Issues in restoration of Port Concession Agreement By Tokunboh Tare-Johnson On Monday’ November 16, 2015, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) advertised shame. On this day, a memo with the inscription “Handling of Oil and Gas Cargo at Julius Berger Terminal, Warri” sprang from the office of the General Manager, Marine and Operations. It was signed by a certain AA Goje. Goje, with Ref: HQ/ED/M&O/OP /226, on behalf of the Executive Director, Directorate of Marines and Operations. The lie peddled by this memo was that “the federal government was losing revenues on ‘oil and gas cargo’ handling in some terminals. According to the memo, whereas a multi-purpose terminal may handle ‘oil and gas’ related cargo and charge the lower rate of $1.12 per tonne for general cargo, the same cargo meant for the lOCs and handled in a designated oil and gas terminal will attract$5.82 per tonne. The object of this piece is not to interrogate cargo charges at the ports. However it is not difficult for anyone with a lame knowledge of the ports and terminals to know that NPA’s claim is a fallacy. This cost of handling cargo and the dubious issue of contrasting charges will be the subject of another article to come. The focus of this piece, however, is the cryptic and dubious oil and gas cargo and oil and gas terminal lingo invented by NPA. President Muhammadu Buhari in a recent policy exposed the ill-repute of ‘past management of NPA when he endorsed the unfettered right of importers to choose terminals or ports of their choice for the discharge of good and services. In a triumphant headline that heralded a new dawn for the maritime industry, a national newsspaper appeared to captive the huge relief in the heat-oppressed minds of the terminal owners and importers . With the assertive title, “PG Ends Intels Dominance of Oil and Port Logistics Services”, with the rider, “Onne Free Zone designated Oil and Gas Multi-Purpose Terminal.”In a very clear directive, President Buhari conveyed the new policy to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi on April 21, 2017. Designation of terminal/ports operations into three broad categories The president in a succinct, lucid language stated that “the federal government remains guided by the general global practice in the designation of terminal/ports operations into three broad categorisations of Bulk Cargo, Container Cargo and Multi-Purpose Cargo. The FGN rejects the categorisation of oil and gas multi-purpose cargo terminal as this is alien to the relevant concession agreements and inconsistent with global shipping practices”. The question then is: From which book of infamy were the past management of NPA and their parties reeling out the retrogressive directives that held terminal owners economically hostage in their fatherland? Where did they get the phrase ‘Oil and Gas Designated Terminal’ that benefitted only lNTELS, a largely foreign company? But make no mistake about it. NPA’s memo of November 16, 2015 was only a morphing of the obnoxious policy of former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Indeed on April 27, 2015, NPA sent out a purported presidential directive that stirred the soul of the ports/terminal operators. The letter stated that all oil and gas related cargo must be handled at designated terminals at Onne, Warri and Calabar ports. These three terminals are exclusively controlled by Integrated Logistics Services Nigeria Limited (INTELS). What is clear from this is the simple fact that between INI’ELS and NPA, there seemed to be a confluence of corruption. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Transportation rather than asserting its authority by checking violations of the 2006 concession agreement and other malpractices at the ports appeared to be adding a thickener that solidified a company seeming strangulating grip and dominance of the ports. Unable to continue with Jonathan’s incongruous and monopoly-inspired directive, the Chief Executive of Ports and Terminal Operators Limited (PTOL) the operators of the multi-purpose Terminal A, in Port Harcourt, Lizzie Obvude, a woman of iron-cast conviction, went to court to challenge not only the directive but to stop NPA’s diversion of vessels meant for her terminal to INTEI.S ports. About 10 other concessionaires including LADOL, Nigerdock and Simco Free Zone, operators of Snake Island Integrated Free Zone, also went to court to seek how to erase Jonathan stamp of approval to a ritual of illegality and glaring economic sabotage. Ovbude, in an earlier letter to the Attorney General of the Federation had decried what she called “the wrongful, illegal and discriminatory implementation of the concession agreement by the Federal Ministry of Transportation and NPA by the diversion of vessels to a particular company”. Having written to both the Senate and the House of Representatives to intervene on the excesses of the Ministry of Transportation, NPA and this company, without the desired outcome, the ports/terminal operators went to various courts to obtain varying injunctions stopping the implementation of Jonathan’s strange directive given in the dying days of his administration. Smoggy policy This dim climate sparked by a smoggy policy was still pervasive-at the ports when Hadiza Bala Usman was appointed Managing Director of NPA by President Buhari. Bala Usman’s mission from the very start was therefore seen by the ports operators to be messianic. By her antecedents, she was perceived as The economic messiah to straighten a serpentine NPA and reconstruct the convoluted operations of the maritime industry. In her speech on July 18, 2016, she promised to listen to their “suggestions and concerns”, promising “we will listen to our customers, importers, exporters, and other agencies working in the ports to improve on our service delivery to the nation”. Then she added the clincher: ‘We will work hard with integrity and with zero tolerance for corruption”. This daughter of a renowned academic and activist, Professor Bala Usman, took time to peruse loads of documents, the Ports Concession Agreement and also consulted unbiased sound authorities on the ports, terminal and cargo issues. President Buhari’s verdict is a reflection of the recommendation of this intellective, courageous and patriotic lady. With the dissonance over the categorisation of cargoes now history, the long oppressed concessionaires, (25 out of 26 of them) will now confidently invest more in their terminals. They will employ more Nigerians and they will become more efficient. They will earn more money because vessels carrying their cargoes would no longer be diverted to Onne, Warri or Calabar ports. And importantly, they will be paying all the fees and taxes due to government without hindrance, thus helping to grow the nation’s economy. But it must be stated without any equivocation here that the oil and gas cargo cartel spread across NPA, Ministry of Transportation and Intels is robust and formidable. From the Obasanjo tenure through the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua brief era to the Goodluck Jona than’s time, they have remained irrepressible, rising after each admonition for violation of the concession agreement. Will Buhari’s policy then be the end of this cyclic oil and gas cargo lingo and indeed tango? Will it be the anti-toxin to obliterate the strange oil and gas terminal patois from the lexicon of NPA and ultimately put a final nail on the coffin of this impunity? Tare-Johnson wrote from Port Harrourt. The post Issues in restoration of Port Concession Agreement appeared first on Vanguard News. For More details click the green link via Naijapounds

