Ports concession: NPA has sold its birthright —Shippers

Years after the Federal Government has completed concession of ports to foreign investors; the Shippers Association of Lagos State (SALS) has lampooned the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), saying that the agency has sold its birthright.

Speaking with newsmen recently in Lagos, the President of the association, Rev. Jonathan Nicole also said that the concession agreement was partial as it favoured the concessionaires more than the government. He also lamented that while signing the agreement, proper provisions were not made for Nigerian shippers and even manufacturers.

According to him, “Talking about the concession agreement, it favour the private investors 95 per cent. They have no responsibility to anybody other than the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). They forgot that the NPA doesn’t own Nigeria as a country, that they are a government agency, and the primary duty of any government agency is to protect the government.

“Without the cargoes, they will not be there, so provisions were not made to protect the shippers. Not even the manufacturers’ because they go through the open market. So of what use is the concession agreement?

“From my own point of view, there was so much laziness in the NPA that they gave up their birthright. What stopped them from continuing with their operations in the ports as NPA? It is a pride to carry that name that you have control over the ports and the cargoes that make up the ports, because that is where the money i