Setting the agenda for the Minister for transportation, HM Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi

Honourable Minister,

Not many are as privileged and lucky as you are. Your kismet is in constant connection with providence. Twice as the Speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly (1999-2007), twice as the governor, Rivers State (2007-2015), twice as the DG, Buhari Presidential Campaign Committee and by sheer serendipity again, you have now been confirmed as the substantive Minister for Transportation for another 'second' term having served in same portfolio in the last four years.

No politician dead or alive has such fluorescent and lambent résumé. If Nigerians were to vote for any three ministers who worked with President Muhammadu Buhari in his turbulent first term and that Nigerians would want back, you would have definitely made the list. If there were two of such ministers, you would have made it. And if there was only one minister for such honour, you would have edged out HM Babatunde Raji Fashola. This is not about massaging your ego, but a reflection of your tremendous efforts aimed at delivering on the then #Change mandate.

It is an open and shut fact that your ministry holds a strategic sector of our national life. Your ministry is akin to an obelisk without which construction is not complete, not even possible. The many deaths on our highways can be largely attributed to the deplorable condition of the roads. Our roads until lately (when the Buhari-led administration started to give them due attention) which were death traps were destroyed by heavy duty vehicles. If conscious efforts had been made by successive administrations since 1999 to revive our railways to transport goods, we would have had fewer pressures on those roads by trailers. And the situation might not have been worse as we have today. But various governments ended up wasting those precious 16 years. No thanks to the hawks that pillaged our common wealth and ran our economy comatose instead. Your leadership deliverables will go down in the annals of the Ministry's milestones. Now, work continues.

RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION

While welcoming you back on your second sway as the honcho in charge, we urge you to remember the #NextLevel mandate must include not only the railways but also the ports and the maritime wherewithal. The railway has its countless potential though. It is important the subsequent budgets cover states which were not originally in the initial plan. This is because the rail has a nexus with poverty reduction. In the 1960s through 1980s, it offered the most reliable transport services to people especially the northerners. The peasant farmers were able to transport their farm products at very cheap price, thus reducing even cost price to the end users (consumers). The Kano-Zaria-Kaduna local trains had at least 13 'stop over' stations which afforded local farmers opportunity to lift their goods to final destinations. Nigerians cannot therefore wait to see a sector that will afford them the opportunity to spend less, thus reduce the pains of financial privation.

MARITIME SECTOR Maritime

HM, sir, one area of the transportation sector with a multiplier effect but which has not been wholly exploited is the maritime component. That sector is an abandoned cornucopia. A gold mine that has yearned for exploitation for several years. The maritime sector is, if properly harnessed poised to be another fulcrum for the Buhari-led administration. Sadly, the last 20 years, 16 of which fell under previous administrations saw, in steady trajectory, a humongous decline in the industry until 2015 under your headship. This, no doubt can be remedied with the federal government under your leadership giving it a life line.

In the umbra of year 2018, there was a report, arguably though, compiled by Ships & Ports Daily, a maritime news tabloid seeking to know how far the industry did in 2018. It was said to be below par, albeit contestable. A pointer to the fact that the decay of many years is humongous and the urgent need to clean up at once.

The sector is bedeviled with so many ills some of which are beyond the industry's players. Many of such challenges are internal and are corollaries of bureaucratic bottlenecks. A typical example of the external quagmire is the Apapa Port which everyone keeps talking about. The gridlock is terrific, sometimes extending to Ojuelegba. We seem complacent on fixing the menace until lately. HM, sir, we must up our ante in this regard.

Your leadership can provide a Truck Transit Park in the interim. Equally germane is the need to open up other ports to decongest the Lagos brouhaha. It is important we revamp the extant ones to make them viable for use. It was good news when efforts were made in 2018 to work on the Warri Seaport. By now, the activities in that area would have increased geometrically, thereby generating more revenues for the state. We should therefore look at opening up more of such and create more job opportunities.

ACCESS TO SEAPORTS

Aside the menace of cargoes trapped in the port for months mostly due to the deplorable condition of the port access roads, the shenanigans of some securities agencies under the guise of regulating traffic, have turned it to be another marauding nightmare as they have practically turned the situation to money-making venture. Nigeria remains about the only country that has failed to achieve the United Nations' 48 hours cargo clearance time. The failure here is, in part, owing to bureaucratic lukewarm-ness, policies mismatch, moribund or obsolete scanners and other allied instruments, and no less inter-agencies rivalry at seaports.

Some agencies at the ports have turned to demigods exploiting the lackadaisical attitude from the government to operate in isolation of required standards. They award contracts for pecuniary gains and thus throw Due Process into the trash can.

SECURITY

One crucial problem that requires urgent attention needed in the maritime industry is the issue of security threats. In the first quarter of 2018, (Q1’18), reports of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) showed that Nigeria led in global pirates attacks against vessels. This is arguable though, but the fact remains there is a big security threat on our sea ways and more security needs to be provided involving all relevant stakeholders. NIMASA and other relevant stakeholders need to come together to provide strong security network aimed at safeguarding our sea ways. The security of the maritime sector is as sacrosanct as the efficacy of the sector to the overall deliverables of the Buhari-led administration in the next four years.

HM, sir, you have excelled at every point of leadership trust. This definitely will not be an exception.

We wish you well in the second call to serve your fatherland yet again under President Muhammadu Buhari. You have earned his trust and delivery to complement his #NextLevel is key.

May you succeed as we move through the next 45 months of this administration.

Thank you for your time.

OMOGBOLAHAN BABS
ÒGBÉNI CZAR™
Abuja.