Analyses

Jamoh’s three years in office: Achievements, Prospects, Projections

Bashir Jamoh, DG, NIMASA

Today marks the third year when Dr Bashir Jamoh was appointed as the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency(NIMASA).

During these eventful years, Nigeria’s maritime industry has witnessed astronomical growth and quantum development which has earned the country international recognition and goodwill.

In this comprehensive profile of the administration of the Kaduna State-born technocrat in NIMASA, theeyewitnessnews reporter takes a cursory look at the achievements, prospects and projections of the agency to make the industry more robust for efficiency, investments and accelerated growth.

The Mandate

The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) was established by an Act of Parliament (The NIMASA Act 2007) with two cardinal objectives, namely;

To Regulate and Promote Maritime Safety, Security, Marine Pollution and Maritime Labour.
To promote the development of Indigenous Commercial Shipping in International and Coastal Shipping Trade

The Agency derives its mandate from four Acts of the National Assembly. These are NIMASA Act, 2007, Cabotage Act, 2003, Merchant Shipping Act, 2007 and SPOMO Act, 2019.

VISION

To be the leading maritime administration in Africa advancing Nigeria’s global maritime goals

MISSION

To achieve and sustain safe, secure shipping, cleaner oceans and enhanced maritime capacity in line with global best practices towards Nigeria’s economic development

OUR CORE VALUES

C – COMMITMENT

A – ACCOUNTABILITY

P – PROFESSIONALISM

I – INTEGRITY

T – TEAMWORK

E – EXCELLENCE

L – LEADERSHIP

D – DISCIPLINE

OUR PERFORMANCE TRIPOD

MARITIME SECURITY S1:

Security of the Maritime Domain is very critical to the day-to-day operation of the sector. Security helps to boost investors’ confidence; hence, the following key accomplishments are under the current dispensation.

Signing into law of the SPOMO Act by Mr. President
The launch of the Deep Blue Project
Significant Reduction in Piracy and Kidnappings
Arrests and Successful Prosecution of Criminals
Leadership of Regional Maritime Collaboration Forum to tackle Insecurity
Nigeria’s Removal from IBM’s Red List

AIM OF THE DEEP BLUE PROJECT

The aim of the project is to establish a sustainable architecture for improved maritime safety and security through increased monitoring and compliance enforcement within Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), with a view to effectively tackling the challenges of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

THE DEEP BLUE PROJECT ASSETS BREAKDOWN

Classified into 3 (three) with over 254 personnel drawn from Military and paramilitary organizations. These are; Marine, Land and Air Assets.

Marine Assets

Special Mission Vessels – 2 (DB Abuja and DB Lagos)

Fast Intervention Boats – 17

Air Assets

Special Mission Helicopters 3

Special Mission Aircrafts 2

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

Land Assets

Armored Vehicles – 17

Facilities – Command, Control, Computer, Communication and Intelligence (C4i) Centre, Training Facilities (Shooting Range, C4i Training Centre etc.). Training; various training for all personnel in the deep blue project on the assets and facilities.

THE INTER-OPERABILITY OF THE DEEP BLUE ASSETS

Effective implementation of the Deep Blue Project contributed to the reduction in piracy cases with only one piracy case as of May 2022, 6 cases in 2021 from 35 cases in 2020 and 2019 respectively

OUR PERFORMANCE TRIPOD

MARITIME SAFETY S2:

The Agency observed that shipping is critical to global trade, yet it is the most vulnerable in terms of safety. This explains the reason the IMO (International Maritime Organization) adopted the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention to ensure the safety of those involved.

Consequently, empowered by enabling legislations, NIMASA takes this as a critical aspect of its job to ensure safety of ships and those on board, through proper enforcement of maritime safety conventions.

