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Editorial

The scorecard on Nigerian seaport reforms

We have focused, in this edition, on the progress of seaport reforms in Nigeria since 2001. It’s ten years since the Obasanjo’s presidency kick-started the search for better fortunes for Nigeria’s port industry. Once upon a time, the ports were a haven for wharf rats. No more. Ships then spent weeks in port to load and discharge. Stevedores were unruly, practicing the infamous “akube” system, where shipping lines paid for 16-men gangs but get 8 men instead. None could do anything about it for many years. The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) was then a glorified gang-up of port industry warlords. Former transport minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, shocked the nation when he exposed bags of money brought to him at night to soft-pedal the wheels of the reforms which started rolling during his tenure.

Thus, the striving to reform Nigeria’s port industry began in 2001 and involved much job loss at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), administrative changes industry-wide, changes in Nigerian Customs Service procedures, etc. It ultimately led to the emergence of private terminal operators after an international competitive bid for all NPA terminals nation-wide.

Now ten years since the onset of reforms, five years since the handover of terminals to concessionaires across the country, what has changed? Generally, the changes are for the better, in many regards. It will take a rehash of the daily reports of missing car parts, incorrigible customs officials, NPA port officers who were not on seat or the ‘flying containers”, to mention but a few of the shock tales of those days, before one can realize that we have moved on from those unpleasant bus stops. But there is still work to be done.
In this edition, we have focused on the operations of one of the terminal operators, Fivestar Logistics Terminals Ltd and the NPA channel management joint venture, Lagos Channel Management. Their accounts of operations in the ports give a bird’s eye view of the pace of advancement so far.

In the other sections, our usual bulletin is intact. We have brought up reports in the dredging industry, especially a report on the just-concluded 5th Nigerian Dredging Summit at Calabar, with pictures; and hard news of the goings-on with the proposal to re-dredge the Calabar channel whose capital dredging campaign was aborted in the hands of Jan de Nul and Van Oord in 2007.

Our stand is that companies involved in such failed public sector dredging campaigns should not be pampered but should suffer penalties, if not outright court cases to recover money paid them from the public till. And in cases where Nigerian officials were found in collusion, they should not be spared, if only to serve as a deterrent for other actors in the public domain.

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