Rev. Emmanuel Agubanze is the Chairman, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Lillypond/Ijora Chapter in Lagos. In this interview with our correspondent, he bares his mind on the condition of the Lillypond Container Terminal, the seeming conspiracy of the terminal operator against Nigeria, the True Bill of lading status of the terminal amongst other issues. Excerpt:
In a chat with newsmen recently, your counterpart in the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) decried the lack of containers at the Lillypond terminal thus affecting business there. Can you confirm that the Lillypond terminal is now without containers?
When you say whether I should confirm, I wonder if you have been there. If you Lillypond terminal, what is happening there is shameful. The situation there is ugly and you discover that because people are no longer compliant with the laws and regulations and that is why they act with impunity.
Lillypond Customs Command is a creation of the law, the government of the Federation knows there is a Lillypond Command because it is in the law book, it is a creation of the Act of Parliament and unfortunately in this country, people think that there are no laws, maybe because the institutions to implement the laws are very weak or maybe because they see Nigeria as a place where you come and you do as wish if not, the problem in Lillypond today should not have been the case because Lillypond Container Terminal is a creation of the Nigerian state even though it was concessioned to some foreign companies, there is an agreement.
But what we discovered is that people no longer adhere to the terms and conditions of agreement, people violate agreement, people breach contract and they go free because there is nobody to call them to other if not tell me, how can a company who was given the mandate, who signed a contract to manage Lillypond Container Terminal into productivity, into efficiency, into effectiveness and cost effectiveness so as to ensure that there is constant cargo flow, is now turning round to convert the same facility into an empty container holding bay?
At times, I don’t know what is happening; I can’t imagine that such a thing could happen in Nigeria of today.
Whose duty is it to supply containers to the terminal?
It is not a question of who is supplying or not supplying containers, Lillypond container facility was concessioned to a company and that company signed an agreement that they are going to improve services to ensure that the place is profitable and to make the place profitable. So, the onus is upon them to ensure that there are containers in that place.
It is not about whose responsibility, if they are no longer able to carry out their functions as a company, they should indicate, they should raise their hand and say,” we can no longer do it”, then the government will look for another competent company that will turn around that place.
But it is wrong, totally wrong for a company to go ultra-vires concerning an agreement signed and they are now using the premises for another thing. It is very bad.
I understand that the terminal operator gave indication last two years that they will be closing down operations at that terminal giving a number of reasons, one of which was lack of business at the terminal…?
Why didn’t they withdraw? They called a press conference, I was there, they said they will wind down, if they wind down, the government will find another company to manage that place. But I think that was an arm twisting kind of thing, they said it in order to blackmail the government.
They said they want to fold the place in order to blackmail government to allow them carry out their illicit business engagement which they are doing now because when they indicated that they were running at a loss, that was what they said, that they were consistently running at a loss, yes fold up and give other people the opportunity to come and manage the place.
But they used that to arm twist the government. You know one thing I want to tell you? I am sure when the concessioning agreement was signed, it was not with APMT, APMT is now the owner of that place. We want to know, how did APMT now become the owner of that terminal? Is it an insider trading or whatever they call it? The original owners that acquired Lillypond, they are no longer the ones there, APMT is the one there.
And if APMT is the owner of Lillypond Container Terminal, why did they find it difficult to ensure that that place is kept alive? If you go to Tincan, there is a company called Ports and Cargo, they owned a terminal inside the port but they also operate SIFAX but you discover that if you go to SIFAX, a bonded warehouse, they are always having cargo because their sister company that owns the terminal is always supplying them with cargo.
So, if APMT is the owner of Lillypond, what is stopping them from maximizing the use of Lillypond?
What is the economic implication of this development?
The economic implication of the development is that they have destroyed the economy of many Nigerians. You know when you have a port, there are so many other stakeholders, let me put it that way that make use of the facility to do their business. For now the clearing agents are no longer in Lillypond, the Customs men and women at Lillypond command are idle and you know that Nigeria has spent a lot of money in training them but today they are idle. They have about one hundred and eighty officers and men in the Nigeria Customs Service but they are not doing anything.
The economic implication is colossal, they have destroyed a lot of things there and I think it is because government have not put their eyes to see, you see it is one thing to give out licenses to people to operate, it is another thing to monitor, regulate, control them. That is what is working against them.
On your own as an association leader, what efforts are you making to ensure that these people do what they were supposed to do and get the place booming again?
Yes, you can take a horse to the river but you cannot force the horse to drink water. We as association, I am the Chairman of NAGAFF Lillypond chapter, we will continue to draw government attention to the anomaly, to the absurdity that is happening in Lillypond.
It is an absurdity in the sense that people took over a facility and then decided to use the facility for another purpose. It is wrong and it is wrong.
I also understand that the terminal has a TBL status, why is it not being used?
True Bill of Lading (TBL) is just a transport term; it is not something that is far-fetched. It is just that if you are an importer and you want Lillypond to be the port of final discharge, you indicate it in your bill of lading from the port of origin and that cannot sustain a terminal because you are talking about maybe one or two containers, as one importer may say okay, let my container go to Lillypond. If it goes to Lillypond, it becomes more costly because by the time you bring the container to Apapa port, then you have to get a transit manifest to send it to Lillypond and here you are talking about two containers or five containers or thereabout. Is it what you recommend when we have a facility that can accommodate about twenty-five thousand containers.
What if a little awareness is created about the TBL status of the Lillypond Terminal, what difference could it make?
Now, whose duty is it to create this awareness you are talking about? The issue is that the Lillypond operators are no longer interested in making Lillypond viable. I think they benefit more from converting into container holding bay because am sure that they are being paid by shipping companies for using that place as a container holding bay because it is their duty to ensure that that place is run profitably.
It is their duty because they invested money there but I think they have somehow thwarted the efforts of the government by converting that place into things that were not originally the intention of the government. So, if we on our own will continue to talk about TBL that cannot sustain a terminal because it is very minor. You are talking about one importer indicating that Lillypond is the final discharge point. You can’t run a terminal like that.
A terminal needs to run when you stem a whole vessel, Lillypond as a terminal supposed to have facility inside the port, a point where a ship if it berths there, we will know it is coming to Lillypond, it is not by TBL, you can’t run a terminal with TBL.
