How To Make Eastern Ports Busy & Viable By Peter Obon

The running mate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February presidential election, Peter Obi, has said that their government, if voted into power, would tackle the Apapa gridlock by completing the Apapa-Oshodi expressway in less than one year.

Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, spoke during a town hall meeting with maritime stakeholders on Wednesday in Lagos.

“The Apapa -Oshodi expressway is not more than 10 kilometres and it won’t take any serious government more than a year to fixed it, it’s not rocket science, but matter of incompetence and ineffective leadership,” he said.

Mr Obi, who represented the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said Nigeria loses billions of dollars annually due to ports inefficiency and decayed infrastructure.

He said the Nigerian ports system is not working, adding that importers were subjected to pay extra $1,000 per container if their consignments were to pass through the ports.

According to him, to make the eastern ports busy and viable, there is need to make it cheaper for cargoes clearance compared to Lagos. He said his government would grant incentives to those using the eastern ports to attract patronage.

“How can you say Nigeria is working and you have an ease of doing business if the roads leading to your ports are in bad shape? It simply shows a government that is not working.

“For every goods you ship from anywhere in the world into Nigeria you pay additional $1,000, the reason why you are paying that is because of the inefficiency of Nigerian Ports.

“The ports today have not been expanded from what it was from when they were built, nobody has given them any attention and we are not even building new ones.

“Singapore was the busiest port in the world, and as it is, they are building the busiest and biggest port under the sea, this would start in 2050, but here we are not doing anything, we are busy making sure that the ones built is not working.”

According to Mr Obi, running a business and running the country is the same thing.

He vowed to deploy his business acumen in the development of the ports and challenged the Buhari administration to show Nigerians their achievements before asking them for another term.

“Give us the account of your first tenure before telling us to give you another term,” he said.

“If I give you money to trade you will have to give me the account of the first money before you ask for another one, that is what we are asking the APC government.”

He said his party would make Nigeria work again if voted into power.

“Atiku has experience in governance and in business he has built schools so he knows what education is, people cannot offer what they don’t have, imagine Atiku as an ex-Customs officer and myself being a trader, the port will turn around.”

Meanwhile, the gathered stakeholders presented various position papers on the various challenges confronting the sector.

The Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) in a document presented by its Vice President, Kayode Farinto, who said even though the port as a critical sector generates N5 billion daily into federal government’s coffers, the government has abandoned it.

He said that maritime operators regretted galvanising over 30,000 votes for President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, saying that most of the promises made were never fulfilled.

Mr Farinto recalled that then running mate and current vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, had promised to reverse the government’s auto policy which, he said, had sent many clearing agents out of jobs.

The ANLCA vice president also stressed the need to review the Customs and Excise Management Act and a creation of a Ministry of Maritime.