Bello Explains Why FG Should Not Designate Organisation as Lead Agency Under Marine, Blue Economy Sector
HASSAN BELLO
By Francis Ugwoke
The former Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barr Hassan Bello, has thrown more light on what he meant when he advised the federal government against designating any particular organisation as lead agency in the Marine and Blue Economy sector.
Bello in a chat with SHIPPING DAY explained that he believes that since the blue economy is not a prerogative of one agency, there should be as much synergy and cooperation between all the agencies under the Ministry.
According to Bello, “ The Marine and Blue Economy Ministry was created to superintend over the various aspects of the blue economy which transcends ocean resources. It includes fisheries for example. Ocean economy will also include energy because it uses the ocean for energy, so it’s Marine ecology and so on.
“But for me, the core thing that the blue economy was the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy which the focus is on the aspect of Marine transportation. What I said was that it is not a local thing, it’s a diverse effect. Once you talk about cargo, then, there are cargo interests there. You talk about safety, security, Inland waterways, Cabotage and trade in brown waters generally.
“Therefore, the blue economy is not a prerogative of one agency, there should be so much synergy, there should be so much cooperation between the agencies and even before the creation of the ministry, there were things happening in the blue economy like fisheries. So, the ministry has its work cut out for it. It has to be central, it has to bring out well coordinated policy directives and supervise as such.
“I gave example of Cabotage. Cabotage is also what we call trade in brown waters and it means inland shipping, it means barges, it means ocean, it means building capacity. When it came, I actually criticized Cabotage and the energy that was given to it because here we are trading internationally, we had ships going, as I said, to many places and then, you said you want Cabotage. It looks like we have taxis but now we are coming back to Okada. Allow Cabotage to be, number one, just a coastal thing and oil and gas, the issue of tremendous potential of inland carriage by our rivers, estuaries, creeks and lakes. That has not been exploited.
“I gave example of the Mississippi and so many others that are billion dollar economy and we can do that in Nigeria. So, the reason being that Cabotage in Nigeria was taken as this agency’s project and if somebody will talk, they will say, no! That’s not your duty, this is Cabotage and so, Shippers’ Council cannot talk about Cabotage at that time. I know later on, during the time of Dr,Peterside, he understood and of course Dr. Jamoh, they understood at that time, so there was a lot of collaboration. But before that, you don’t dare say Cabotage, they will say you are taking other people’s jobs. But you are talking about cargo interest. Who will not be major partner in Cabotage like NIWA because this is not an ocean thing. NIWA has equal capacity, Shippers’ Council has representation of cargo and tariffs and so on and so forth regulations and many other agencies. The Ports Authority adds something, so there will be coordination.
“So, that’s what I am saying because the tendency is you give somebody say, this is what we want and then, he owns it, colonize it and stop any contribution. That’s what we are seeing with trade facilitation and I have said that so many times, we talk about port community system. This is everyone because when you say community, you are talking about suppliers and user of shipping services. So, it cannot be colonized by one agency. So, also the National Single Window, that’s why it suffered because it was colonized by one of the agencies and you dare not go and say, let’s talk about it. What is this our own with colonizing?
“So, that’s why we are warning that blue economy is a stakeholder thing and I have seen that the Ministry has had several stakeholders meetings and we have told the Minister that let nobody come between you and the stakeholders, you should deal with stakeholders directly and when we talk about stakeholders, I talk about the serious one like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria.
“How can the blue economy in Nigeria help in reduction of cost of production by manufacturers? These are the things that tingle the economy, the tendency for us Nigerians, honestly is to have fanciness and in 10years time, you will ask what happened. Nothing moves. Now, there must be assessment, there must be ranking, you have to measure something before you realize it’s utility value. How much will the blue economy, two years on, contribute to the GDP? So many things we leave without measuring .
“Look at the terminal operators, there’s no ranking and terminal operators are supposed to be ranked. There are international standards, if you take cargo to one of the terminals, Terminal A or Terminal B, which one is faster? Which one will have less paper work? And then, you rank them and you publish it. There’s no competition, that’s what is killing us. There’s competition in telecommunication, we use to buy the chips but now they beg you to use the chips and their services are getting competitive. The tariffs are also competitive.
“So, the blue economy must take care of these things, the ministry should coordinate it but it should be private sector driven, the person in the throne is the private sector. It should not be government, from you to down. We need to see, this is diversification, what the ocean resources can do as an alternative to oil and if properly harnessed, without any fancy thing, go down and work and let the private sector take it because the government is the servant, the private sector is the masters, it cannot be otherwise”.
