By: Joy Enamuna

…….Or another Technocrats

“Technocrats and industry experts should be appointed to lead maritime agencies to ensure persistent development of the port sector driven by quality leadership.”

Those were the words of the President Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN), Mr. Godfrey Bivbere, at a recent maritime summit which was organized by same association recently on the deplorable state of ports infrastructure.

According to a press statement in which a copy was made available to Lagos Trace News Magazine, issued on Wednesday, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has concludes plans to unveil his Ministerial cabinet soon, am appealing to him not to repeat his predecessor mistakes, if the maritime sector is properly harness, it would be generating not less than $9Trillion annually”.

While expanciating further, he said “Nigeria maritime sector holds immense potentials to transform the economic fortunes of the nation via higher revenue generation, massive employment and other gains”.

“But for this to be effectively done, people like the immediate-past Minister of Transportation, Alhaji Mu’azu Jaji Sambo who grew up in sector should be re-appointed so as to finish some of his elephant projects and would be able introduce professional ideals”.

Nigeria’s foremost Maritime beat association, MARAN equally observed that within the last 8 months, Alhaji Mu’azu Jaji Sambo and the Minister of State Prince Ademola Adegoroye on his appointment both was able to reposition the nation’s seaports, inland waterways and river ports, as well as dry ports.

The association noted that the former Minister had over three decades work experience in the maritime sector having started his career at Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) before moving to the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) where he rose to the position of General Manager.

His words: “When we talk about the effective utilization of the Nigerian waterways for barging and river ports or transporting passengers to achieve a balanced transport system in Nigeria or we stress the significance of quick turnaround time for ships at Nigerian ports and speedy evacuation of cargoes from ports using multimodal approach; all these issues have far-reaching effects positively and negatively that could be addressed by a Transport Minister who is a maritime professional.”

The MARAN President, however, opined that some of the major challenges attributed to the suboptimal performance of the Nigerian ports and other aspects of shipping are linked to leadership failures which result from the appointment of non-professionals.

While wishing President Tinubu an impactful administration, MARAN reassured the presidency of its partnership and promised to prioritize solution-based journalism to tackle critical challenges plaguing the nation’s maritime sector.