directors are people that are in government or had been in the government. So, they are influential. That is why they kept boasting that there is nothing the importers and freight-forwarders can do. They either pay the charges or remain there.

You said Hadiza Bala Usman is doing well as MD, NPA. Don’t you think if she had pressurised the government enough on the dilapidated port access roads, the state of the roads would still remain the same today?

I think she did, in several fora, she did mentioned the importance of the roads and all she was doing to ensure they are fixed. But you know in government, there are these bureaucracy and delays caused by conspiracy. The way they operate is different from the way we outside the government are seeing it. For instance, one thing is for her to make a proposal to the government, one thing is for her to make projection, but the implementation lies with the government. Does she even need to do that? Are the people in government or authority not seeing the roads. Is the Federal Minister of Works not seeing the roads? It is a federal road. It is a road where containers are falling off day by day. They know that a lot of corruption is going on. This is what I can call conspiracy at the highest level.

What advice do you have for NIMASA in respect of the unsafe waterfronts occasioned by piracy, kidnapping, sea robberies and other related crimes in the high seas?

My advice is that NIMASA has to design a systematic approach that will enable the Nigerian Navy to work in collaboration with the agency. There was a time I read about a kind of misunderstanding between the Navy and NIMASA in the area of policing the high seas. So my advice is that both should collaborate to ensure safety of our maritime domain.

Secondly, I read that a lot of cadets from the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron in Akwa Ibom State are not being employed by NIMASA. These people are technical experts. But NIMASA is not creating job opportunity for them after graduation. That is why I said earlier that there are kind of politics playing out in some of our agencies that we may not understand.

So what is the way forward for the Nigerian maritime sector in 2018?

The way to get there this 2018 is very simple. We have to be compliant to the rules and regulations guiding the business of the maritime sector. This is very important. Compliant to the rules of ease of doing business in the system.

Secondly, those at the helms of affairs in various government agencies should ensure they take a critical look into the operations of their subordinates like I said before. Corruption is a problem. Until we begin to tackle it headlong, the same thing will continue to manifest. A situation where containers lined up for 10 to 15 days on the road to the port and not accessing the ports and when you ask those at the gates to the port, they tell you they are working based on instructions given to them. Who gave the order?

For way forward, government agencies at the ports, the concessionaires, port operators, shipping companies, all have to become compliant to the rules of engagement. That is it.

Source: Independent