ACHIEVEMENT AND INITIATIVES

OUR PERFORMANCE TRIPOD

SHIPPING DEVELOPMENT S3

The critical aspect of shipping development encompasses fleet expansion, shipbuilding and ship repairs. Shipping is responsible for over 90 percent of international transportation of goods that sustain the global supply chain, which is a significant component of the global economy, enhancing imports and exports of goods and services.

NIMASA is poised to advance shipping by ensuring a conducive environment for commercial shipping and encouraging more indigenous participation in the global shipping trade.

NSDP BREAKDOWN AS AT OCTOBER 2021

WASTE TO WEALTH PROGRAMME / EMPLOYMENT GENERATION – 1,190 MARINE LITTER MARSHALS

The Making of Nigeria’s Blue Economy Strategic Document

Vice President His Excellency Yemi Osinbajo will Chair the Expanded Committee on the Blue Economy Strategy Development and its Implementation Task Team.
The Federal Ministry of Transportation under the leadership of the Honourable Minister for Transportation, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi
Federal Ministry of Transportation as the Secretariat

BLUE ECONOMY AND LITTORAL STATES ENGAGEMENT

CABOTAGE VESSEL FINANCING FUND (CVFF) – STATUS OF DELIVERY

Presidential approval was granted for disbursement.

Primary lending institutions appointed.

Disbursement is likely second quarter of 2023.

MARITIME SAFETY

The Federal Executive Council, at the end of the last quarter of 2021, approved the wreck removals from the Badagry axis up to the Tincan Island project has gone

very far.

Again, in the first quarter of 2022, the Federal Executive Council approved the removal of the entire wrecks also in the other zones of Nigeria, comprising the Western zone with headquarters in Lagos, Eastern zone headquarters in Port Harcourt, and then the central Zone headquarters in Warri. All these projects have achieved major milestones.

We engaged the Nigerian Navy Naval Dockyard in Lagos to repair our operational vessels, Millennia 1 and Millennium 2. Today both vessels and five others are almost ready

for deployment for enforcement purposes. This will also enhance our search and rescue operation, and port and flag state administration amongst others.

In other to attend to the emergencies that may occur after Search and Rescue operations, the Agency has built two brand new Search and Base clinics of international standard at Azare Crescent, Apapa and Kirikiri. We are hopeful to commission it soon. The hospital is not for NIMASA or Nigeria, but for the original Regional States, NIMASA is in charge of nine countries in terms of Search and Rescue. The hospital is of high international standard, we hope to treat all calibers of patients locally, and internationally, with the state-of-the-art equipment the facility will possess, when completed.

In the area of our Flag and Port State Administration, at the inception of the administration, there was no single vessel for enforcement. Today, we have built seven brand new bulletproof boats and we expect them to have completed the building. They are being built in Spain, and we are hoping that before the end of March, we will receive and commission the vessel.

As soon as the vessels are commissioned, there will be enhanced enforcement performance; and we plan to divide the use of the vessels; not only in Lagos but also in other zones of the Agency. All these will cater for the issue of safety.

MARITIME SECURITY

Before 2019, we do not have law, separate law that tried these offenders and criminals that we arrest those involved in piracy and kidnapping.

Therefore, we are trying to get this formal act Suppression of Piracy and other Maritime Related Offences (SPOMO) Act signed by Mr. President in June 2019. As of today, we have secured convictions under this Act. This has also served as a deterrent to would-be criminals.

To further deter these criminalities on the waterways and make our youths gainfully employed, the Agency engaged the Marine Litter Marshals Usually;

In the area of education, the Agency introduced the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP). The Nigerian NSDP development program is a capacity development programme.

Now in order to ensure that we do not forget our own training institution in Nigeria, we have improved our interface with the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) Oron. The Agency’s statutory funding of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria in Oron has been on point since 2020.

We have Simulators, among other state-of-the-art facilities, and the funding by NIMASA has been unhindered. This is in addition to other private maritime institutions, the private like Charkins, which are now also coming up with a lot of accreditation of diplomas and other short-term certificates that we are doing it locally, saving foreign exchange that we are having.

