Minister of Transport Engr Mu’azu Sambo condemned the movement of cargoes through the land from Lekki Deepsea port and has therefore charged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to ensure no cargo movement in and out of new Lekki Deepsea Port takes place unless rail services are available.
This, he said, is to prevent a possible replication of the Apapa and Tincan ports experience whereby cargo movement has continued to suffer avoidable hitches with valued stakeholders unduly suffering for no fault of theirs.
The Minister said this in Lagos during the weekend where he was a special guest at the event hosted by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) to commemorate her 34th anniversary.
Engr Sambo was emphatic that he had instructed the NPA not to allow the movement of cargo by road from Lekki Deepsea Port to the hinterland when full operations commence in the new port next year.
Permitting cargo movement by road to and from the Lekki Deepsea Port, he stated, would amount to replicating the ugly Apapa experience in the Lekki-Epe axis of the State.
As an alternative, NPA should encourage the use of barges in the interim.
The Minister said that the idea stands to generate a lot of jobs for people fabricating the barges locally while building capacity for Nigerians.
“Lekki Deepsea Port, I have told them (the NPA) that I don’t want them to move goods to that port or from that port by road. There is no reason we should have another Apapa at the Lekki-Epe axis. I will not accept it. I have told NPA that. To start with, we must do barging; let us do barge operations that will generate a lot of jobs for people who construct barges and so on and at the same time build capacity for our people.”
He recalled that he recently visited the Customs Comptroller General, Col Hameed Ali (Rtd) where he appealed to the Service that the scanning room in Apapa Port be relocated as it obstructs the rail line connected to the port.
“The reason he gave me was that we (the Ministry) were supposed to have made payment to decontaminate the place and thereafter, they will come and remove the pavements. I came back to the Ministry and made inquiries. I was told that the Ministry had made the payment a long time ago. So, my intention is to go back with evidence to show the CG that we have made payment a long time ago and there is no reason that building should still be standing because I don’t understand why and how it should take an age to remove it.
On the ease of doing business in the port, the Minister said he was considering port community system as a strategy that will aid cargo evacuation.
“Talking about the clearing process and the ease of doing business in our ports, one of the things I’m also pursuing is the port community system. That is the surest way of taking cargo out of our ports within a matter of hours. If other African countries have a port community system working, why can’t we have it in Nigeria?”
On the relevance of the Customs in port business, he enjoined planners of events to ensure the agency is carried along at all times.
“I want to appeal to our maritime reporters, whenever you convene an event like this, make sure that the Customs are always represented by all means even if you have to drag them by a long rope.”
Sambo regretted the pains he had as a manager at the National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, that the inland waterways transportation mode was never developed. But as the current Minister in charge of the agency, he stated, he has mapped out two projects to bring a turnaround. These include creating a trans-shipment hub at the Lagos Marina and putting in place a channels management.
“That is the one that is supposed to serve as a hub from Marina. When ships come into the harbor, they do trans-shipment into barges or specialized vessels that can travel over a maximum of two to three meters draught all through the inter-coastal routes to Warri and Onitsha.”
“The other one is channels management, the company, the Chinese investors that are willing and have the capacity to manage the channel. I have told my people in the Ministry that if I don’t have these two projects off the ground, people are going to cry. I will make examples with some people if these two projects don’t take off by next year.”
“So, when we combine the alternatives, then we can now tell haulage people that you can no longer take petroleum products by road; you can no longer take construction materials by road; you can no longer take cement by road so that our roads will last longer.”
On the Deep Blue Project, the Minister disclosed that it was responsible for protecting Nigeria’s maritime domain.
For more than one year President Buhari launched it in Lagos, he recalled, “we have not heard of any reported case of piracy in our maritime domain”
“I think that is an achievement in the sense that in the next one year or two, if we’re able to convince IMO and the Lloyds of this world, then our insurance costs for imported goods into Nigeria will be much lower because right now, they pay what is called war insurance risk.” he concluded.