maritime

Stories by Isaac Anumihe

A high-powered conspiracy against the development of Ibaka Deep Sea project, may have finally led to its abandonment. The project conceptualised over eight years ago has however remained in the realm of a concept. From available information the multi-billion naira project is as good as being rested for now.
At inception over 14,000 hectares of land was earmarked for the project and Daily Sun gathered that a large expanse of  the land has remained fallow ever since then.
Daily Sun investigation reveals that the only formal visible commitment  so far recorded in the last nine years is the perimeter survey plan of the area designated for the project.
Findings show  that over five  different committees had worked on the port project at various times thereby causing some watchers to aver that it is a white elephant  project merely existing for its name.
A community leader in Ebughu, one of the towns around the Naval Forward Operating base, where the old fishing terminal was sited, Chief Sunday Edubio, said that former President Goodluck Jonathan missed  a golden opportunity of constructing and running the port.
According to Edubio, the funds were there then because Akwa Ibom as a state was earning the highest from the 13 per cent derivation revenue in addition to more money coming from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) which would have been deployed into such critical economic infrastructure.
According to Edubio, if government is considering direct private sector involvement in greenfield port construction, the idea has become less attractive as the Cross River  State Government  is showing more interest in constructing its proposed Bakassi Deep Sea Port.
“No investor will invest his money in the Ibaka Deep Seaport project in Akwa Ibom now that our neighbouring  state of Cross River  is gearing up to have the Bakassi  Deep Seaport. The coastline distance between the two ports will be close  and will cause stiff competition in an area where we are not sure to attract commensurate cargo for investors to recoup their investments.
“You will agree with me that Cross River  State has  demonstrated more commitment in diversifying its economy even before it lost most of its oil wells to Akwa Ibom State. Check out what is ongoing at the Calabar Free Trade Zone and the established structures in Tinapa, you will see practical commitment. Here we sound too boastful doing little.
“If we could not lay a block of foundation at the Ibaka Port when we had so much for over nine years, is it now that the Federal Government has admitted that  we are in recession and state governments are owing salaries that we will commence a multi-billion dollar port infrastructure construction?’’ he  asked.
Edubio cited further examples with the $1.6 billion  Badagry Deep Seaport where the Lagos State Government has demonstrated the will to begin construction work before the end of 2016 and blamed his home state for merely talking big.
Akwa Ibom got a huge sum of money from the Federal Government as its allocation for the month of July 2016.
The July collection is the first time in a very long when the state has got such amount. Other months had come with lower figures following restiveness in the oil–producing regions of the country and the falling price of crude oil at the international market.
Recall that in April 2015, Daily  Sun reported  that there was a high-powered conspiracy to discredit the seaport project under a ‘non-viability cover’, despite the fact that the Federal Government had set up an implementation committee to facilitate preparatory works  on the project. It also captured the project in the 2014 budget, having been convinced that the port would boost the nation’s economy and that of the West African sub-region.
The Akwa Ibom State Government in collaboration with  Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) planned  to develop the  Deep Sea Port within the Ibom Industrial Free Trade Zone to facilitate economic development of the South Eastern part of Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea.
However,  in December 2012, the government  engaged international consultants to assist NPA in the execution of preliminary technical, bankability and feasibility studies which found the project viable and bankable with proven economic development capabilities within the region.
Sources revealed that the choice of Ibaka for the proposed seaport dated back to 1952 by the British Government, and a feasibility study to that effect submitted to the British Crown even before the shallow and inland water ports at Calabar and Port Harcourt were established.
Maritime analysts posited that Ibaka is the most viable location for the seaport, going by the deep sea draught of 16m, which would need no dredging as well as the strategic proximity of the proposed port to the corridors of the main Gulf of Guinea and the commercial cities of Aba and Onitsha.
Its nearness to Exxon Mobil and other major oil concerns as well as the Sao Tome and Principe is equally  a great advantage to the nation’s economic drive.

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World Maritime Day: Nigeria opts for low-keyed celebration 

Nigeria joint the rest of the globe to celebrate the World Maritime Day but without fanfare, perhaps, because of the stringent economic conditions in the country.
However, stakeholders and some industry watchers saw no reason for Nigeria, as a member of International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to have elaborate celebration of the event when it has no single ship in the National Shipping Line.
Rather than celebrate, the stakeholders urged the Federal Government to look beyond this year’s International Maritime Organisation’s theme: which is: “Shipping, Indispensable To the World”
Stakeholders spoken to by Daily Sun aver that Nigeria is lagging behind in the comity of maritime countries and has virtually nothing to celebrate in shipping.
For instance, former Rector of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, Chief Nseyen Ebong,  said the country has not kept faith with the previous theme of the IMO.
According to him,  last year’s theme which was on Maritime Education and Training, did not influence the  national maritime priority as nothing was done to boost maritime training in the country.
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to show more interest in the maritime industry while describing the sector as government’s easy channel to addressing problems of economic recession.
“As a country, there is no need celebrating World Maritime Day because we have nothing to celebrate in shipping. The theme doesn’t relate to us.
When serious maritime countries are celebrating, Nigeria should keep shut. We fell from having 20 ships in the Nigerian National Shipping Line to having zero ship. We should be sober having moved from 20 to 0.
“I don’t know who is advising the government on maritime matters. They need to know that the maritime industry is the low hanging fruit that quickly addresses our economic challenges after oil. President Buhari and the Transport Minister need expert advisers on maritime affairs’’ Ebong said.
He also  urged the Federal Government to convene an enlarged stakeholders meeting devoid of politics and with utmost sincerity on how to harness Nigeria’s  natural maritime potentials for economic emancipation.
President,  National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero,  described the celebration as unnecessary in Nigeria. He said Nigeria should rise above mere taking pictures and being happy over nothing.
He said even the last year’s celebration that had to do with maritime education and training was not followed as nothing was put in place to improve training capacity.
“Other countries are expanding their ports for Nigerian cargoes while we are busy celebrating our size and population. Ghana just cancelled terminal handling charges to encourage more cargoes into their country. Nigeria is struggling to increase same charges and we expect people to patronize our ports?
“As a maritime nation, we should be focused on very critical areas of our economy like making our ports competitive. Ghana has moved from cocoa to harnessing her maritime and recently it  discovered oil potentials. Nigeria should step up on time.
“After last year’s celebration, I expected the government to focus on the theme and improve on our training capability, but nothing was done’’ Amiwero said.
NCMDLCA president said the country controls over 75 per cent of cargo movement within the West African sub region without commensurate benefits to show for these potentials.
He bemoaned a situation when the only globally-recognised training institution in the country is lacking attention and being politicised.