In addition to this initiative, the Agency created skill acquisition centres across six geopolitical zones. For the South-West we have Lagos, in the South-East we have Anambra, for South-South we have Bayelsa, in North-East, we have Maiduguri, Borno state; for North-West we have Kaduna State for North Central we have Kwara.

So all these skill acquisition centers have the capacity of training younger Nigerians on different aspects of professionalism under that. This is to help trim the number of this criminality in our own territorial waters. Records, therefore, show that from the third quarter of 2021 until date, we have never recorded one single attack in our own territorial water.

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Analyses

Dantsoho: Turning Eastern ports to beautiful bride among Shippers through infrastructural upgrade, focused leadership

Funso Olojo

Apart from reviving the Eastern ports, the Nigerian Ports Authority is at the heart of the Federal government ‘s drive to strengthen Nigeria’s economic diversification options through a sustainable blue economy ventures like ship building, ship repair and other dry dock activities

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, is sustaining conscious steps aimed at improving ship traffic to the eastern ports and repositioning them for optimum efficiency.

As part of the Authority’s contribution to boosting the national economy, Dantsoho is working tirelessly to maximise the potentials of Onne and Port Harcourt ports while also reviving the existing ports in Calabar, Warri and other parts of the South South without losing focus on greenfield port projects.

Proximity to Northern Industrial Clusters

For years, shipping into Nigeria meant Lagos ports first, everywhere else second.

The Eastern Ports- Port Harcourt, Onne, Warri, and Calabar- were left in the shadows despite their proximity to key markets and resource corridors.

Despite its potential, weak infrastructure and limited connectivity kept the Eastern ports underused.

Lagos absorbed over 90 per cent of maritime traffic while Eastern facilities ran below a third of their capacity.

But today, that story is beginning to change.

Under the leadership of Dantsoho, Eastern ports are being repositioned as a competitive gateway.

For shippers, the benefits are obvious- shorter turnaround times, closer access to the South-East and North-Central industrial clusters, lower transportation costs, and the ability to move agricultural and mineral products more efficiently.

All these are aimed at deepening Nigeria’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) regime.

To demonstrate his hands on approach, Dantsoho embarked on a series of tours and focussed on driving investment into the Eastern Ports.

These tours have started to yield expressions of interest for Rivers, Calabar, and Burutu Ports.

One of these is the recently celebrated call of the wholly Nigerian-owned MV Ocean Dragon at Onne’s West African Container Terminal (WACT) on July 31, 2025.

With a 349 TEU capacity, the MV Ocean Dragon shall be plying routes across West, Central, and Southern Africa, exemplifying the “Nigeria First” policy and pronouncing Nigeria as a key player in intra African trade.

Through these efforts, the NPA is showing its commitment to integrating Nigerian producers with global markets and maximising the immediate benefits of the proximate African trade corridor by water.

Dantsoho’s management introduced new tariffs, which became effective on March 1, 2025.

The tariffs reflect operational costs while maintaining competitiveness and enhancing the actualisation of the Authority’s 25-year master plan which emphasizes automation, cybersecurity, and sustainability, including a proposed “Green Craft Acquisition Fund” for IMO-compliant vessels.

Partnerships, Achievements Touching on Exports

The NPA has continued to pursue strategic partnerships, which are driving growth.

For instance, Hapag-Lloyd launched a weekly service at Onne, connecting Eastern Nigeria to global routes and enhancing transshipment under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Collaborations with relevant agencies of government like the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for 24-hour operations also aim at reducing cargo release times and curb diversions to neighbouring ports.

And performance metrics reflect success so far.

Records show that service boat Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) rose 129.3% to 4.58 million tons in 2024.

The Eastern Ports have also seen larger vessels berth safely, with stakeholders like Indorama reporting higher export tonnages.