By Tokunboh Tare-Johnson

On Monday’ November 16, 2015, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) advertised shame. On this day, a memo with the inscription “Handling of Oil and Gas Cargo at Julius Berger Terminal, Warri” sprang from the office of the General Manager, Marine and Operations. It was signed by a certain AA Goje. Goje, with Ref: HQ/ED/M&O/OP /226, on behalf of the Executive Director, Directorate of Marines and Operations.

The lie peddled by this memo was that “the federal government was losing revenues on ‘oil and gas cargo’ handling in some terminals. According to the memo, whereas a multi-purpose terminal may handle ‘oil and gas’ related cargo and charge the lower rate of $1.12 per tonne for general cargo, the same cargo meant for the lOCs and handled in a designated oil and gas terminal will attract$5.82 per tonne.

The object of this piece is not to interrogate cargo charges at the ports. However it is not difficult for anyone with a lame knowledge of the ports and terminals to know that NPA’s claim is a fallacy. This cost of handling cargo and the dubious issue of contrasting charges will be the subject of another article to come. The focus of this piece, however, is the cryptic and dubious oil and gas cargo and oil and gas terminal lingo invented by NPA.

President Muhammadu Buhari in a recent policy exposed the ill-repute of ‘past management of NPA when he endorsed the unfettered right of importers to choose terminals or ports of their choice for the discharge of good and services. In a triumphant headline that heralded a new dawn for the maritime industry, a national newsspaper appeared to captive the huge relief in the heat-oppressed minds of the terminal owners and importers .

With the assertive title, “PG Ends Intels Dominance of Oil and Port Logistics Services”, with the rider, “Onne Free Zone designated Oil and Gas Multi-Purpose Terminal.”In a very clear directive, President Buhari conveyed the new policy to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi on April 21, 2017.

Designation of  terminal/ports operations into three broad categories

The president in a succinct, lucid language stated that “the federal government remains guided by the general global practice in the designation of terminal/ports operations into three broad categorisations of Bulk Cargo, Container Cargo and Multi-Purpose Cargo.

The FGN rejects the categorisation of oil and gas multi-purpose cargo terminal as this is alien to the relevant concession agreements and inconsistent with global shipping practices”.

