The duo of Chief Timothy Okorocha and Francis Ugbokwe, two versatile journalists with many years of experiences under their belts, are set to unveil an iconic book, which they authored, to the public where they have carefully and professionally documented developments in maritime industry, including the revolutionary trend in the Nigeria customs service.

Part of the book presentation is a seminar with a topic titled ‘3 Years After Marine & Blue Economy Ministry, How Far, How Well?.

 This paper will be deliered by the Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr. Adegboyega Oyetola.

The book is about the comprehensive examination of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in both revenue generation, anti-smuggling operations and  transformation within the  country’s broader economic and trade architecture.

The book also  places particular emphasis on the reform trajectory and institutional performance under the leadership of Bashir Adewale Adeniyi  as well as the maritime agencies, while situating these developments within the wider policy direction of the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

It presents a timely contribution to ongoing national conversations around revenue optimization, trade facilitation, efficiency and institutional accountability.

The book equally captures activities in the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy since its creation in 2023.

In particular focus are its agencies, including the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration & Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN).

The book,  titled “Customs Operational Revolution and Maritime Development Under President Tinubu’ is billed for presentation  on June 18th,  2026 in Lagos .

Okorocha and Ugwoke , the authors, have covered the sector for decades, ranging from when they were Maritime  Correspondents in Daily Times and Thisday Newspapers respectively to when they established their own industry publications.

The book  unveils  in many ways the trade facilitation efforts of the present crop of leaders in the   Customs Service under Adeniyi.

It also  unearths the value addition of the Customs Service in revenue generation more than ever before, placing the organization in a top-notch position to be reckoned with and coming after the heavily relied upon oil sector.

Similarly, the book highlights the narratives as far as key developments are concerned in the core maritime sector with emphasis on accolades recorded in the country’s good outing when she returned to the Category C Seat of the International Maritime Organisation  (IMO) after close to a decade.

The return, the book notes, would not have been possible if not for the successes in the piracy war in both nation’s territorial waters and the Gulf of Guinea (GoG), a development that has made it possible for Nigeria to challenge attempts by multinational shipping lines/conference liners to impose war risk surcharges, among others  on cargoes destined for  Nigeria

The book also points to different weaknesses, challenges in customs operations,   maritime development efforts  and what experts insist must be addressed going forward.

Okorocha, who is  the Publisher/Editor-In-Chief of THIS PAGE NEWSPAPER based in Lagos, was the   former  Daily Times Bureau Chief in charge of the six South/South states, with Headquarter in Port Harcourt.

At one time, he also served as the Newspaper’s Acting City Editor at its Kakawa office in Lagos.

He holds an Advanced Diploma in Journalism from the Times Journalism Institute (TJI) Lagos, a Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Financial Management, and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Calabar.

Ugwoke is the Managing Director of Sea Visions & Services Limited (Publisher of Shipping Day Online/Magazine),   and was the  Chief Maritime Correspondent,  Regional Editor (South East), Group News Editor and Online Editor at different times  for Thisday Newspapers.

While working in Thisday Newspaper, he  won the first  Best Maritime Reporter Award in 1997 organised by the Maritime Media Limited (Publisher of Shipping World Magazine).

He   holds Advanced Diploma in Journalism from Times Journalism Institute (TJI)  and Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from   Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU).

As part of the seminar, the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir  Adewale Adeniyi, Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho,  the Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration & Safety Agency  (NIMASA), Dr. Dayo Modereola and the Executive Secretary/CEO, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Dr. Pius Akutah, are all expected to deliver papers on different topics covering strides and challenges in their organisations in  the past three years and few months of the present administration.

“He who controls the keys to the vault will always dictate the direction of the ship.”

The reception to my recent analysis on rethinking Nigeria’s Port financing strategy highlighted a deep-seated, justifiable skepticism within our maritime community.

While stakeholders overwhelmingly agree that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) must transition toward domestic capital mobilization and revenue retention, one critical question keeps resurfacing: How do we protect a Port Modernization Sinking Fund from the political interference that has paralyzed the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) for decades?

It is a valid worry.

In Nigeria, the road to infrastructure decay is paved with well intentioned funds that were ultimately treated as political spoils.

If a Port modernization fund is structured simply as a government bank account controlled by changing political appointees, it will fail.

This risk is particularly acute given that the NPA is now a high-stakes fiscal engine, having formally projected a staggering ₦1.489 trillion revenue target for the 2026 fiscal year during its recent budget defense before the National Assembly.

To succeed, we must move away from government custody and engineer “political-proof” maritime structures where true insulation does not come from isolating an asset from the state entirely, but from wrapping it in legal, financial, and institutional guardrails that make political meddling legally impossible and financially punishable.

The first step to safeguarding maritime revenues is removing them from the direct custody of political agencies.

 A Port Modernization Sinking Fund must never sit on the balance sheet of the NPA, nor within the Treasury Single Account (TSA) where it can be swept to fund unrelated national deficits.

Instead, a portion of the NPA’s revenue stream must be legally diverted into an independent, bankruptcy-remote Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) incorporated under the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

Once the funds hit this SPV, they are legally separate from the government, meaning a sitting Minister or Managing Director cannot simply sign a memo to withdraw cash to fund a political project without violating corporate governance laws and triggering immediate litigation from asset trustees.

Furthermore, the historic failure of the CVFF lies in bureaucratic custody where politicians and regulators hold the keys to the vault.

For a Port sinking fund to work, custody must be handed over to a consortium of independent, private sector institutional trustees and asset managers who operate under strict fiduciary duties.

Their sole mandate is to protect the fund and ensure capital is deployed exclusively for the specific infrastructure projects outlined in the fund’s charter—such as quay wall reconstruction or digital single window infrastructure—leaving them legally bound to refuse any political demands for diversion under the full weight of investment laws and the Investment and Securities Act.

The most effective way to keep politicians honest is to introduce aggressive counter parties who will sue if rules are broken, which is achieved by using the retained Port revenues inside the SPV as equity to issue local currency maritime infrastructure bonds on the financial market  dealers  quotation (FMDQ) or Nigerian Exchange (NGX) to attract institutional investors like pension fund administrators (PFAs).

When Nigeria’s pension funds invest trillions of Naira into our Ports, the fund ceases to be an opaque government kitty and becomes a publicly traded, highly regulated instrument where the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and powerful institutional investors will demand quarterly audits, strict disclosures, and timely debt servicing, ensuring no administration risks defaulting on local bonds held by millions of working Nigerians just to satisfy a short term political interest.

To cement these structures, the National Assembly must provide legislative teeth through targeted amendments to the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) Act, including an “Irrevocable Standing Payment Order” (ISPO) or an automated revenue split mechanism.

The moment Port tariffs are paid by shipping lines via the digital National Single Window, the technology must automatically split the funds, sending 70% to the Federation Account and 30% directly to the private led infrastructure SPV, effectively hardcoding this split into the Port’s digital architecture to eliminate human discretion and political approvals from the collection loop entirely.

Ultimately, we cannot allow the mismanagement of the past to paralyze our economic imagination for the future.

 The CVFF failed because it was designed as an insular, government controlled honeypot, but a Port Modernization Fund built on private trusteeship, SPV structures, and capital market accountability changes the game entirely.

If Nigeria is to successfully modernize the century old Apapa Port and fix the decaying berths at Tin Can Island, we must build financial structures that outlast political administrations, treating financial engineering with the same urgency as civil engineering to ensure that our maritime wealth is locked securely in service of the nation’s trade, far out of the reach of political interference.