In anticipation of the growth that this progress growth indicates, the NPA projects ₦1.28 trillion in revenue for 2025, up from ₦894.86 billion in 2024.

And the development in the Eastern Ports contributes significantly to the projected revenue rise.

Buoyed by the fruits of its effort so far, the NPA introduced new incentive regime to encourage patronage of non-Lagos ports, including discounts and streamlined processes for Eastern corridors.

And in achieving that, the Authority is aligning with the Federal Government’s “Nigeria First” which emphasises infrastructure modernization, operational efficiency, and indigenous participation in the maritime sector.

Discussions with stakeholders like the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) have therefore, focussed on boosting indigenous ownership and short-sea shipping.

Driving FG’s Economic Diversification

Apart from rebuilding investors’ confidence to attract foreign direct investments (FDI) to viable private sector initiatives like ship building and repairs, NPA is presently at the heart of the federal government’s drive to strengthen Nigeria’s economic diversification options through a sustainable blue economy Ventures like ship building, ship repair and other dry dock activities are attracting attention.

At a recent forum in Lagos, Founder of Starz Marine and Engineering Limited in Rivers State, Engr. Greg Ogbeifun, disclosed the commitment of $350 million loan by Afrexim Bank to facilitate shipbuilding and expansion of the yard.

This, he stated, will aid the expansion of the Starz’s shipyard from 500 tons to 10,000 ton lifting capacity, 120 meter long circle lift, for the purpose of achieving quality ship repair and building which Nigerians have had cause to travel for.

Infrastructure Modernisation, Capacity Building.

A cornerstone of the NPA’s strategy is significant investment in port infrastructure to accommodate larger vessels and reduce vessel turnaround times.

Port Harcourt, though historic, was underdeveloped, Onne thrived as an oil and gas base but not for as container-handling, Warri struggled with shallow approaches through Escravos, while Calabar, battled draft restrictions that discouraged major carriers.

These barriers created a cycle of neglect and reinforced Lagos’ dominance.

The Dantsoho led administration at Nigerian Ports Authority, has however made breaking cycle a priority.

With reforms that include infrastructural and equipment upgrades, financial incentives, and stakeholder engagement have been put forward.

Channel dredging and rehabilitation are said to be ongoing at Warri, Onne, and Calabar to accommodate larger vessels.

At Onne Port Complex, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with West African Container Terminal (WACT) Nigeria Limited has advanced Terminal ‘B’ expansion (Berths 7 and 8) to 62% completion, with over $110 million invested.

This upgrade is part of a broader $2.9 billion Onne Port Expansion Phase 4B project which is the largest port investment in Africa over the past decade.

Additionally, a 6,000 metric tonne bitumen tank is nearing completion at Rivers Port Complex, enhancing storage and supporting regional infrastructure needs.

The NPA has now secured $1.1 billion for comprehensive rehabilitation across Eastern Ports, including Onne, Rivers, Calabar, and Warri.

Key projects include road network integration at Onne’s Berths 9-11, installation of marine fenders authority-wide, and surveys for shore protection at Escravos breakwaters in Warri.

Navigational aids and buoys have been deployed in Warri and Calabar Pilotage Districts to improve channel marking and safety.

These enhancements have led to unprecedented cargo traffic, particularly at Onne, attributed to improved channel security and reduced attacks on vessels.

Dredging efforts are also ongoing to increase draught depths, such as targeting 11 meters at Onne and Calabar to handle bigger ships with a mind on avoiding past situations like the stalled $12.5million contract and legal conundrum.

Although Onne has welcomed ships that once avoided the corridor, security patrols across the Niger Delta are supported by partner agencies, thereby reducing piracy and other threats at sea while reassuring international shipping lines of the security of their vessels.

On the commercial side, tariff rebates on harbour dues has lowered cost for users of the Eastern ports, while terminal concessions are driving private investment in modern cargo-handling equipment.

