By Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye
At the 52nd session of the State House Briefing, the managing director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Dr. George Moghalu, provided key updates on the strides being made by the authority in its objective to make Nigeria the leader in inland water transportation, development and management in Africa.
He also responded to questions critical to the country’s ports and waste management.
NIWA has a world of opportunities to transform the transportation sector in Nigeria, like the rail sector is doing. What is the major challenge stopping you from achieving this goal?
I will disappoint you by telling you that funding is not the major challenge. Yes, because you can get all the funds you want in the world and, if you don’t know what to do with it, the fund becomes wasted. The major challenge I met, when I came into NIWA was that NIWA was under-reported. People don’t know NIWA, they didn’t know what NIWA stands for. They don’t know the challenges, the difficulties, they don’t even know their responsibilities to NIWA. So, I considered that a major challenge. But I must also place on record the support we have received from the media. Since I brought that to their knowledge, appealed to them, the media has been quite helpful, I must thank them. Because I don’t know where we would have been if we didn’t get the support we asked for. Then, secondly, the next issue was staff morale; getting everybody to understand my vision, getting my management to understand where I’m coming from. I was coming strictly from the private sector into the public sector. So, we needed to get to understand ourselves. For me, addressing the issue of staff morale, and us coming together to understand where we want to take NIWA to, where we want to be in the next four or five years, we also had to develop a plan, which we anchored on massive training. If there’s anything, anything that was tough, I can tell you today that we laid so much emphasis on training ourselves, adopting the train-the-trainer programme.
Like I did say, no nation, Nigeria is not an exception, has all the resources it requires to solve all these problems. No nation. So, we are part of this nation. Therefore, we also must appreciate the fact that the resources available to the government are not as robust as they used to be. Time was in this country when oil was selling at $120, $130. By the time this administration came into being, oil dropped to about $25, $30 a barrel. So you must take that into consideration. What that translates to is that, as the resources available to the government is dropping, you must reflect on the agencies that run the government. We are also among those agencies of government. But as the resources improve, certainly, NIWA will also get more funds to address all it needs to do.
As we get funding, as we progress, as we make effort, we also improve on our IGR. I know that, in the past four or five years, our IGR has been on the constant increase. And we have been contributing regularly in paying back to the consolidated revenue fund. So, our revenue has consistently increased, that’s why, when I talked about awareness, as you’re getting people to know about you, getting them to know their responsibility towards your organization, revenue will also be increasing by the time you let them know that there are laws that must be obeyed and that there are fees that must be paid for the agency to grow.
You have achieved all these because of the funding you’re receiving and NIWA has great potential to be self-sufficient. What are you doing to position the agency for self-sufficiency and even contribute to the revenue of this country?
On what we’re doing to make NIWA self-sustaining, we are doing quite a lot. Like I said, our revenue profile, which I can make available to you, shows a gradual increase from what it used to be to what it is now. It has not come down not even during the COVID period. We still managed to maintain an upward trajectory and we intend to sustain that. And don’t forget, for example, we have concessioned Onitsha River Port; our revenue from that source will increase. By the time we concession Baro, by the time we conclude that of Oguta, Lokoja, and by the time we increase the use of the waterways, as we are opening up the channels, the needs will increase. Like I said, by the time we move cargo regularly, the way we want to move between Ontisha and Lagos, the truth is that over 60 to 65 per cent of containerized cargo that arrive Lagos today go to Onitsha and Aba. And these cargoes, let us take a hypothesis, let’s say five million containers that arrive are destined for the South East. What that translates to is 10 million trailers being on our roads. Five million carrying the container down, five million carrying the containers back. And our roads are not designed to carry those pressures. There’s no way our infrastructure will survive it. By the time we remove this pressure from our roads, and move into the waterway, it will be additional revenue for us, because those containers now will be moved by water, and by the time they move by water, certainly, we’re going to get more money.
So, we are concerned about it. We are working towards it. And that’s why we’re laying so much emphasis on it. Like I said, the day I was appointed MD, my first press statement, in fact I can’t forget that exact day, it was 8th of October, 2019. I said that I would have seen myself succeed if, by the time I leave office, water transportation becomes the transport means of choice for both economic goods and persons. And that is where my eyes are and, by the grace of God, we will realize it.
Every rainy season, Nigerians that live along the shores of the major rivers are always faced with the problem of flooding. The largest we had in recent time was in 2012 that was destructive; a lot of lives were lost. But as we speak this year, people in Lokoja, Makurdi and Bayelsa are jittery because a lot of water is coming their way. We have seen some videos in the last few days of houses, cars and property swallowed up in Lokoja. You mentioned something about shore protection, what is that expected to do?
