A maritime practitioner, Capt. Tajudeen Alao has harped on the need for the federal government through the Ministry of Transportation to develop a work plan and the timeframe with which to carry out developmental projects in the nation’s maritime industry in 2017.
Alao made this assertion in Lagos in a chat with our correspondent.
He noted that while a work plan is being developed and a timeframe being attached to it, there should be a continuous stakeholder’s engagement on professional and sector basis so as to build trust as well as encourage people to open up.
“In 2017, we need a work plan of what to do, with time and the timeframe attached to it. I remember that they said there will be a national carrier by December 2016 and now we are in 2017, there is a problem. There must be a plan and all that. There also must be real engagement of individual stakeholders.
“We have seen the NPA MD talking to the agents, physically visiting them and talking. This time, there must be a retreat with each maritime journalists’ group, all of them, there must be retreat with the core professionals, the professional bodies who are the brain behind all these, there should be a retreat with the ship owners, ship agents, alone, it could be four hours, there must be one with port concessionaires, service providers like all these LCM and so on. The Minster of Transportation and the Chief Executive of the parastatals under him should meet with them. You create the time, you are dealing with the core reporters, you are listening to them to you know where the shoe is paining them.
“When all the ships are laid up, no job for them, so, what are you talking? Where is the revenue you want to raise? If the importers are not bringing ships to Lagos, Port-Harcourt or Calabar, how can government earn revenue? How can those ports be vibrant? If there are deliberate efforts to bring ships to Nigeria, because they deal on volume, more people are participating, everybody is busy and the income will come. Not that you want to deal with thirty people and you want to kill them with taxations and levies. You are dealing with everybody, everybody is participating, then little income will make the ocean”, he said.
He reasoned that when government officials identify with stakeholders in their group, people would know that there is trust and people will now open up because there is a sense of belonging, a sense of identification as well as a sense of partnership.
“Not that you call people and shout them down, you call people and you tell them off, you call people and you tell them they are bunch of fools, everybody together. Some have some things that are paining them in their mind they want to offload, the crowd is too much for them to be able to open up and what is insulting to them, I have taken money from the bank, millions of Naira, I have bought ships, the ships are laid up, no employment and you call me to a general meeting and what you are saying does not go down well with me, I walk away.
“If we have gone through a process for five, ten, twenty, thirty years, no result, we must change our style. Our style is to win the confident of the people and tell them where we went wrong especially if your background had nothing to do with that environment, you are just coming in, you do not know what anatomy of shipping is, because in shipping, profit is not much. It is the industry that is big and the activity that is big. So, you need their support in order to put the place in shape. We are not saying there must be no revenue but when more is taken, you have more ideas not when few people toying with destinies of many”, he concluded.
Send your news, press releases/articles as well as your adverts to info@primetimereporters.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @reportersinfo and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
