…Says there’s nothing new about Blue Economy
…Describes euphoria around it as mere distraction
…Tips mismanagement, bad policies, wrong placement as bane of Blue Economy in Nigeria
The Chief Executive Officer, CEO of Widescope Group, Dr. Segun Musa has said that contrary to opinion held in some quarters that the Blue Economy is a new development in the Nigerian maritime industry, there is nothing new or special about Blue Economy in the country.
Speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos on Tuesday, Musa maintained that those of them who had put in more than three decades in the industry and who witnessed the glory days of the Nigerian maritime industry, saw the hullabaloo about the Blue Economy more or less a distraction as according to him, “Nigeria has been at the peak of its Blue Economy in the past.”
He insisted that the country had been a major player and beneficiary of the Blue Economy in the past when it participated actively in the activities in the industry cutting across tourism, fishing, recreation, among others areas of the Blue Economy.
“We benefited from it as people traveled from our ports here to England. We had vessels that conveyed people from Nigeria to England, we had vessels for tourism, we had fishing trawlers and a whole lot of potential within the Blue Economy before now. And we also practiced core shipping in the sense that we were carrying cargoes, we were having a fair share of cargo carriage. We ran one of the biggest shipping companies in Africa – NNSL.
“So, we have always been a big actor in the Blue Economy and I can tell you without mincing words that Nigeria generated huge revenue from Blue Economy in the past, talking about between the 50s and early 90s, until we derailed”, he submitted.
Musa who is also the Deputy National President, Air Logistics of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, NAGAFF , however, argued that the only thing the country needed to do was to interrogate how it got it wrong in the first place, how it derailed and at what point it derailed.
Asked to suggest what he felt was the reason for Nigeria’s backwardness in harnessing its Blue Economy potential, he said, “Mismanagement and bad policies. We were putting the wrong pegs in the wrong holes. We have trained a lot of people, Nigeria has invested massively on training even up to mid 90s, most of our sailors, captains and seafarers were trained abroad, both onshore and offshore.
“But even if they mismanaged the offshore, what about the onshore? We don’t need to liquidate the onshore, we would have gathered the onshore and project them for technical training in such a way that anyone that wants to diversify into shipping, we will have them handy as a pool of consultants, we would have made a lot of money.
“Instead of us taking our cadets abroad for training, we can actually train them with the pool of technocrats that we have trained with huge money. If you query how much we have invested in training our officers up till the 90s, you will see that it’s more than enough to transform the country. Even if you liquidate the vessels and the rest, those people that we have invested heavily on with the huge revenue of this country, why did we jettison them?
“So, these are areas NIMASA now comes in. We have made a mistake. All these hullabaloo about the Blue Economy, I just see them as jamboree and no matter the amount of jamboree we do in Blue Economy, we won’t get it right until we have critical stakeholders engagement.”
He therefore insisted that the new Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dayo Mobereola whose appointment he hailed as timely, should do more to engage the stakeholders so that collectively, they could interrogate where the country got it wrong and together draw a roadmap that would launch Nigeria to where it used to be in the past.
“Only then would we be standing on the right footing to forge ahead. It’s not enough for you to make money, there must be a policy drive to encourage synergy to harness the full potential of that sector. So, no matter the amount of jamboree we do in Blue Economy, we won’t get it right until we have critical stakeholders engagement”, he added.
Photo: Dr. Segun Musa, Managing Director/CEO, Widescope Investment Nigeria Limited.
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