Yes, flooding is a major challenge. But as an organization, what we do is to monitor river flow on a regular basis and report to communities along the banks. Our research and planning department deals with this on a regular basis, monitoring river flow, monitoring water flow so that we don’t have our people taken unawares when it has to do with flooding. And another way we addressed this issue is by increasing our maintenance dredging, because flooding usually takes place when the water route is stilted. The only way you can remove that, because if it’s stilted, the water will keep expanding instead of following a channel. So, the only way you can address that is to make sure you dredge open the channel and the water will follow that channel and go.
So we will continue doing the maintenance dredging. One thing we must understand is that capital dredging is one very expensive business and it is not something we do every day. I remember there was one major capital dredging between 2009 and 2013. So, what we have been doing since then, is maintenance dredging. Like I said, those prioritized routes, you make sure that you consistently open them, so that water will not flow in those areas.
With regard to shore protection, you can’t build shore protection across all the river banks in Nigeria. That means you’re talking about 20,000 kilometres because we have over 10,000 kilometers of waterways. If you shore-protect this side, you should shore-protect the other side. And that is practically impossible. So what we do is prioritize needs, we try and protect where banks are collapsing; we try and protect where it’s constantly in use, we try and protect, especially when it threatens the lives of our jetties, of bridges and what have you. We try to protect and build shore protection there.
NIWA recently identified human error and wrecks as the major challenges that cause recurring boat mishaps in Lagos. How have you been able to address this human error?
If you listened to me during the presentation, I mentioned that defaulters are being prosecuted in line with national transport policy because we have identified that fact. If, for example, somebody refuses to use the registered jetties and goes to a shoreline, parks his boat, convinces people to enter the boat without wearing a life jacket, without being properly kitted, and enters the waterway and runs into trouble, it is human error. If the captain of the vessel is not properly trained, it is human error. If they use unserviceable boats, these are human errors. If they’re in a drunken state, these are human errors. So, each of these activities have its own penalty. And we are prosecuting them.
I remember one incident. I was going by water to Badagry and then we passed a boat that half of the passengers were not wearing life jackets. I ordered the police boat following us to clear the boat at the nearest shoreline, which we successfully did. Not only was the boat operator not licensed, not only was the boat not licensed, the passengers half of them were not wearing that jacket. I impounded the vessel. I asked the spare boat that was going with us to carry the passengers and drop them off at Badagry. I impounded the vessel and asked them to destroy the vessel, which they did. So, there are punishments. And we can’t relent because we’re talking about people’s lives. And that is why we register jetties. You don’t just build a jetty. There’s a presidential committee that approves the jetty, that approves the license. So when you finish, that committee will come and inspect if they’re satisfied they issue you a license for those private jetties, apart from the ones we are building ourselves and certifying. So there are penalties and we don’t compromise standards with regards to that.
Yes, wrecks, like I said, are not a one off thing. Vessels can get spoiled, the owners will abandon them there if they check the cost of repairing the vessel to be higher than what the vessel is valued for, they can abandon the vessel there.
Before you know it, they remove the license plates, you may not even know the owner. And the next day, it becomes a wreck. And there are processes that you must follow before you go and remove a wreck, you must advertise it. You must use a survey to identify the location, get the coordinates, publish it in the newspaper, get the police to know before you can go and remove the wreck. So, once we continue this process, either we use consultants on no-cure-no-pay basis, or we go directly as an organization that has that responsibility among others and then remove their wrecks. So that’s how we deal with wrecks.
You told us that Oguta River Port was abandoned for 30 years and we do know that the governor of Imo State has been meeting Mr. President, asking for dredging of Oguta Lake. Also, you said work was ongoing there. What type of work is going on there?
If you had gone to Oguta before today, there was no fence in Oguta port. But as we speak now Oguta port is fenced. Oguta port was at 58 per cent, 60 per cent completion and was abandoned for this period of time, it didn’t appear on the national budget until this government came to be and they made an allocation provision for it. And that is where we were able to fence it. And this year again, work is still ongoing. We’re trying to segment the port to deal with the issues individually and be able to complete it on time. The dredging you heard, I don’t know anything about it. I read it also, like you in the media, the one that the governor is talking about NIWA does not know anything about it. So until we are informed, or we see activity going on there, because once we see activity going on, certainly we will ask questions, because it’s in our right of way. And then if I have more information, I’ll make that available to you. But as of now, I don’t have any information on that.
