Maritime Agencies
INSECURITY IN GoG: Expose and Deal With International Syndicates Now, MARAN Challenges FG
By Izuchukwu Ozoemena
Nigeria’s pioneer maritime journalists’ group, the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) has charged the Federal Government to take a second look at strategies on ground to address the nagging problem of oil theft and maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) especially at a time achievements recorded in recent years to address the menace appear to be fading away as resurgence is now being witnessed.
MARAN President, Godfrey Bivbere made the call in Lagos, Wednesday, at a one-day MARAN Annual Conference on the theme “Maritime Security: Emerging Threats and Actionable Steps”.
In his welcome address, he pointedly charged Nigeria authorities and other countries in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) to go back to the drawing board and design more lasting strategies that will ensure that a resurgence of the frightening occurrences is not witnessed, going forward.
“We challenge the Nigeria Government and her regional counterparts to come up with a more workable and result- oriented approach to the fight against maritime insecurity in the GoG. We believe that until and unless the international syndicates involved in the menace are confronted, apprehended and regularly exposed, through international collaboration as often happens with local criminals, the situation will not achieve any purposeful deterrence.
MARAN, he stated, is fully supportive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his wisdom to establish the sector-specific Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy in response to stakeholders’ view that it is one major step to turn around the fortunes of the nation’s maritime domain for the greater good of the economy.
“We envisage that President Tinubu may consider reworking the deterrence clauses contained in the SPOMO Act, to make its intendment more purposeful and business-like.
“MARAN respectfully, wishes to further urge President Tinubu to provide an improved enabling environment for a common and united combat against maritime insecurity through effective harnessing of all available windows, both public and private sector participation.”
Bivbere said MARAN feels deeply pained that since the first half of 2023, piracy has resumed in the GoG. The enormous security threats is a reality the journalists’ body find unacceptable, making her to contribute in whatever way possible to create a public awareness that will ginger the government to design better ways to address a lingering menace.
MARAN, Bivbere said, acknowledge previous and current efforts by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Navy and their regional counterparts to address issue of piracy and related maritime threats in the GOG. But the body is particularly concerned about the frightening level of crude oil theft in the region beside illegal and unregulated fishing in the GoG by highly-placed international syndicates who enjoy the assistance of local collaborators.
The Federal Government and her counterparts in the region owe everybody the responsibility to rise to the occasion and put a permanent stop to it.
“MARAN is also worried about observed dissonance in the collective national effort to combat maritime economic crimes and crude oil smuggling, and call on the federal government and its relevant agencies to improve on coordination. I want to also especially call on the office of the National Security Adviser to the President, to have a firmer grip and supervision of the existing collaboration between state and non-state actors’ roles, in this regard.
“The International Maritime Bureau, IMB report of July 2023 confirmed that the GoG witnessed a surge in maritime incidents in 2023, with five of such incidents in the first quarter and nine in the second quarter. Out of these, 12 were classified as armed robberies and two as piracy, predominantly targeting anchored vessels within the region. In all the incidents, 14 crew members were kidnapped, out of which 8 were abducted from vessels on anchor. Additionally, in two separate hijacks, 31 crew members were taken hostage, communication and navigation equipment were destroyed, and some cargoes were stolen.”
Speaking at the event, Temi Omatseye, former Director-General of NIMASA observed that many illegal vessels operate on Nigerian waters. He advised that Nigeria should begin to issue ship entry notices to vessels before leaving or arriving at anchor.
“We should know who you are or where you are on Nigerian waters. We must stop playing politics with the shipping industry.”
“We should set up a Restore Zone Transportation Corridor to spot vessels moving in and out of the approved nautical areas. It enables Nigeria to know who is in her maritime territory.”
He emphasized that there is no crude theft in Nigeria. Whatever happens is at the terminals.”
In his intervention, Sesan Onileimo, notable maritime journalist and former President of MARAN attributed majority of issues of crude oil theft and piracy taking place in Nigerian waters to youth unemployment. Onileimo who publishes Shipping Position said that the maritime threats happening in the Niger Delta are rampant and will continue to be rampant as long as the system keeps churning out a large army of able-bodied but unemployed youths who easily become a willing tool in the hands of godfathers who sponsor piracy, crude oil theft and other maritime crimes in the Gulf of Guinea.
He described crude oil theft and piracy as a localized business because people from other geographic areas who are not versed in aquatic business as their counterparts in the Niger Delta cannot make a success when they venture in them.
“There’s a mass of unemployed youths that the society has foisted on us; an idle hand is a willing tool.”
