OCEANSIDE NOTES: Nigeria’s Indigenous Shipping cum the Marine and Blue Economy
By Musa AKINYEMI
Indigenous shipping was handed-over to us in Nigeria since the birth of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) and, that was before our independence in 1960. And, as big, wide, and wealthy as this field of endeavour has always been, one wonders why its public venture should suffer almost an irredeemable failure in Nigeria! So, it is not about remembering the Elder Dempster Shipping Line; Royal Niger Company; Sir Odumegwu Ojukwu; or Chief Nelson Oyesiku, the first Managing Director of the NNSL; it is about why the extinction of our national carrier.
It is believed that Nigeria can still succeed to have a replaced and sustained merchant fleet. The hope is just ripe and alive for this possibility, especially given the enthusiasm that this administration is coasting home on Renewed Hope Agenda. In the early days of the administration, just when the election had been won but the executive arm was yet to be, I had suggested that Nigeria needed nothing more than good governance and therefore strongly advised the President and Commander-In-Chief should appoint only tested and proven experts and professionals being technocrats that could deliver across the MDAs.
Indigenous shipping first, then, the marine and blue economy. His Excellency, Adegboyega Oyetola, CON was earlier the Executive Governor of Osun State. Today, he is the Honourable Minister of Marine And Blue Economy. He is the first to be so appointed and named. It is his luck!!! This writer and columnist was unarguably one of Nigeria’s maritime enthusiasts and industry professionals that had in the past proposed, even before the winning streaks of APC, the ruling party at the centre, that the nation needed a separate Ministry of Maritime Affairs. Now, here is the Ministry! What do we make of it? Maritime elders, colleagues and the active shipping community here become witnesses that capacity, competence and experience must be relevant if the Minister here should deliver. May be that’s why the ex-Governor of Osun State eventually became the first Minister of Marine and Blue Economy while Honourable Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo was re-assigned as the Minister of Interior.
Can we be sure to revamp indigenous shipowner-ship in Nigeria and resuscitate her dilapidated maritime human capacity now or later? Yes, I answer. But, there’s a provision as an element attached to it. This answer therefore depends on what we do or start doing now! And, I wish to state it clearly here right away, that the head takes the lead, the head of the Ministry is the Leader thereof. The head needs to be strong, sensible and safe to deliver. To me, let us recount the Minister’s strides.
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Invitation to stakeholders’ roundtable. That was 21st November, 2023. The Honourabe Minister’s Letter I received read, in part, “As the Honourable Minister of Marine & Blue Economy, I am reaching out to request your reputable organization to a stakeholder roundtable on November 21, 2023 at Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos at 8:00 am prompt”. Then as the Acting Secretary-General, Association of Licensed Maritime Academies of Nigeria, ALMAN, I was the Sole Delegate of ALMAN there. The roundtable sought “organizational, practitioners, and industries contributions, innovative solutions and advices to enhance our Marine and Blue Economy national policy and road map”. My participation was active and with a Position Paper of our Association. There were different sessions and also six (6) different roundtables, viz: Shipping, Shipbuilding and Maintenance; Maritime Governance and Capacity Building; Port Efficiency; Maritime Security and Safety; Water Transport; and, Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture. ALMAN’s contributions were made at the Maritime Governance and Capacity Building Roundtable, with Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN and former National President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as Chairman. This convention was a sound foundation laid for the success of the Ministry.
Musa Akinyemi saw the meeting as the ace up the Honourable Minister’s sleeve! Honestly, the Roundtable was well-attended, an achievement for the former Governor, the first in the series here!! Then, the re-election into the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Category C Council for the 2026-2027 biennium. This is equally another serial achievement, the second. Of course, the nation got this seat back after fourteen (14) of seeking for it. Thanks for giving us this international position sir.
From the London headquarters of the IMO and back at the headquarters of NIMASA in Lagos, we are at work to pronounce the glaring third achievement of His Excellency, the Honourable Minister. It is the creation of access to the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF). Let us not forget that the CVFF has twenty-three (23) years waiting history. With this third achievement, this maritime nation expects participative indigenous shipowner-ship and competitive coastal shipping. We are now waiting to experience how the former Governor leads us to revamp indigenous shipping. The major stakeholders here should support him to succeed.
From indigenous shipping in particular to marine and blue economy in general. If we limit shipping, we cannot limit marine and blue economy. No matter how much we invest in shipping, we need much more to invest in marine and blue economy. That is the reason why Nigeria may be losing out on one of the world’s fastest-growing economic frontiers due to policy inertia, outdated infrastructure and slow adoption of modern maritime technology, putting the country at risk of missing the global blue economy boom. From the communique by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) after its 58th International Engineering Conference held recently in Ibadan, the engineering experts said Nigeria is “moving far too slowly” to tap the trillions of dollars emerging from ocean-based industries. They noted that major coastal nations are expanding their blue-economy footprints through strategic investments in digitalization, port automation, ocean-data systems, renewable marine energy and sustainable coastal management, areas in which Nigeria continues to lag.
Dr. Musa Akinyemi is Rector, Crown Maritime Academy, CMA; and Secretary-General, Association of Licensed Maritime Academies of Nigeria, ALMAN. He can be reached by E-Mail: akinyemimusa359@gmail.com or on WhatsApp Only: +2349091138377.