The question then is: From which book of infamy were the past management of NPA and their parties reeling out the retrogressive directives that held terminal owners economically hostage in their fatherland? Where did they get the phrase ‘Oil and Gas Designated Terminal’ that benefitted only lNTELS, a largely foreign company?

But make no mistake about it. NPA’s  memo of November 16, 2015 was only a morphing of the obnoxious policy of former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Indeed on April 27, 2015, NPA sent out a purported presidential directive that stirred the soul of the ports/terminal operators. The letter stated that all oil and gas related cargo must be handled at designated terminals at Onne, Warri and Calabar ports. These three terminals are exclusively controlled by Integrated Logistics Services Nigeria Limited (INTELS).

What is clear from this is the simple fact that between INI’ELS and NPA, there seemed to be a confluence of corruption. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Transportation rather than asserting its authority by checking violations of the 2006 concession agreement and other malpractices at the ports appeared to be adding a thickener that solidified a company seeming strangulating grip and dominance of the ports.

Unable to continue with Jonathan’s incongruous and monopoly-inspired directive, the Chief Executive of Ports and Terminal Operators Limited (PTOL) the operators of the multi-purpose Terminal A, in Port Harcourt, Lizzie Obvude, a woman of iron-cast conviction, went to court to challenge not only the directive but to stop NPA’s diversion of vessels meant for her terminal to INTEI.S ports. About 10 other concessionaires including LADOL, Nigerdock and Simco Free Zone, operators of Snake Island Integrated Free Zone, also went to court to seek how to erase Jonathan stamp of approval to a ritual of illegality and glaring economic sabotage.

Ovbude, in an earlier letter to the Attorney General of the Federation had decried what she called “the wrongful, illegal and discriminatory implementation of the concession agreement by the Federal Ministry of Transportation and NPA by the diversion of vessels to a particular company”. Having written to both the Senate and the House of Representatives to intervene on the excesses of the Ministry of Transportation, NPA and this company, without the desired outcome, the ports/terminal operators went to various courts to obtain varying injunctions stopping the implementation of Jonathan’s strange directive given in the dying days of his administration.

Smoggy policy

This dim climate sparked by a smoggy policy was still pervasive-at the ports when Hadiza Bala Usman was appointed Managing Director of NPA by President Buhari. Bala Usman’s mission from the very start was therefore seen by the ports operators to be messianic. By her antecedents, she was perceived as The economic messiah to straighten a serpentine NPA and reconstruct the convoluted operations of the maritime industry.

In her speech on July 18, 2016, she promised to listen to their “suggestions and concerns”, promising “we will listen to our customers, importers, exporters, and other agencies working in the ports to improve on our service delivery to the nation”. Then she added the clincher: ‘We will work hard with integrity and with zero tolerance for corruption”.

This daughter of a renowned academic and activist, Professor Bala Usman, took time to peruse loads of documents, the Ports Concession Agreement and also consulted unbiased sound authorities on the ports, terminal and cargo issues. President Buhari’s verdict is a reflection of the  recommendation of this intellective, courageous and patriotic lady.

With the dissonance over the categorisation of cargoes now history, the long oppressed concessionaires, (25 out of 26 of them) will now confidently invest more in their terminals. They will employ more Nigerians and they will become more efficient. They will earn more money because vessels carrying their cargoes would no longer be diverted to Onne, Warri or Calabar ports. And importantly, they will be paying all the fees and taxes due to government without hindrance, thus helping to grow the nation’s economy.

But it must be stated without any equivocation here that the oil and gas cargo cartel spread across NPA, Ministry of Transportation and Intels is robust and formidable. From the Obasanjo tenure through the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua brief era to the Goodluck Jona than’s time, they have remained irrepressible, rising after each admonition for violation of the concession agreement.

Will Buhari’s policy then be the end of this cyclic oil and gas cargo lingo and indeed tango? Will it be the anti-toxin to obliterate the strange oil and gas terminal patois from the lexicon of NPA and ultimately put a final nail on the coffin of this impunity?

Tare-Johnson wrote from Port Harrourt.

 

The post Issues in restoration of Port Concession Agreement appeared first on Vanguard News.

For More details click the green link
via Naijapounds