Nigeria Maritime Online

29th September 2020

Maritime Sector groans

While the minister’s achievement in the rail sector is largely hit-and-miss, he has been unable to move the needle in the maritime sector as very little has been achieved here.

During the CNBC Africa interview, Mr Amaechi also stated that the priority of the government here is the construction of three seaports – Lekki, Bony Island and Ibom seaports. While minimal work has commenced at the Lekki Seaport in Lagos, work is yet to commence at the Bonny Seaport, and Ibom seaport, which is being built in conjunction with the Akwa-Ibom State government. While Nigerians earnestly wait for work to commence on these proposed seaports, a huge percentage of the country’s imports still comes in from the over-burdened ports in Apapa, Lagos.

Maritime security in the country is still dicey. Piracy attacks on merchant vessels and kidnapping are still rife on waters. According to the International Maritime Bureau, in the fourth quarter of 2019, 64 seafarers were kidnapped in the waters of West Africa. Many of the pirate groups suspected to be behind the attacks were said to be operating from Nigeria.

In January, three seafarers were kidnapped and four security personnel killed by suspected pirates onboard a dredger off Forcados terminal.

The Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure, also known as the Deep Blue Project, which aims to tackle insecurity on Nigeria’s territorial waters, does not seem to have much traction following an uptick in pirate attacks and the kidnapping of seafarers.

Experts also frown at what they described as the commercialisation of maritime security where a private company, Ocean Marine Security Limited (OMSL), in collaboration with the Nigeria Navy charges each vessel as much as $1500 for berthing in the ports.

“We also have issues of naval collaboration with a private company running maritime security in such a way that vessels coming into Nigeria are made to pay as much as $1500 per day for security on our waters. Commercialising security on our waters is a big failure on the part of the Nigerian government,” said Ismail Aniemu, the publisher of Journal, a maritime magazine.null

Mr Aniemu also chastised President Muhammadu Buhari for his “aloofness” in resolving the anchorage logjam.

“My disappointment here goes more to the president because the president stays aloof and seems not too concerned because the navy cannot be acting in isolation and the Navy cannot be acting as if they are not in sync with the appointee of the Commander-in-Chief. The minister of transport is an appointee of the Commander-in-Chief and I think the Commander-in-Chief is in charge of the navy. We have waters that are not very policed but commercialising the security of our waters puts Nigerian under additional pressure,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Amaechi is embroiled in a scandal over his decision to award a major maritime security contract to an Israeli firm, HLSI Security Systems and Technologies Limited.

The $195 million-contract was condemned by maritime and security experts which probably led to a presidential order for the contract to be terminated. President Buhari also ordered the company to supply equipment worth the $50 million upfront payment it received.

But, curiously Mr Amaechi somehow managed to reinstate the contract of the company.

In all, Mr Aniemu said the failure of Nigerian ports to evolve from the old ways of doing things is their greatest failing.

“If you are talking about modernisation in our port system, then I can blame the minister. The reality is that Nigerian ports are far from being modernised. I visited Tema Port (Ghana) about five years back, they had achieved electronic access control. They have a system that puts in place compartmentalisation of containers, cargoes and empty containers and stacking,” he said.