The domination of Nigeria’s maritime space by foreign flagged vessels has become a major challenge that needs urgent attention by the federal government to address the inherent capital flight and place the country on a vibrant economic stead, stakeholders have said.
They said absence of government and private indigenous owned vessels have placed the country on dire disadvantage and accounted for loss of huge revenue annually to the advantage to foreign countries and companies that own and operate numerous vessels that call to Nigerian ports, reports Daily Independent.
Analysts have opined that the fact that Nigeria is not ranked among the advanced nations of the world such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Germany, Korea, among others, but a third world country, which had no technological knowhow to build ships does not mean they cannot purchase vessels.
They are thus calling on government to declare a state of emergency on cabotage implementation.
However, critics have also blamed successive governments for the woes of the maritime sector as regards acquisition of vessels.
In fact, they opined that even if the country does not have the technological expertise to build and repair vessels, it does not prevent them from purchasing from foreign manufacturers.
To observers, Nigeria is an import-dependent country. Wheat and other products, including rice, until the recent ban, are brought into Nigeria via seaports.
Stakeholders have also lamented that none of the ships importing them is owned by Nigerians.
They added that even among the ships bringing cargoes to Nigeria, the crew, members of the staff working in the ships are all foreigners, thus creating a wide gap of unemployment for Nigerian trained seafarers.
Mohammed Anefi, a maritime stakeholder, said that sometimes out of a hundred ships that will call to Nigeria, “you may not see five Nigerians working inside those ships. But they are bringing goods to Nigeria. So the Cabotage Act itself has not really worked.”
Mohammed, chieftain of International Freight Forwarders Association of Nigeria (IFFA), said that countries that are advanced like the US, the UK, China, Japan, Germany, Korea, are even involved in shipbuilding and ship repairs on their own.
“They have technology in their favour ahead of us,” he said.
Ismail Aniemu, another maritime expert, lamented that Nigeria is still struggling to catch up, saying that even as third world or as poor as India may look, “India is ahead of us in the maritime space. “This is because India has more recognised training institutions. They have more technology than Nigeria. Despite the fact that we started growing at the same time, India has left us behind.
“So, that is what is responsible. It is because we are slow in the adoption of technology.”
On way forward, Aniemu said the country needs to have strong political will to be at par with countries ahead Nigeria in maritime development, adding that the government must identify the advantages Nigeria has over other countries.
“The government has not done enough for Nigeria. In fact, Nigeria doesn’t look like a country that will be building ships in the next 10 years. We are still struggling to achieve ship repair. Boat maintenance, but in terms of ship building, we have not even scratched that surface.
“Then, come to look at foreign domination of the trade, the fact that you are not building doesn’t mean that you cannot buy. You are not building, but you can buy ships and trade with the ship. Nigeria is an import-dependent country.
“The Cabotage Act itself has not really worked because of lack of political will. Do you know how much it will benefit us if government insists that only ships owned by Nigerians should be trading on our waters. It is ship owned by Nigerians and manned by Nigerians, because there’s a difference between the ownership and the crew. You can own the ship, but the staff working on board may all be foreigners.
“There should be a percentage of Nigerians working on board the ship owned by a Nigerian. If the ship owned by a Nigerian has at least 40% of Nigerian staff working in it, and they are trading on our waters, you will see that the wealth will flow into the country. The wealth will be seen because a lot of Nigerian families will have a feel of it. “My brother is a sailor. A country where very many ships are calling well, the sailors are not Nigerians, the ships are not owned by Nigeria or Nigerians, so the benefit of those trading activities if you come to Apapa, now containers have blocked the road, there are queues of heavy duty vehicles. All moving.
“So now the question is, how many of the ships that brought those things have Nigerian crew? The answer is almost zero”, Aniemu said.
Continuing, he said, “Hardly will you see a Nigerian staff there. Hardly will you see a Nigerian-owned ship. When you see one Nigerian that manages to own a ship, if after five, ten years of trading with the ship, there is poor or zero succession arrangement. It’s not that the company has collapsed. We have seen Nigerian companies that own ships. Most of them have gone down. They have gone aground.”
Observers in the industry have also averred that the real reason for the foreign vessel dominance is that Nigerian government doesn’t patronise Nigerian ships.
They lamented that even NNPC, that is a Nigerian-owned company, exporting crude, doesn’t give products to be carried by Nigerian ships.
Chief Osita Chukwu said that it is foreigners that are carrying Nigerian crude.
Chukwu, the National Coordinator of Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders, said: “Can you imagine the benefits when the ships carrying the crude oil of Nigeria to other places? If it’s a Nigerian ship, and the people working on board that ship are Nigerians.”
He lamented that most of the youths that ought to be working on board Nigerian vessels now engage in militancy and other sea crimes.
“They are engaged in piracy; they are involved in one maritime crime or the other. People, youth from maritime environments, instead of working on boats and ships, they are involved in maritime crimes. These ones would have been ship captains, marine engineers, marine surveyors, port managers, port administrators.
“You know, they are all busy doing militancy. They are busy and engaged in all other forms of maritime crimes including piracy and sea robbery because we did not maximise the potential of our natural resources. We did not create the water. God gave us the water. That is natural resource. That is natural wealth. For a country that God has given water, God puts oil in the water. God, because they drill oil from your marine space. God also put marine resources, including fish. Everything you desire in the marine space, you have it. You have no business with poverty. Unfortunately, our case is the reverse”, Chukwu noted.
Chief Chukwu also asserted that the way forward is the political will.
“It’s political will. Government must rise up to the occasion of solving this problem. We have discussed it over the years. Government should declare emergency in cabotage implementation. We want to count how many ships that called Nigeria in 2025 to trade, either bringing something or taking something out. How many are owned by Nigerians?” Chukwu queried.