Hopefully through the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail, the North-East would have a direct maritime outlet, where agricultural produce and solid minerals can be exported from.

This is exactly what an efficient port system is.

Furthermore, the NPA has acquired state-of-the-art harbour crafts, including two 80-tonne Bollard Pull tugboats (M.T. Maikoko and M.T. Da-Opukuro), the first of their kind in Africa to eliminate berthing and sailing delays .

These vessels, complemented by additional tugboats and pilot cutters, have improved efficiency, with average vessel turnaround time dropping to 5.16 days so far.

The Electronic Call-up (Eto) system and Export Processing Terminals (EPTs) have also streamlined operations, boosting export volumes by 60% in some terminals.

Opening of ‘Road D’ at Onne has also alleviated logistics bottlenecks, attracting commendations from truckers.

That is in addition to several other initiatives that support multimodal transport and align with International Association for Ports and Harbours (IAPH) standards for port-hinterland connectivity.

Future Outlook: Thriving Eastern Maritime Hub

The NPA’s multifaceted approach —combining infrastructure upgrades, equipment acquisitions, incentives, and partnerships, to improve delivery position the Eastern Ports as vital economic engines.

Under the supervision of His Excellency, Gboyega Oyetola, these efforts promise sustained ease of doing business and blue economy optimization.

As transshipment figures from Lekki Deep Seaport rise and trade surpluses grow, the Eastern Ports, with continued focus on security, dredging, and indigenous capacity, are poised for even greater vessel traffic and investment, contributing to Nigeria’s maritime renaissance.

Succour for Aba Manufacturers, Onitsha Traders.

Thanks to NPA, manufacturers in Aba, traders in Onitsha, and industrial clusters in Nnewi can now route their cargo through the Eastern ports nearest to them, saving time and money.

With this new dawn, Onne will strengthen its dominance as the Gulf of Guinea’s offshore logistics hub.

Port Harcourt and Calabar can become lifelines to South-East and linkages to Cameroon and Central Africa.

Like the legendary King Midas, whose hands turned anything he touched to gold, Dr Dantsoho is championing a regime of deploying human resources and materials to where matters most, focusing attention on critical areas of NPA functions that affects the economy.

His hands on approach to management and leadership is providing a hybrid of government, private and sector collaboration that daily draws Nigeria closer to the full realisation of becoming the leading maritime country in West and Central Africa.

His impactful work in progress mode is a testament to his decades of involvement in port activities as a youth corps member in NPA to an employee who grew through the ranks that providence has seen to now lead the NPA as MD.

There is a consensus that he is President Tinubu’s most experienced maritime appointee who justifies the trust by creating an enabling environment for unfettered growth in the nation’s blue economy ecosystem.

Analyses

Nigeria Maritime media celebrates Adeniyi over his transformational leadership as Customs boss

Funso OLOJO

In an unprecedented show of solidarity and unanimity in the acknowledgement of his sterling performance as the Comptroller-General of Customs, the maritime media practitioners have conferred an award of ‘Iconic Maritime Personality of the year 2024’ on Adewale Adeniyi.

The award, which is to be officially presented to the CGG on January 16th,2025 at the Apapa Port Customs Command Auditorium, Lagos is a testament to the transformational leadership of Adeniyi which the media practitioners agreed has revolutionized the Nigeria Customs Service.

The unprecedented recognition of the performance of Adeniyi was a unanimous decision by all maritime journalists covering the maritime beat in Nigeria which cut across print, electronic and online media, led by the different beat associations.

These include the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN), League of Maritime Editors (LOME), Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON), Maritime Journalists Association of Nigeria (MAJAN), Shipping Correspondents Association of Nigeria (SCAN), Online Maritime Media Association of Nigeria (OMMAN) and Congress of Maritime Media Practitioners (CONMMEP).

They believe that CG Adeniyi has posted impressive performance since his assumption of office as the Customs CGC.