The former Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barr Hassan Bello, has thrown more light on what he meant when he advised the federal government against designating any particular organisation as lead agency in the Marine and Blue Economy sector.
Bello in a chat with SHIPPING DAY explained that he believes that since the blue economy is not a prerogative of one agency, there should be as much synergy and cooperation between all the agencies under the Ministry.
According to Bello, “ The Marine and Blue Economy Ministry was created to superintend over the various aspects of the blue economy which transcends ocean resources. It includes fisheries for example. Ocean economy will also include energy because it uses the ocean for energy, so it’s Marine ecology and so on.
“But for me, the core thing that the blue economy was the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy which the focus is on the aspect of Marine transportation. What I said was that it is not a local thing, it’s a diverse effect. Once you talk about cargo, then, there are cargo interests there. You talk about safety, security, Inland waterways, Cabotage and trade in brown waters generally.
“Therefore, the blue economy is not a prerogative of one agency, there should be so much synergy, there should be so much cooperation between the agencies and even before the creation of the ministry, there were things happening in the blue economy like fisheries. So, the ministry has its work cut out for it. It has to be central, it has to bring out well coordinated policy directives and supervise as such.
“I gave example of Cabotage. Cabotage is also what we call trade in brown waters and it means inland shipping, it means barges, it means ocean, it means building capacity. When it came, I actually criticized Cabotage and the energy that was given to it because here we are trading internationally, we had ships going, as I said, to many places and then, you said you want Cabotage. It looks like we have taxis but now we are coming back to Okada. Allow Cabotage to be, number one, just a coastal thing and oil and gas, the issue of tremendous potential of inland carriage by our rivers, estuaries, creeks and lakes. That has not been exploited.
“I gave example of the Mississippi and so many others that are billion dollar economy and we can do that in Nigeria. So, the reason being that Cabotage in Nigeria was taken as this agency’s project and if somebody will talk, they will say, no! That’s not your duty, this is Cabotage and so, Shippers’ Council cannot talk about Cabotage at that time. I know later on, during the time of Dr,Peterside, he understood and of course Dr. Jamoh, they understood at that time, so there was a lot of collaboration. But before that, you don’t dare say Cabotage, they will say you are taking other people’s jobs. But you are talking about cargo interest. Who will not be major partner in Cabotage like NIWA because this is not an ocean thing. NIWA has equal capacity, Shippers’ Council has representation of cargo and tariffs and so on and so forth regulations and many other agencies. The Ports Authority adds something, so there will be coordination.
“So, that’s what I am saying because the tendency is you give somebody say, this is what we want and then, he owns it, colonize it and stop any contribution. That’s what we are seeing with trade facilitation and I have said that so many times, we talk about port community system. This is everyone because when you say community, you are talking about suppliers and user of shipping services. So, it cannot be colonized by one agency. So, also the National Single Window, that’s why it suffered because it was colonized by one of the agencies and you dare not go and say, let’s talk about it. What is this our own with colonizing?
“So, that’s why we are warning that blue economy is a stakeholder thing and I have seen that the Ministry has had several stakeholders meetings and we have told the Minister that let nobody come between you and the stakeholders, you should deal with stakeholders directly and when we talk about stakeholders, I talk about the serious one like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria.
“How can the blue economy in Nigeria help in reduction of cost of production by manufacturers? These are the things that tingle the economy, the tendency for us Nigerians, honestly is to have fanciness and in 10years time, you will ask what happened. Nothing moves. Now, there must be assessment, there must be ranking, you have to measure something before you realize it’s utility value. How much will the blue economy, two years on, contribute to the GDP? So many things we leave without measuring .
“Look at the terminal operators, there’s no ranking and terminal operators are supposed to be ranked. There are international standards, if you take cargo to one of the terminals, Terminal A or Terminal B, which one is faster? Which one will have less paper work? And then, you rank them and you publish it. There’s no competition, that’s what is killing us. There’s competition in telecommunication, we use to buy the chips but now they beg you to use the chips and their services are getting competitive. The tariffs are also competitive.
“So, the blue economy must take care of these things, the ministry should coordinate it but it should be private sector driven, the person in the throne is the private sector. It should not be government, from you to down. We need to see, this is diversification, what the ocean resources can do as an alternative to oil and if properly harnessed, without any fancy thing, go down and work and let the private sector take it because the government is the servant, the private sector is the masters, it cannot be otherwise”.
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