“And I will like to look at this from two angles. There are two categories of unemployed willing youths: the ones trained by NIMASA under its National Seafarers’ Development Programme who were trained, qualified with or without Certificate of Competency (CoC) but waiting to have something to do. They are there, they want to be active, they are the tools that are being used to forment trouble.
“The second leg are those boys and girls who are trained locally, some of them are trained at MAN, Oron, but there are those that are trained even in Agege here who wear uniforms so much so like that of the Navy. They are equipped and recruited into that business that has turned out to be a source of threat to our maritime environment.
“I am saying this because in the course of my years as a maritime journalist, I have had cause to interact with a few of them. If you go to Liverpool here, I am sure the Maritime Workers’ Union will bear me witness; the boys and girls who graduated from Oron, who have turned out to be canoe boys, were not trained in Oron to be handling canoe and boats but there is no job for them. These are the same boys who had five years of training but afterwards, there is no job. Take that guy to Niger-Delta, he is ready to do anything for as long as the money is available”, Onileimo explained.
Adding his voice, Otumba Sola Adewunmi, President, Nigerian Indigenous Shipowners Association, (NISA) advised Nigeria as a country to work hard to have a safe sea where one could sail to wherever he wanted to do his business and safely come back. Adewunmi who suggested putting in place a Nigerian equivalent of the P&I oof Singapore observed that there was so much competition at sea, the equipments are there but with inefficient, uncommitted and inexperienced people to man them.
For instance, he stated,
the Navy’s situation room known as the Falcon Eye, captures and displays everything that happens at sea. But a selfish agenda, he regrets, often lead to inefficiency in job discharge.
“There’s nothing that happens at sea that they don’t see but you will realize that most of our security agents are engrossed with what will come into their pockets. A situation whereby they do everything to their advantage is one of the reasons we are having issues.
“What did Lome have that we do not have in Nigeria?This is the question we should just ask ourselves. These people saw our weakness and made sure that their anchorage was secure. It attracts international operators and they started making money out of it. What is the work of our security agencies? And even when arrests are made, are they not made on frivolous excuses? All these things still go to say what is going to be the benefit to me.
“Until we put the benefit of the nation and what the nation will earn overall, I think we are in a better position to protect our waters very well but this era of entitlement, ‘it is our entitlement, we must get it’, I think it is part of the issues that we have. And as much as these things are there, we will continue to have a higher cost of bringing vessels to this place.”
He opined that if the security agents could work together and there is a good judicial system, Nigeria can achieve a lot.
In his contribution, Capt Tajudeen Alao, President, National Association of Master Mariners (NAMM) stated that maritime crime being a big business whose tentacles spread across the globe cannot be perceived as a Nigerian thing. He advised the participants at the lecture to sit down as a group, brainstorm and come up with workable proceedings that could be presented to the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy to implement.
“Whatever we think is the right thing to do, there must be procedures and guidelines and once the Minister can make subsidiary legislation, it could go a long way in tackling most of these challenges. The trend now is, if you arrest a ship now engaging in illegal bunkering, you blow it up, does it make sense? The air pollution into the sky, the oil pollution into the ecosystem, you have destroyed the fish and periwinkles in that area.
“There are many things that we do. Like my colleague said, you arrest a ship, EFCC doesn’t know how to manage ship. The ship is there, they are waiting for the Police to go to court, the ship becomes a wreck, then, NPA and NIMASA will devote $2 million to salvage a ship that does not worth more than $300,000.”
He insisted that a deliberate action and political must exist before crime can be addressed.
“The Navy”, the NAMM boss continued, “cannot afford to fund maritime security just as it cannot afford to keep the ships at sea with the budget within its disposal”.
“It finds it comfortable relying on the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA) to fund most of its operations”.
Maritime Agencies
Collapse Factions, Come Under One Roof for Obvious Gains, CGC Adeniyi Charges Freight Forwarders, Maritime Journalists
By Izuchukwu Ozoemena
For the umpteenth time, freight forwarding associations on one hand and various factions of the maritime press on the other have been charged to sink their differences and come under one formidable roof. This, the Comptroller- General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi says, is giving confusing signals to policy makers that should address issues concerning them.
Discordant tunes arising from lack of a united platform, CGC Adeniyi regrets, makes it difficult for policy makers to consult them on vital policies affecting their welfare.
Adeniyi expressed his concerns in Lagos, Thursday, during the Award and Dinner night organized by the maritime media to honour him for exemplary leadership as the helmsman of the Customs.
