Kwankwaso ignores NBA conference, attends maritime summit in Lagos

Barely 24 hours after he turned down an invitation to participate at the ongoing Nigerian Bar Association annual conference in Lagos, Rabiu Kwankwaso, the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), attended a town hall meeting with players in the maritime sector in the state.
At the summit organised by Prime Maritime Project on Tuesday, Mr Kwankwaso called for the fast-tracking of the rehabilitation of the Apapa port access road in Lagos State.
Mr Kwankwaso made the call at a town hall meeting with Maritime stakeholders organised by Prime Maritime Project.
The NNPP’s presidential candidate failed to honour the NBA’s invitation to take part in a plenary session on Monday in Lagos because of “other pressing national commitments.”
Mr Kwankwaso had been invited alongside other presidential candidates, including Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and Bola Tinubu of the APC.
Mr Tinubu also failed to honour the NBA’s invitation. He, however, sent his running mate, Kashim Shettima, to represent him.
The 62nd NBA’s Annual General Conference is themed – ‘Bold Transitions’ and is ongoing at the Eko hotel in Victoria Island.
‘Ending smuggling’
According to Mr Kwankwaso, the country really needs to plan for the future of the maritime sector as it is critical to the growth and survival of the economy of the country.

“I have listened to this wonderful audience and have noted your expectations. I can tell you that I am aware of most of the challenges facing the sector presently. One of such, for instance, is congestion on port access roads in Apapa.

”It may interest you to know that in one of my visits to Lagos State, I was in Apapa and was stunned at the spectacle of articulated trucks lining the Ijora Bridge.
“To me, it is an unacceptable eyesore in a 21st century Nigeria. I was even made to understand that I came when things had improved. This is highly unacceptable.
“A port system originally designed for a population of less than 50 million people in the 1950s, with less than 2.0 million cargo throughput has remained almost the same for more than 200 million population in 2022.
“When a country’s population is increasing at geometric progression and port infrastructure remains static, the resultant effect is chaos. To me, that is the cause of the Ijora Bridge debacle and other issues. So many things have gone wrong with the industry,” he said.
The candidate said that his experience over the years as a former deputy speaker of the house of representatives, former governor, former minister of defence, and a former senator had availed him with some basic understanding of the maritime sector and especially some of its challenges.
Mr Kwankwaso said that it was his desire to see that the Nigeria Customs Service and other regulatory agencies be made to perform efficiently and effectively, saying the observed high-level corruption in the system had to be tackled to improve productivity in the ports.

According to him, effective border checks and control would stem the tide of smuggling and its related security implications.
“Indeed, the entry points of Nigeria shall attract the desired attention of my administration if elected the president.

“The desired assistance to all importers of goods, manufacturers including exporters and other ancillary stakeholders associated with port operations and management will be guaranteed under our party’s regime, by the special grace of God!
“Suffice it to say that NNPP as a party, has its blueprint for the economy for which maritime and transport logistics are incorporated,” he added.
Mr Kwankwaso, who assured the stakeholders of attention if elected, called for support in the 2023 general election to create a new and better Nigeria.
Stressing that the NNPP had a blueprint for the economy, maritime sector inclusive, Mr Kwankwaso requested the stakeholders to form the nucleus that would be responsible for designing a workable and actionable Maritime Sector Reform Template.
He said that such a template should include clearance of goods arriving at the ports within 72 hours as done in other countries, tackling privacy within the country’s territorial waters and the entire Gulf of Guinea, clearing of the ports of pollution because of discharge from ships.
“Our government will look into the position of constructing a rail line from both Apapa and Tincan Island ports to a dry port area outside Lagos, where arrived goods should be domiciled for clearance to stop heavy trucks from causing gridlocks in Lagos.
“We should also look into the possibility of opening other ports such as Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar etc to decongest Lagos port.
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“In addition, I can assure you that it will no longer be business as usual, under our watch, maritime professionals will take charge of the maritime sector,” he said.
Kunle Folarin, chairman of the occasion in his opening remarks, noted that the maritime domain was tired of being an orphan, tasking Mr Kwankwaso with rescue plans that would make the industry resourceful.
According to Mr Folarin, Nigeria has the greatest potential with its maritime industry and so we need to utilise our resources such as the 900 nautical miles of coastline, 572 inland waterways, and 10,000km of navigable waterways and others.
“The critical issues to be addressed are: new economic agenda for the sector, attention given to littoral states, the country needs to benefit from the concession of port terminals.

“We expect a total port reform, direct foreign investment policy that is workable, cabotage regime, grid field development, maritime security, free trade zone restrictions, trade tariff, all these should be revisited,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the town hall meeting had several players in the maritime industry as well as many leaders and candidates of NNPP across the federation in attendance.
(NAN)

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