By PETER ANOSIKE

A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nelson Ahamefula Akuma, has called for the decentralization of the ports in Nigeria.

Speaking while reacting to the proposed one billion dollar modernization of Apapa and Tincan Island Ports in Lagos, he said that there is nothing wrong in modernizing ports in Lagos.

However, he said that the concentration of port activities only in Lagos is killing businesses in the other parts of the country.

According to him, federal government should try to rehabilitate the ports in the parts of the country so that importers would not be passing through hell when transporting their containers from Lagos.

He said that it costs far more to transport a container of goods from Lagos to Onitsha or Aba than bringing in the same container from China or Europe.

According to Akuma, after charging so much to carry the goods, a lot of the time, the containers do not get to their destinations because of the poor state of the roads in the country.

Akuma said that it is because of this that cost of imported good are very expensive in the markets.

He also said that when the containers fall on the road, the contents would waste and the money spent on importation would go down the road.

Speaking further, he argued that other strategic ports, including Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, and Onne, remain underdeveloped, despite their potential to stimulate regional economies, create jobs, and reduce pressure on Lagos.

“When we talk about economic strangulation of the Igbos, the failure of the federal government to revive the other dormant ports in the country is part of it. The reason is because Igbo business men and women are going through hell to transport their containers from Apapa or Tincan Island ports to their destinations. Today, it costs far more to ferry a container of goods from Lagos to the south east than to bring in the container from abroad. Southeast is where most of the chemicals imported in Nigeria are used. Why can’t we be using Port Harcourt port which is nearer for the importation of chemicals, instead of using Tincan Island and then begin to transport it back to the Southeast. So, I am appealing to the government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to decentralize the ports for the good of all,” Akuma said

He argued that a truly national blue economy should involve every section of the country, adding that is the only way to make Nigeria a viable economy.

According to him, instead of concentrating everything in one section of the country, there should be fairness and equity in Nigeria’s infrastructure planning and distribution.

He said that beyond physical infrastructure, they should make our ports functional like the ones in the other parts of the world where technology is now being used to create seamless, paperless port system that improves turnaround time and global competitiveness.

According to him, because bureaucracy and other forms of corruption, goods still go into demurrage, something that is now unheard of in the other ports in the world.

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