By Stephen Ubanna
For years , there have bee calls to make the south eastern of Onee, Rivers port Prt, PortHarcourt, Warri and Calabar port to be more competitive to the Lagos ports and other ports in the West and Central African sub-regions.
Indeed, past and present Managing Directors of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, were said to have made several attempts to improve patronage of the Eastern ports comprising Rivers port, Port Harcourt, Onne, Delta port, and Calabar port, but that was how far they could go.
Abubakar Datsoho, Special Assistant to Eng. Muazu Jaji Sambo, a one-time Minister of Transportation, now balkanized into two ministries; Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy superintending the nation’s maritime sector, under the close watch of Adegboyega Oyetola, who incidentally was a former governor of Osun State.
Only recently, Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Minister of Aviation, had confirmed in a public forum in Delta State that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had approved the North American country of the United States, US, $1 billion for the reconstruction of the Eastern and the nation’s Western ports.
It would be recalled that Abubakar Datsoho, a one-time Special Assistant to Eng. Muazu Jaji Sambo, Minister of Transportation before the balkanization into two in 2023 by President Tinubu, the NPA CEO, who spoke on the sidelines of the World Ports Conference of the International Association of Ports and Harbours, IAPH, tagged, “Reinvention and Prosperity in Violent Times,” in Kobe, Japan, recently, may have given insider information on the nation’s seaports rehabilitation project.
Datsoho, who oversees the maritime agency under Adegboyega Oyetola — who incidentally was a former governor of Osun State — led Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, may have continued the old sing-song of the Tinubu Administration’s moves to rehabilitate the country’s major seaports in Lagos, the nation’s commercial nerve centre, and the Eastern part of the Federation.
He had corroborated Minister Keyamo’s claims that the Lagos State-born President Tinubu has approved US$1 billion for the reconstruction of the country’s seaports, stating that the contractors have between now and 2032, an interval of four years or 48 months, to complete work on the country’s decaying seaports spread across Lagos, Rivers, Delta, and Cross River State.
Datsoho may have gladdened the hearts of Nigerians, particularly the Eastern ports users, when he declared that the rehabilitation work is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2026.
The question on the lips of most people was whether Minister Keyamo and Datsoho’s $1 billion as Tinubu’s approval for the country’s ports reconstruction was merely a repetition of the figures earlier disclosed by Bello-Koko, the immediate past CEO of NPA’s remarks of the US $1.1 billion that had been approved by President Tinubu before his exit from office in 2023, or the US $1 billion for the port’s rehabilitation project was another approval. This is where Datsoho, the NPA Managing Director, may have to speak out to stop the embarrassment.
An elated Datsoho had said that the reconstruction of the decaying Eastern and Western ports, which was due, was part of President Tinubu’s Administration’s plan in the Renewed Hope agenda to modernize Nigeria’s seaports infrastructure in order to attract Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, and reposition the maritime sector for competitiveness in the logistics chain.
Whether it is US $1 billion or US $1.1 billion that had been approved for the port’s reconstruction project in Nigeria, between now and 2032, Datsoho, who could not hide his feelings, had repeatedly said that NPA, under his leadership, is taking the revamping of the Eastern seaports seriously to strengthen Nigeria’s economic diversification options through a sustainable blue economy.
He had confirmed that despite the Eastern ports’ proximity to key markets and the country’s crude oil resources corridor in the Niger Delta region, its weak infrastructure and limited connectivity had kept the ports under-utilized, paving the way for the Lagos ports of Apapa, Tin-Can Island, Port Multi-services Terminal Limited, PTML, and Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, KLT, Phases I and II, which absorb over 90% of the country’s maritime cargo throughput, to thrive.
He had declared that NPA, under his leadership, was changing the narrative as it was collaborating with other industry stakeholders, particularly the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, to attract both local and foreign investors to the country’s maritime sector.
He had told those that care to listen that the nation’s maritime sector may not have attracted many investors over the years as obtained in other maritime nations, noting that what has happened is the absence of concrete thrust and good working relationships, stressing that with the planned turnaround to make the Eastern ports competitive with the Lagos ports, the benefits are obvious — ranging from shorter turnaround times, closer access to the Southeast markets of Onitsha and Aba, Nigeria’s own Dubai market, and the North Central clusters.
He was said to have also cited lower transportation costs for importers with their agents and the ability to move agricultural and rare earth mineral resources more efficiently and deepen Nigeria’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA.
Determined to turn things around, the NPA helmsman had said that the new management has to consolidate on the gains that had been achieved in the industry over the last two years by Minister Oyetola to be in a cycle of friends or partners that feel all of us are trusted in the same dynamics, in the same system that will last for at least 50 years. He was emphatic that this cannot happen if there is no relation, insisting that the best they can do for now is to ensure that they consolidate and automate ships by 2040, meaning that the vessels will be moving on the sea and nobody will be on them to monitor their operations as the country does not have money to be able to do massive things.
His remarks at Kobe, Japan, speak volumes. We need to have collaboration and partnership with other investors, as Nigeria, as a maritime nation and member country of the International Maritime Organisation, IMO, which currently has Arsenio Dominguez as the Secretary General, has moved from the public sector port system to a private sector port system and is now investing in technology, which is capital-intensive. He had asserted that foreigners can only come and invest in the nation’s maritime sector if they are guaranteed that they can recoup their money without being tied down due to government fiscal policies.
Datsoho, the NPA Managing Director, may have taken advantage of the IAPH meeting in Kobe, Japan, to woo Japanese investors, urging them to cash in on the country’s US $1 trillion Blue Economy project to invest in the country’s maritime sector.
He is optimistic that Nigeria’s involvement in the Port Management Association of West and Central African subregions, MAWCA, which is the West and Central Association, an arm of IAPH, will appeal to foreign investors, particularly Japanese investors, to invest in the nation’s maritime sector, and “will end in very wonderful results.” Vintage Datsoho.
