Mr. Akinsola Amire is the President of Nigeria Trawler Owners Association (NITOA) and General Manager of ORC Fishing and Food Processing Company situated at Kirikiri Lighter Terminal (KLT) Phase 2, in Lagos. His association had a running battle trying to retain the Lagos Fishing Terminal allocated to it by the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo administration. The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), since the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, had issued a series of quit notices to all business outfits operating at the Lighter Terminal, threatening that the area would be concessioned as a container terminal.
In a chat with Daily Sun in his office, Amire said government’s intention to make KLT Phase 2 a container terminal cannot work. He spoke with MARTINS NWANNE.
Excerpts:
The NPA gave your association quit notice, which was to expire in June 2015 but you are still here in 2017. Are you no longer leaving?
The NPA keeps sending notices of repossession but what is obvious is that we cannot carry the fishing vessels on our heads. Government, represented by NPA, is trying to put in place, the Lagos Fishing Terminal (LFT) but until all the issues and encumbrances pertaining to the achievement of putting that in place are resolved, we have no choice than to remain where we are. We obviously would have loved to have our operations in a central place like the LFT but if the factors limiting our movement is not removed, the movement will be difficult.
What are these factors that limit your movement?
For one, we only know the place on paper. If I am moving from one house to the other, I should know where the house is situated and know what is allocated to me. We have been asked to provide a special purpose vehicle, which we have done. When finally the LFT is born, NPA would not be dealing with individual companies that make up our association. We are waiting for NPA to do its own homework so that both sides can see the workability of the programme. We are in agreement that the movement should take place but it must be done in such a manner that no company suffers avoidable inconveniences.
Where is this place we are talking about?
It is KLT 1 but they have to delineate it. People are there already and some of them are not into fishing. So many things need to be done and until such things are done, it will be difficult to achieve the goals of that movement. The pressure is there. NPA keeps the pressure on. Government is not to be in business but to ensure that business thrives. If you see a government that is killing business, I don’t know what to call that one.
You had only eight companies in your association when we spoke last in 2015. Have you increased or gone down?
The number has definitely increased from eight to 13 between 2015 and 2017. When we spoke in 2015, we had 10 fishing vessels and 128 shrimping vessels. The situation has since been getting better. You have to appreciate what led to the situation in our number. Sea armed robbery, piracy and intolerable cost of diesel oil (AGO) were some of the immediate causes. The sea robbery and piracy have been reasonably contained, thanks to Yahweh, and we appreciate the efforts of the Nigerian Navy and other security agencies. We still have so many encumbrances. All sorts of agencies wanting to make money out of us. They do not think of the consequences of the levies and bills they give.
Who are these agencies?
Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) takes fishing and equates it with merchant shipping. If NIMASA wakes up one day and says there is one thing that should have been done 10 years ago, and now proceeds to give you a bill from 10 years ago, it does not make sense to me. Fishing and merchant shipping are two different things. Fishing is an agricultural concern and should be seen and treated as such.
Another issue is stevedoring, which again, involves NIMASA. There is another one they call Port Health. Fishing is regulated by the Federal Department of Fishery of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. The inspection of our vessels, structure, critical point analysis and so on, are within the control of Federal Department of Fisheries. It is that department that is a competent authority to certify products for European Union (EU) for export.
We also have issues with National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) but the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, is a wonderful gentleman, who knows his onions. He is a politician who knows exactly what should be done. This issue was reported to this office and he acted immediately.
How can NIMASA that is in charge of maritime operations, which is where we operate, register our vessels, do survey and NIWA wants to do exactly the same with us? Funny enough, both of them are from the same Ministry of Transportation. To the glory of Yahweh and understanding of the Minister, common sense prevailed.
Does export expansion grant still come?