According to a nomination letter sent to the CGC by the Secretary, Award Planning Committee, Mr Innocent Orok, “there is no gainsaying you have redeemed and repositioned the Service in all areas. These include revenue collection, anti-smuggling activities, trade facilitation, national security, staff welfare, inter-agency collaboration, infrastructural upgrading, Information and Communication Technology, and Corporate Social Responsibility, among others.

“It is also incontestable that your record-breaking performance has attracted national and international laurels to you, the Service, and Nigeria as a whole. Unarguably, it is partly for these reasons that the Leadership Newspaper Group recently honoured you with the award of the Public Service Personality of the Year.

“We, the maritime journalists, comprising both print, electronic and online media covering the beat, are happy to be part of this history-making with you as partners in progress.

“In appreciation of your superlative performance and, by extension, your unrelenting support to the media, especially the maritime media, we nominate you as the ICONIC MARITIME PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR.”

On his part, the Chairman of Award Planning Committee, Dele Aderibegbe, explained that “the award is coming at no better time than during the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is looking for focused and dedicated leaders to take the Nigerian economy out of the woods.

According to him, “this honour is very symbolic. First, this is the first time in the maritime sub-sector that all the journalists covering the beat will come together to honour a deserving performer per excellence, who has made the Customs and Nigeria proud by his purposeful, professional and patriotic leadership.

“Secondly, the Nigeria Customs Service under Adewale Adeniyi has been reconnected to international frontiers and leading in revenue collection, anti-smuggling activities, trade facilitation, ICT, modernisation, and inter-agency collaboration, among others.

“This honour by maritime journalists is also to set an agenda for other agencies of government and their appointees that the ever vibrant and dogged maritime media are watching them.

“We are inviting special guests, especially other agencies’ heads and maritime stakeholders to come and witness this great event, which is first of its kind in the Nigerian maritime industry.”

Analyses

Maritime Labour’s selfish stand against Ports and Harbour Bill

Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, PG, MWUN

The Eyewitness News Analysis

For nine years, maritime labour has fought against the passage of the Ports and Harbour Bill 2015.

Initiated in the eighth Assembly and sponsored by Senator Andy Uba of Anambra South Senatorial District in 2015, the bill, read for the first time on the floor of the National Assembly in 2016, seeks, among other things, the decentralization of ports operations by involving more private interests in ports operations.

The purpose is to open up the ports space for massive investments and attract private sector funds that would be used to build massive port infrastructure.

The bill, if allowed to be passed into law, will repeal the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) ACT 1955 as amended by Act CAP 126 LFN 2004 and establish Nigerian Ports and Harbour Authority.

The bill seeks to further consolidate the gains of the 2006 ports concession programme which ceded terminal operations functions of the NPA to the private interests.

However, the bill which enjoyed accelerated hearing on the floor of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, was stalled and got stuck at the ninth National Assembly where it had passed through the third and final reading and waiting to be passed to the House of Representatives for concurrence before its transmission to the President for his assent.

The maritime labour under the aegis of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria( MWUN) had mobilised its massive membership across the maritime space to stall the passage of the bill.

The major reason for its opposition, according to Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, the President-General of the Union, is the fear of job loss for the teeming members of the union.

The position of the Maritime Workers union is quite understandable and in tandem with the modus operandi of all labour unions.

No matter the nobility and credibility of the objectives of any public service reform, if it conflicts with the interests of the members, the labour unions will fight it.

In as much as we sympathise with the position of maritime labour on the issue of the Ports and Harbour bill, its position against the passage of this noble bill, is at best, selfish and self–serving.

The Union has not controverted the public benefits which the bill, when passed into law, will bring to the Port operations in the country.

Such benefits as attracting more private sector funds to develop the maritime industry and fix the decaying port infrastructure, thus making our ports more attractive and competitive globally.

