Why Nigeria Can’t Afford to Let the Port Regulatory Bill Fail

About two weeks ago, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Dr. Akutah Pius reaffirmed the Council’s commitment to its role as the Economic Regulator of the ports, while actively pursuing its transition into the Nigerian Port Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA).

Dr. Akutah stated this at a sensitization programme, which held in Kaduna, on the online portal for the registration of regulated port service providers and users.

As normal and innocuous as the statement appears, it also triggers an alarm, which reminds one of events leading to the ‘death’ of the precursor of the Nigerian Port Economic Regulatory Agency Bill; that is, the National Transport Commission (NTC) Bill. The NTC Bill was killed at the Presidency by the powers that be, at that time

The NPERA Bill was first passed by the House of Representatives; that is after the tedious legislative procedure. It was later given a concurrent passage at the Senate. From there, it was transmitted to the Presidency, for the all-important assent by the President.

As a maritime media organization, we recall that for many years, the Nigeria Shippers’ Council has been taunted as a toothless bulldog, an ineffective agency that is at the mercy of those it is supposed to regulate.

Created originally to protect the interests of Nigerian shippers, the Council struggled to tame the service providers who exploit shippers. It is true that the Council had tried severally to get the shipping line agencies and the terminal operators to obey the rules of the game in Nigeria. It is true that it has been difficult to enforce its own enabling laws.

Not even the gazette that made the Council to effectively assume the role of the Economic Regulator of the port, could change the perception that stakeholders have about the Nigerian Shippers’ Council.

Desirous of a new beginning, it had pursued the dream of pushing the National Transport Commission (NTC) through. The plan was to get the National Assembly to pass the Bill, the the President to assent to it.

We recall that the NTC Bill had sought to establish the National Transport Commission as a regulator of all activities undertaken in Nigeria’s transport sector. The NTC was primed to operate as an independent regulator to promote multimodal transport and boost private sector participation in the provision of transport services. The Nigerian Shippers Council was being promoted to transmute to the Commission.

However, in 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari declined to assent to the Bill, which the Senate had passed in March of the same year. The Presidency gave reasons for the decision.