The Managing Director of Oceanblocks Limited, Mr. Oluwole Awonuga has called on the federal government to reverse itself on the port economic regulator status it conferred on the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) on the ground that the NSC was not better positioned to act in that status.
Awonuga who made observation in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos however posited that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) who is considered the landlord as well as the owner of the nation’s seaports was more qualified to be conferred the port economic regulator than the NSC.
According to him,” NPA as far as am concerned is the one that gave the ports to the terminal operators, if you give something to somebody; you have to monitor what the person is doing. As far as I am concerned, NPA is supposed to be the commercial regulator of the port because they are the ones that gave out the ports to all these people to manage. You have to make sure that you are acting in the best interest of Nigerians.
“What is the role of the Shippers’ Council? Let’s assume that you are the landlord and you rent your house to somebody, who is supposed to regulate the house? The owner of the port is NPA not the Shippers’ Council. NPA owns the ports whether the seaports or jetties. And if somebody is not managing it the way it should, NPA will take it back. It is far of you because it is your property, it is NPA’s property.
“So, giving it to the Shippers’ Council, as far as I am concerned, I don’t believe in it because by law, all ports in Nigeria belong to the Nigerian Ports Authority. So, if I own something and I say okay manage this thing for me or that I am leasing it to you, who is now supposed to regulate?”
He further decried the arbitrary fees charged by the terminal operators and jetty owners whom he said lacked the equipment to carry out their responsibilities to the users of their facilities regretting the absence of regulated charges in the nation’s ports.
It will be recalled that following the absence of the port economic regulator to check and regulate the activities of the port users at the nation’s port, the federal government in 2014 through a presidential fiat designated the Nigeria Shippers’ Council as the port economic regulated, a development which was lauded by many stakeholders in the maritime industry.
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