…Speaks on National Transport Commission Bill
The Chairman, National Fleet Implementation Committee, Barr. Hassan Bello has said that the committee is working assiduously to give Nigeria and Nigerians a sustainable and enduring national fleet.
Bello who disclosed this while delivering a lecture to mark the 20th Anniversary Lecture/Awards and patrons Investiture of the League of Maritime Editors and Publishers in Lagos recently stated that national fleet was a very serious thing which according to him explains why the work of the committee was not on daily news.
He said,” You can have a fleeting fleet if you like and tomorrow, it will collapse after all, we have had one or two that went the way of the woods”.
Bello who is also the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) pointed out that the committee was working to achieve a national flag that would bring economic prosperity to this country adding that it was not enough to have ships and flag them Nigeria even as he said that it was more than that.
“You need ancillary or associated industries like the banks, the insurance companies, ship building, ship repair yard even the manning, the flag administration and so many other coming into play before you could have sustainable national fleet and the committee is working towards that.
“So, it’s not a two day thing, it’s not a two months thing, it’s not a two year thing, it’s a continuous thing and we hope by the time all the issues are resolved and they are being resolved every day, as a matter of fact, even two days ago, we had a very important meeting concerning the national fleet. The Minister of Budget, the Vice President, Ministry of Finance and the Customs, all must be involved including the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, they are all involved, everybody is working hard to see that the atmosphere that is necessary for a successful fleet is laid before we can start to work”, he explained.
He continued,” What we want is for Nigerians to own and operate ships, what we want is a number of ships coming together to participate in international trade. These ships must be owned by Nigerians, they may be operated by Nigerians, whatever arrangement not exclusively by Nigerians, maybe we have to look at foreign companies and benefit from their expertise in ship operations or to benefit from their knowledge of the market and the route and the trade. But we are not really inventing the wheel; all that we are doing has been done before.
“Nigeria used to have ships, not cabotage vessels but ships that traded in faraway places. However, a lot of things have happened and we have to look at all these things to see that we don’t go through the same route”.
On the National Transport Commission bill, the NSC boss observed that “The National Transportation bill is an industry bill, first of all, you have to realize it is not a Nigerian Shippers’ Council bill, this is a bill by stakeholders and supported by your good selves. What happened is that when it was taken to the President, the President sent the bill to the Federal Ministry of Transportation for their comment and the comment; we found out that there were certain things which were incongruent with multi-sectoral regulator.
“So, we made a comment and passed to the President and it was the same comment that the President passed back to the National Assembly, that you should remove this and return it back for assent. I am happy to inform you that even yesterday, the Senate has done the correction, they have passed the bill and today, the House of Representatives is also considering the corrections suggested by Mr. President. So, we hope when this is done, it will be signed into law.
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