We’ve seen the number of jobs you’ve done across the country. How much did it cost your agency to have achieved those works and how much are you actually realizing from your revenue?
On the cost of work done by NIWA within the country, that’s a tall order for me but I will make our budgetary provision and the entire projects we are doing and the cost implications to you. Oh, it’s even in the public domain. If you open our website, you will see the projects that are ongoing, you will see their values there. These are things that are not hidden, it is something that is evidently available, so that I can make it available to you. I will also make available to you the revenue profile. How much we’ve been able to generate within the last five years, how we’ve been going upward trajectory and exactly how much we have been paying back to the consolidated revenue fund.
You talked about some ports that have not really become fully operational, like Baro. We would like to know if you have a timeline within which you want to bring them fully into operation…
Let me tell you with great excitement that the government is concerned about Baro, because when we identified a challenge in Baro, we made it available to the government, through our ministry. I’m happy to tell you that apart from the fact that the Federal Government is doing a road now to Baro Port, a contract has been signed to extend the rail corridor to Baro. So by the time the road is completed, the rail is complete, you have a multimodal access to the port. And that will to a great extent assist us.
Like I say when I was talking about charting, and opening up our channels, we chatted between Baro and Lokoja. And very soon we’ll start our maintenance dredging on that route and open it up and maintain it. It is open, but we need to keep maintaining it and keep it constantly in use and with that, vessels can go to Baro to discharge their cargo because we must understand that if the roads are not opened, it may be difficult for cargo to move to Baro; because by the time it arrives Baro by water, what happens from Baro into hinterland.
So, they must have an access for them to be able to move the cargo from Baro port. The project is on, both the road and the rail are on, the contract has been signed. Then as to the charting through the water, which is directly under my purview, we’ve concluded the charting. I have the chart now available from Baro to Onitsha.
Then on the commencement of movement of cargo to Onitsha, everything is in place but this point was made clear that the person who determines the movement of cargo is the owner of the cargo and I have been engaging them, both the Chamber of Commerce and the Importers Association because unless they have their buy in, they can’t move their cargo by water. So the moment we get their total buy in, I’m sure they will start moving their cargo there. But you see, the usual reaction is to wait for the government to do it first. If they succeed…that was the mindset before I now said no.
When we did the Onne to Onitsha, we didn’t let people know, we didn’t even call the media because people were giving me all negative discouragement rather than positive. I was scared inside of me but I was having a bone face. So I didn’t tell anybody except between I and the president of the Barge Owners Association. I called him, we met, he came to Lokoja, we met in Abuja, we met in Lagos. I begged him, I said, if there’s anything I want to do, I want to break this jinx. He said, Okay, let’s keep our mouths shut. And he bought two of his barges. And we moved the consignment from Onne to Onitsha River Port. So the morning the vessels were to go bark, I was in church in Onitsha when they called me, I left there and went to Onitsha River Port, and the barges were there with the consignment. I was very excited. That was when I called the media. I said the cargo has arrived. So, that was what encouraged us to now face the Lagos axis because a good number of the consignment that comes to the Lagos axis go to the South East.
When are we going to see commencement or movement of cargo into the Onitsha port? You talked about concessions? How soon are we going to see that one coming to fruition to decongest Lagos port?
And you asked how this is to help in the congestion. Like I said 60 to 65 per cent of containerised cargo that comes into this country ends up in the South East of either Onitsha or Aba. And if we can make that route viable, it will reduce the pressure from our roads and save our own infrastructure because they’re not designed to carry the weight they are carrying. That is the truth about it. And by the time you remove those volumes of cargo from the Lagos port, the port will be decongested.
For Lagos and some other places where they empty their waste into the river that causes flooding and some other things, what is your relationship with other law enforcement agencies in this regard to make sure that we nip it in the bud?
About waste management, I will also throw it back to the media to help us because we need to get our people to understand how to manage our waste. It is one big problem. Because every year, year in, year out, NIWA spends money moving out floating debris on our waterways. Most of these floating debris or rubber, bottled water, water sachet, people keep throwing them and they all end in the waterway. Every year, at least since I came and from the records this has been there every year, you must remove water hyacinth, you must remove floating debris. So if we are able to change our attitudes and that’s why we have jingles that NIWA has produced that are running on some of our radio stations, encouraging people on how to manage their waste, reminding them that this is their water and they will still go to take it. So that’s what we’re doing to get our people to change their attitude. We’re also engaging state governments because all our waterways pass through states. So they also can be part of the refuse management by getting their people to discharge the refuse properly. Once we’re able to do that, it will reduce the investment, the expenditure we expended trying to manage these wastes on our waterways.