Executive Order: Leadership crisis bedevilling Nigeria’s maritime sector —Aniebonam

THE founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Boniface Aniebonam, has revealed that the recently enforced Executive Order of the presidency at the nation’s seaports has shown that the sector lacks leadership qualities.

Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune exclusively, Chief Aniebonam wondered why operators and stakeholders in the nation’s maritime sector needed to be reminded by government that touting and bribery should not be allowed at the ports.

According to him “To me, I am not excited by the recently enforced Executive Order because the policy is talking about things that had already been in existence for years, only that there was no body man enough to implement them.

“This Executive Order showed that government seems to be frustrated that agencies in the maritime sector are not carrying out its directives.

“You begin to wonder when a Presidential Executive Order has to remind everybody in the maritime industry that touting is not allowed at the ports; there is a law against touting, why must we allow government to remind us that touting should not be allowed at the ports? Who is supposed to have implemented that law even before the Presidential Executive Order? Does that not mean somebody somewhere is not doing what he or she is supposed to do? That simply means we have a leadership problem in our maritime sector.

“Again, in 2011/2012, the Federal Government said some agencies should leave the ports and be invited in when their presence is needed at the ports. Since that time, these agencies have remained in the ports. Why are they in the ports? Why should we have to wait for government to remind us through an Executive Order that these agencies should not be in the ports?

“Should we continue to repeat the same thing every day? It does not make sense to me. Why are we fond of tying people’s time in this county?

“In one of the items of the Executive Order, government told us that nobody should give bribe. Does it mean that we don’t know that giving or taking bribe is wrong? Do we have to again wait for government to remind us on the ills of bribe in this sector?

“Again, the question of who is supposed to enforce the law against bribery in the maritime sector prior to the Executive Order comes to the fore. Is it not a shame that agencies of government here had to wait for an Executive Order before they could begin to act?