During the event which was attended by maritime journalists, top customs officers (retired and serving), freight forwarders and friends as well as well-wishers of the celebrant, Adeniyi said freight forwarding groups must come together and speak with one voice so that government can respect and find it easier to consult them on policies affecting the industry and their personal interests. Re-echoing the stand of Rotimi Amaechi, former Transportation Minister years back, Adeniyi equally said different factions in the maritime media must also collapse into one formidable body to stand to demand for rights and privileges that have eluded them for years.
” The story of customs agents is similar to that of maritime journalists in terms of proliferation of associations”.
” There are so many discordant tunes coming from the freight forwarders which do not help the policy makers.”
” The policy makers want to respect them by consulting them on matters of policies about their profession but the discordant tunes coming from them make it difficult for such consultations”
The CGC therefore pleaded with the confraternity of the freight forwarders to come together under one umbrella for them to present unified position to government on matters affecting their industry.
He therefore charged both Prince Shittu Olayiwola, the former National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents(ANLCA) and Alhaji Akeem Olanrewaju, the Chairman of the Customs Consultative Council( CCC) to spearhead the unification drive of the freight forwarding associations, given their vantage positions in the freight forwarding industry.
It could be recalled that there are more than five freight forwarding groups which are recognized by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria(CRFFN), the government regulatory agency in the freight forwarding industry. These include ANLCA, NAGAFF, Council of Managing Directors, AREFF.
It could also be recalled that the freight forwarders often accused the government of not carrying them along in some of the policies affecting their profession.
Recently, the agitated customs brokers accused the Customs of not consulting them before the 4 per cent FOB charge was imposed on them, a protest which made the Customs to suspend the fee for enough consultation.
In the same vein, the CGC equally admonished the maritime media to collapse the multiple associations among them which he said has been impeding efforts to access opportunities for them in the maritime industry.
He believed that their unification will enable them to access welfare opportunities from stakeholders.
He noted that there are opportunities which the maritime journalists could
assess easily only if they come together under one umbrella.
Adeniyi disclosed that a unified maritime media should be thinking of how to improve their welfare, noting that most of them have paid their dues in the industry.
He advised them on how they could explore opportunities in providing life insurance package for themselves as well as housing mortgage so they could have decent accommodations for themselves.
The CGC promised to lead the crusade for better welfares for maritime journalists among other heads of government agencies only if they could come together as one body.
He believed that the unification task is possible as the maritime journalists have exemplified by coming together to honour him.
Six associations of maritime journalists came together to honour Adeniyi for his impactful leadership which they unanimously agreed was worth celebrating.
These groups of maritime journalists include the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN), League of Maritime Editors (LOME), Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON), Maritime Journalists Association of Nigeria (MAJAN), Shipping Correspondents Association of Nigeria (SCAN), Online Maritime Media Association of Nigeria (OMMAN) and Congress of Nigerian Maritime Media Practitioners (CONMMEP), as well as those who do not belong to any association.
Maritime Agencies
Suspension of 4% FOB on Imports: CGC Adeniyi Earns Commendation, Receives Special Award from Maritime Journalists
By Izuchukwu Ozoemena
Prince Olayiwola Shittu, former National President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) says the suspension of the 4% FOB duty collections is a huge relief to importers and Customs agents, attributing this to the well-informed advice of the Controller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi.
Prince Shittu was speaking in Lagos, Thursday, when he chaired an event for the presentation of “Iconic Maritime Personality of the Year Award 2024” to the CGC by Nigerian Maritime Journalists.
Going down memory lane, Shittu noted that the CGC was instrumental to his success as the National President of ANLCA as he always guided him with good advice. He congratulated the CGC for the well deserved award coming from maritime journalists, the watchdog of the sector.
In his remarks, Chairman, Customs Consultative Council, Alhaji Hakeem Olanrewaju, eulogized the CGC and congratulated him for being jointly celebrated by the entire maritime press.
He advised attitudinal change on the part of licensed
Customs agents to fit into the present realities in the freight forwarding business.
The Vice President, ANLCA, Prince Olusegun Oduntan, commended the CGC for being a grassroots leader who listens to the people. He promised that ANLCA would continue to partner with Nigeria Customs under the CGC’s leadership.
In his own speech, the National President, Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), Otunba Frank Ogunojemite described the CGC as a downright good man and a natural leader. He stated that the CGC was his class captain in the university and later the President of the department. He added that he was a sports enthusiast who later became the leader of Man ‘o’ War.
Describing him as extremely patriotic and very humble, he said that the CGC has been keeping his old friends without looking at his present status.