Government is now working seriously on that. Some guidelines have been rolled out and companies are keying into it. It is not as much as it was but a little is better than nothing. There is no fish in the market except imported frozen fish. Do you send all your catch overseas? It depends, to a large extent, on where you go. But our fish are there at Ijora. The situation would have been better if culture fishing is better managed and expounded to the understanding of the people. Trawled fish is limited because the resource there is finite. For it to sustain, there has to be national management. The people do not go there and catch anything they like. No! The resource has to be rationally managed to ensure sustainability.
With culture fishing, we have enough potential in the country. If fish culture is adequately developed, we may not need to import but would rather export fish from the country. We can culture within the marine, blackish and fresh water environment. Some people even use tanks to culture in their house environment.
People can be grouped into co-operative societies along the fishery value chain, just as government is talking about agro processing centres. As we have silos to keep and preserve our grains, we should also have cold stores to keep and preserve our fishes.
Let government, like in the case of grains, be the buyer of last resort. Alternatively, government should provide facilities for fishing companies to store their excess products, which can be processed and packaged like the imported ones.
The imported ones are processed and packaged, so why can’t we do the same thing with our local catch? Let us have facilities for processing and storage.
Why can’t individual fishing companies do that?
This has nothing to do with fishing companies. We are talking of fish culture, fish farming. No fishing company brings to base, unpacked fish. They are processed and package at sea. Some of the fishing vessels go fishing for a maximum of 10 days and the catch are stored on ice. Others that can go for two months, their products are processed and packaged on board. What they bring back are processed products.
If for example, we have a vessel here now, we will only be discharging to our customers for sales. The shrimps are exported because the country needs foreign exchange. This sub-sector is the 4th Non-oil foreign exchange earner for government, back in 2015/2016. That is why we need government engorgement and not burden.
Now that your membership is growing, if government gives you only phase 1, will it be enough for you?
When President Obasanjo in 2005 made the proclamation about Lagos Fishing Terminal, it was KLT I & 2 and not KLT 1. When you create a small place just because of today, what about growth and expansion?
In countries that are development oriented, thinking is of 100 years ahead, not even 50 years and plan accordingly. You discover that things would be moving easily. Problem is inadequate planning.
Our leaders maroon themselves into eight – year – tenure instead of planning for a much longer period…
(Cuts in) Even when they think of only eight- year – tenure, there is lack of continuity. Instead of Nigeria giving a development plan, we have development plan by the individual.
Is there anything else you think the public should know, which I have not asked yet?
From what we were made to understand, this government wants to make KLT 2, a container terminal which cannot work. They say government needs revenue. If government needs revenue, that revenue should be for its population. But if the pursuit of that revenue is to kill the population, I wonder what kind of revenue that one is.
Government is there first and foremost, for the welfare of the people. If you have the industry that is agro – based and you say that agriculture should be the mainstay of the economy and you are at the same time, constricting a sub- sector in agriculture, for importation of containers, it does not make sense. Even at that, the draft of the channel at KLT cannot carry the container vessels. Those of us who are into fishing, keep dredging to allow our trawlers to come in. Then you want to bring ocean going merchant vessels laden with thousands of containers to come in, into that same shallow channel?
We really need to rationalize what we want. We should be realistic, appreciate the facts and say so, so that Nigeria should be on a progressive, development oriented path, and not to only satisfy my own interest. No, it should be to satisfy the general interest.
I said earlier that the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi is a wonderful gentleman. Good enough he is from the riverine area of the country and understands what fishing is all about. I hope they will allow him to do what he would want to do.
They give you an area and then the jetty space is common service. When the vessels come, they discharge and berth somewhere else. But when the vessels come, are they not going to be maintained? Do you maintain the vessels at sea?
Unfortunately, those who are making the policies do not know anything about how the fishing industry operates. These are textbook human beings.
When those of them in government come around, they think they know more than every other person else. As far as they are concerned, they are the experts. Rather than listen to the people, humble themselves to learn, they feel they are experts and big men who have no reason to listen to small men like us.