Daily Independent (Lagos)
Andrew Airahuobhor
7 January 2009
"This is a solemn moment for all of us. When other nations were busy celebrating the festivities, we are still discussing issue of congestion. We all know the consequences of congestion both to the final consumers and the image of government."
Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Marine Transport, Ifeanyi Ugwanyi, made this statement after members of the committee were led on tour of the Lagos ports on Monday by Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Abdul Salam Mohammed.
According to Ugwanyi, the maritime sector could not be said to be moving to the next level, when such quantum of congestion was still being experienced. He said the committee would address the problems observed in the course of the tour through budgeting and other means.
Some of the problems observed include inadequate port capacity, port access, multiplicity of government agencies among others. "We witnessed capacity problem, which is expansion of the ports. You all know the last quarter of the year is a peak period, virtually everybody would want to bring in their consignments for Christmas. We also have this problem of access to the ports like railways etc. These we want to address some through budgeting. We will look at multiplicity of government agencies holistically," he said.
While appealing to consignees to come forward to take delivery of their consignments, the committee chairman urged them to stop under declaration of consignments. "Most of them under-declare because of integrity factor. Let them come forward so that they could be asked to pay the necessary dues. Stop under declaration, it will take nobody anywhere. In developed countries, we no longer experience issue of under declaration."
He, however, gave the NPA the responsibility to resolve the problem. "We have told NPA to reverse the trend and we are sure the management of NPA will do just that."
Meanwhile, NPA managing director has said the perennial congestion was due to the increase in container traffic coming into the country. He also blamed the mode of transfer of containers out of the port, stressing that 100 per cent of the cargoes are being moved out of the port by road, which rails and barges could do.
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