Speaking on behalf of the maritime journalists, Mr. Okey Ibeke commended CGC Adeniyi for his superlative performance which has changed the narrative in Customs.
He gave the CGC thumbs-up for delivering on his mandate in areas of revenue collection, anti-smuggling activities, trade facilitation and others.
He noted that this was the first time journalists from various media houses covering a sector would agree jointly to honour a chief executive officer of an agency. Ibeke pointed out that the unusual agreement was not for sycophancy but to give honour to a man who is a game changer.
He said that President Bola Tinubu must have seen in the CGC special qualities of accomplished administrator before making him the CGC, adding that he has not disappointed the President for once.
Emphasizing that Customs is key to the economic development of any nation, Ibeke called on the Federal Government to give the Service more powers and political support to be able to deliver better on its mandate
Maritime Agencies
FAILURE TO ADVISE FG EARLIER ON 4% FOB IMPORT DUTY: Group Tackles CGC, Finance Minister.
By Izuchukwu Ozoemena
As the CGC is being hailed for advising the government to suspend the controversial 4% Free-On-Board (FOB) cargo import duty collections, Save Nigeria Importers and Exporters Coalition, a prominent freight forwarders group, says the suspension is an after-thought. Therefore, the group has called on the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, to resign for failing to advise the Federal Government when it was appropriate to do so.
President of the freight forwarders group, Chief Patrick Osita Chukwu, made the call in Lagos, Wednesday, while condemning a trade regime whose implementation, according to him, is ‘heartless’ and ‘unfeeling,’ going by what the business community and ordinary Nigerians are currently passing through in the hands of government. He condemned a situation government and politicians do not mind using what is left of the blood of Nigerians in their quest to increase Customs revenue target designed to satisfy their personal whims and caprices. As a result of crushing rates and duties that human face, he regretted, major importers are being pushed out of business while others struggling to keep affloat have gone under completely.
As Chief Chukwu noted, what was agreed by stakeholders as per the 2023 Customs Act is a 4% increase in the aggregated derivation accruing to the Nigeria Customs Service from all levies and duties paid on goods and not a hike in the percentage on free- on- board (FOB) levy being misinterpreted as present in the Act. He described the action of those he said changed the original agreement as “wicked”.
Chief Chukwu who lamented the economic hardship Nigerians face now wondered
“Why will anybody want to put additional burden on Nigerians whose economic situation has become worse than ever before?”, he asked.
He was vehement in his call on the government to remove this 4% increase and revert to the original percentage being charged on cargoes through FOB.
“This must be removed completely, not just suspended as announced a couple of days ago. The Finance Minister must resign; the CGC must resign.” He informed that before the so-called suspension, over N500 billion had been collected. These must be returned to those who were forced to pay it.
It is recalled that in a February 11 release, the National Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, Assistant Controller of Customs, Abdullahi Maiwada said, among others:
“The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) hereby announces the suspension of the implementation of 4% Free-on-Board (FOB) value on imports as provided in Section 18(1)(a) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCSA) 2023. This is sequel to ongoing consultations with the Honourable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister
of the Economy, Mr Olawale Edun and other Stakeholders”.
The statement also detailed a few elements of the 2023 Customs Act which says “The Act further empowers the Service to modernise its operations through various technological innovations. Specifically, Section 28 of the NCS Act 2023 authorises developing and maintaining electronic systems for information exchange between the Service, other Government Agencies, and traders. The Service is already implementing several digital solutions, including the recently deployed B’Odogwu clearance system which stakeholders are benefiting from through faster clearance times and improved transparency. Other innovative solutions authorised by the Act include; Single Window Implementation (Section 33), Risk Management Systems (Section 32), Non-intrusive inspection equipment (Section 59) and Electronic data exchange facilities (Section 33(3))”. These are all geared towards making the NCS an efficient entity”.
Chief Chukwu who, however, described the current CGC as an acclaimed public relations guru, said that now the buck ends on his table, he should have been in a better position to feel the pulse of the people and to know the consequences of implementing such a hike in levy at this moment in time. He should have advised the government earlier against the implementation of the hike; he should have advised a reversal to the old rate.
Chukwu also asked the Minister for Finance, Olawale Edun, to resign for focusing only on internally generated revenue (IGR) and thinking less of the Human Development Index (HDI) thereby leaving most Nigerians pauperized, traumatized and only in existential living.
Collapse Factions, Come Under One Roof for Obvious Gains, CGC Adeniyi Charges Freight Forwarders, Maritime Journalists
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