'Interfering' Transport Ministry officials
are sabotaging ports, laments ANLCA boss, Shittu
National President of the Association of
Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu, has accused
officials of the Federal Ministry of Transport of causing problems in the
nation’s port industry.
Shittu, who stated this on the sidelines of a Free
Clinic organised by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) said
that the continuous interference of the transport ministry in the activities of
the seaports is greatly hampering the level of progress at these facilities.
He noted that one of such interferences is the
proposed establishment of a commercial regulator for the port industry, which
effort, according to him, the ministry’s officials have been frustrating.
Shittu said that rather officials of the Federal
Ministry of Transport support the transformation of the NSC to a commercial
regulator, the ministry allegedly wants to create a department within the
ministry to become the commercial regulator.
"Let me say here that the problems of the
port are defying solutions as a result of the Ministry of Transport interfering
in processes that will solve the problems of the port. This also came to fore
when we discovered in a meeting in Abuja that all
efforts to make the Shippers’ Council a commercial regulator in the industry
today is being thwarted by the civil servants in the Ministry of Transport. I
can tell you honestly that the Ministry of Transport also came with a decision that
a department in the ministry should serve as the regulator for the industry.
Imagining people sitting in Abuja and regulating the charges to be paid inside
the port! So it is government himself that is making it very difficult for us
to get to where we are going. All the laws that they have made, they have
always made sure that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council do not have the teeth to
bite and the icing on the cake is that there is a recommendation that it should
be scrapped," Shittu said.
The ANLCA boss noted that government, through
the ministry, will continue to interfere with the activities of the port
industry because stakeholders are afraid to seek the option of legal redress.
He accused government of being reluctant in
implementing the ideas of stakeholders when issues concerning the port industry
are raised.
In his words: "Many people especially
agents will not want the associations to seek legal redress on their behalf
because nobody will want to bring his or her documents to another person to expose
what they are doing. This has become a very difficult issue. More as we tried
to fight and the government is very reluctant; it is very difficult to get
result. Those of us who are leaders of associations today have been disparage
because the results are not seen."
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