By Steve Agbota [email protected] 08033302331
The dominance of foreigners in several aspects of the nation’s economy is becoming worrisome for many stake holders across the country.
Before now however, no one could imagine that the nation would ever allow foreigners dominate all key sectors of its economy.
But in the case of Nigeria today, several sectors of the economy including manufacturing, construction, food and beverages, oil and gas, aviation and several others have been taken over and now dominated by foreigners, amid the nation’s rising unemployment rate.
The foreigners working in these critical areas make their money here, repatriate it to their home countries in hard currencies to develop their economy and create employment for their people.
Due to increasing foreign dominance of the maritime sector, some stakeholders are worried that foreigners are now taking over the job of local truckers, a logisticcomponent of the nation’s maritime sector.
Recently, Committee of Maritime Truck Unions and Associations (COMTUA) have expressed worries that despite the presence of the Ports’ Standing Tasks Team (PSTT), about 220 truck extortion points still operate freely, between Amuwo Odofin and Apapa, with only trucks owned by Nigerians being extorted.
Speaking on the sideline of the Maritime Anti-corruption Network (MACN) and the Convention on Business Integrity (CBI) Port Users conference held in Lagos, recently the President of COMTUA, Adeyinka Aroyewun, said foreign domination of the sector was capable of sending local trucks owners out of business, as he countered the claims that officials of the PSTT have cleared all the illegal checkpoints within the port access roads.
He added that the current trouble might not be unconnected with the adverse influence of foreign dominance of the sector, warning that local truck owners may soon be forced out of business too, just like the indigenous ship owners. However, he lamented that security operatives have cultivated the habit of not stopping foreign-owned trucks making them to be more prefered by importers if only to avoid their containers being stopped on the road.
He pointed out that in the next five years, the industry may be totally taken over by foreigners because of the incentives they give importers and the sophistication of their trucks.
“I heard the Executive Secretary of the Shippers Council, the other day, saying foreigners own vessels, but in another five years, even trucks may also be owned, by foreigners too. Let me use a shipping company for example. They own the terminal and the vessels and they also bring in trucks to convey cargoes and the quality of services these trucks offer, no Nigerian can offer it.”
“As much as PSTT has removed FOU from the road, it is only at Apapa but they are now in Ijesha, stopping other people’s vehicles; and will not stop these companies’ vehicles even if they are carrying dead bodies.
“Tell me which importers will not patronise them because the importer knows that whatever he has done whether right or wrong will not lead to being stopped on the road because of the relationship of his transporter with the Comptroller General or the President of the country. Will such importer leave such trucks and come to somebody that has two or three trucks?
“In addition to that, all these vehicles that they own, come with in built waivers from their country of origin, that ensure you will enjoy some demurrage-free days if you allow X, Y, Z transport company to load your cargo,” He said most of the problems local truck owners are having are the result of the insincerity of purpose.
“Like you said that from Apapa to SIFAX, the 26 checkpoints have been removed, says who? We are in this together. If anybody challenges me, I will mention these 26 points from Apapa to SIFAX outward the port. And if you have removed them, what about the 220 checkpoints between Amuwo and Apapa Local Government?
“So, what is wrong in the outward is right in the inward. I want to challenge everybody, we will soon lose this industry, we will lose this business!” he said.
He warned that the backlash of such development might further add greater pressure on social fabrics and environmental crimes, even has he also accused the PSTT of collecting kickbacks.
“You want to remove extortion and bottlenecks from the road, how far have you been able to achieve this, there are two extortion practitioners at the port, the state operators and non-state operators, the Police, the Customs, the LASTMA, the FRSC those are states, the non-state actors are the area boys, the unions. Which of them is no longer on that road, can you just tell me who is no longer on the road?” he querried.
He hinted that the Police still have all their checkpoints, the same number of checkpoints; nothing has changed, the Area boys are there, the only one they have been able to remove is not total removal, but a change of location.
“If you say you have removed certain numbers of checkpoints at the port, you have not really done anything; because what we have now is just a change of checkpoints or extortion points!
“They were in Area ‘B’ before, but now at Ijora; they were initially at ‘Otor Wharf’, but now at Ijesha, doing the same thing. As a matter of fact, it’s not like I’m sounding as opposition to PSTT, our association (COMTUA) was a member of PSTT, we wrote to excuse ourselves from that body.
“We were initially happy that they were coming on board, at least to solve our problems, but in one week of operation, we realised that we are the victim and if anybody is extorting us the only thing you do is to chase them away from that point to another point.
But in our own case, a vehicle that is broken down, a vehicle that ran out of gas, or a vehicle has a tyre issue which is a traffic matter that is being handled by LASTMA, or by FRSC or by the Police, the PSTT will still handle the same matter, tow the vehicle to a destination where they will not extort us directly.
They will take us to a point where we will pay N10,000 per day for storage, PSTT will claim they are not collecting any money, but you kept something somewhere where this person will collect N10,000 and you refuse to attend to the matter in one week allowing that person to make N70,000 from my truck; you cannot convince me you are not getting a kickback, then why did you choose that parking point? How did you negotiate that penalty?” he queried.
However, defending the performance of the PSTT, the National Coordinator PSTT, Mr Moses Fadipe posited that in the last 18 months of its operations, the PSTT has become arguably the single most impactful initiative of the administration’s drive in the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria.
He said the PSTT has helped improve transparency, efficiency, effectiveness, and predictability in port operations in Nigeria, and has well improved the level of compliance by terminal operators, shipping companies, importers, exporters, freight forwarders and government agencies.
He added that multiple checkpoints of various government agencies and non-state actors from Apapa Port gate up to Ijora Bridge, a distance of less than 3km after the terminal release of cargo, which contributes to traffic gridlock along the port corridor, have been dismantled while the exercise is ongoing along Tin Can axis.
He informed that over 150 trucks have been arrested and made to adhere to various compliance provisions through the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).
Fadipe further defended that with the help of the PSTT, there has been a reduction in the number of extortion and checkpoints along the port corridors, informing that from 70 to near-zero, except occasional pin down by both government and non-state actors.