Over the years, the government has been overwhelmed with the demands to fund public infrastructures, hence its attraction to concessions, collaborations and partnerships with private sectors in order to get their funds for the development of some critical public infrastructures.

The worsening economy in the country has further placed a huge burden on the government so much so that it has started to falter in some of its financial obligations to these public infrastructures.

Further borrowing will sink the economy into a deeper mess as the country still wallows in the anguish of repaying its humongous debts.

So private participation such as the one being sought by the Port and Harbor Bill will save the nation’s sea ports from further decay due to the inability of the government to fund such a huge commitment.

For many years, the Nigerian Ports Authority has been going cap in hands to the multi- national finance companies to seek $800 million needed to rehabilitate the dilapidated ports infrastructures at Apapa, Tin Can, Onne and Calabar ports, an amount the Federal government could not afford.

Many stakeholders fear that the terms for such loans may not be too favourable to Nigeria as the lenders, in order to hedge against any risks, may hold the NPA to ransom, thus mortgaging our ports to foreign interests.

But with the passage of the contended bill, private sector funds will be readily available to carry out such remedial works without necessarily mortgaging our ports to the imperialist multi-national Finance corporations.

The labour union should rise above its selfish and parochial interests and look at the larger picture of the more developed and efficient port system under deregulated port operations.

The same opposition the Labor put up against the port concession programme of 2006 because of fear of job loss.

Yes, the programme recorded some casualties just as similar reform exercises, but the end eventually justified the means.

As widely acknowledged by the stakeholders, port concession, which ceded terminal operations to private interests, has resulted to massive infrastructural rebirth at the Nigerian Ports.

Terminal operations have become highly efficient, fast and safe which has led to a quicker rate of turnaround time of vessels.

The concessionaires have injected massive funds for the infrastructural development of the terminals.

While the concession programme shipped out redundant labourers, those who survived the purge now earn fatter salaries with mouth-watering remunerations and fantastic welfare packages which was not the case during the pre-concession era.

Comrade Adewale Adeniyi at one time attested to this change in the financial fortunes of his members who are working at the terminals.Working against the passage of the Ports and Harbour Bill will be tantamount to stagnating the progress of the ports and the retardation of the financial fortunes of the very workers the union is claiming to be fighting for.

We understand that there would be casualties just as in the port concession programme and other reforms exercises, but those who are left will enjoy the benefits of the reform.

We are not an advocate of job loss especially at this trying time of the economy when the unemployment market is congested but no surgery is carried out without pain.

No reform is without casualties but the end will certainly justify the means.

Rather than the labour union throw away the baby with the birth water and oppose the passage of the bill in its entirety, the leadership of the union led by the amiable and indefatigable Prince Adewale Adeyanju, should seek to sit with the government and find a common ground for mutual benefits.

No government would be as insensitive as to throw away its workers who have staked their lives and energies to build an entity without adequate compensation and reward.

Just as what happened during the negotiations over the workers’ fate at the concession exercise when the affected workers were given a soft landing, the labour Union could made a similar demand to give a soft landing for any casualty that may be recorded under the disputed bill.

But to outrightly ask the government to jettison the bill which the generality of stakeholders had described as a new dawn in the maritime industry would be the height of self-preservation and selfishness, thereby placing the interests of few persons over the general good of the industry.

We understand the frustration of Comrade Adewale Adeyanju and his team over their inability to access the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola yet, we advise the team should be more persistent and patient.

With patience and diplomacy, the Minister will grant them an audience.

The Union should desist from clothing its interests for opposing the bill in the garb of public interests as it sought to do when its leadership claimed that the bill will expose the port space to security risks, a claim that is not verifiable and an attempt to blackmail the government.

Comrade Adewale Adeyanju should not yield to the urge to disrupt port activities should the union not have its way over the bill as the industry has enjoyed an uncommon industrial peace and harmony since he ascended the leadership of the union, a feat that was largely attributed to his style of negotiation rooted in lobbying and dialogue.