The maritime sector is the backbone of any country, especially one that is fortunate to have more than one or two sea ports. The importance of the sector to any country, in terms of income generation, cannot be over emphasised. But from the look of things, we have clearly not taken full advantage of the humongous potentials of our sea ports, especially in terms of revenue. City People Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) had a very engaging session with Captain Tajudeen Alao, the President, Association of Master Mariners, and got him to share with us his perspective of the state of our sea ports and the support, if any, that the maritime practitioners have gotten from the government.
Captain Tajudeen Alao is, without a doubt, one of Nigeria’s most experienced marine surveyors alive today. He is one of the few remaining class of outstanding marine surveyors of his generation that can tell the entire marine history of Nigeria from start to finish. Captain Alao is filled with pride as he recalls the exploits of his generation of mariners and the positive impact they made which earned him and some of his peers the enviable position of a Master Mariner, which we understand is the peak of the profession. But despite his intimidating CV and impressive accomplishments, Captain Alao still remains his humble and ever amiable self. Rather than go about with chips on his shoulders on account of his achievements, he is, on the contrary, personally disturbed by the state of our sea ports and government’s inability to offer to the sector the sort of support it is expected to give. Here are excerpts of the conversation.
Before we delve into core issues of the maritime sector, we would like you to share with us a bit about your background, sir.
Well, like you already know, my name is Captain Tajudeen Alao and I am the current president Nigerian Association of Master Mariners. If you look around you (referring to pictures hanged on the wall) you can see all my predecessors and we have been around for over forty years as an association. It’s a professional body, it’s not a union. And it’s the peak of seafaring career. It’s for those who have been fortunate to take command of international sea viewing ships, those who have gone all over the world. It’s strictly for those who have master mariners certificate class 1 and Captains with the Navy of Seaman cadre. You have to be a seaman and you have to have Red neck not less than Colonel. So, those are the people admitted into the association. It’s also a professional body that advises the government, lobbies the government from our wealth of experience because we have seen it all and we can tell the government, this is the way it should be. Like this blue economy issue, we have been crying that we have a large coast and maritime should play a prominent role in our governance. We advised the government to create a ministry for maritime, have a special adviser for maritime, this was before 2020 that the blue economy came into being and we are glad that we are on the right path.
We mentor younger ones, we advise the different organisations within the maritime like even the union, the right way to go about issues, to achieve our aims and achieve results for the players and for the greater benefit of Nigeria. So, primarily, that’s it about us. For me, I came into this career by providence five decades ago and I have been here since.
Tell us about about your background, sir, where you were born and raised?
I was born at Mamun, I grew up at, Epe, Ijebu. Mamun is a small village near Ibadan, between the border. It was a big, famous town in those days because it was the border between Ijebu and Ibadan and even the Queen Elizabeth stopped in that town in 1956 when she came to Nigeria. But the express has taken up the town. It was a big market place then. So, I drank Epe water, ate Epe garri, had my primary school in Epe and all that before I went to Ahmadiya Grammar School, Eleyele, Ibadan, 1969-73. Then, I came to Lagos to pursue my dreams. In 18 months, I changed career five times. Life was good in those days, you could change career if you so desire.
What were your initial dreams, did you set out from the get-go to become a sea fearer?
Sincerely, no. But I was an extrovert. And I was part of the first set of medical students from university of Benin, but my life was not carved out from it. Then, 16th course, NDA, Navy, in actual fact, it was four days to my going to India that I ran away. I had scholarship to go to Poland, Western region, for Agric Economics, then, I worked briefly at British Ropes, they changed from British ropes to Nigerian Ropes in 1973. In 1974, I got the scholarship under the Public Service Commission to train as a Cadet and I was going to run away too, then, somebody said, a rolling stone gathers no moss, therefore, stay in one place, and that was how I found myself on a Nigeria Airways plane going to Southampton to start my cadetship. There were five of us, Cadets, on that trip. So, that was how I stayed put, rose through the ranks, got my command until national line was liquidated in 1995. So, I went to Iran National Shipping line, Folawiyo and then I started my own practice as a marine surveyor. Soon, government now hunted us to come and start government inspection of shipping. Few of us were interviewed by a presidential committee, Ojo Madueke was the minister at the time and I was there with the NMA until 2015 when I stepped aside and then went into private practice, so that’s how my journey went. In between, I went to Iran National Shipping line like I told you, Yinka Folawiyo and Sons, Nigerian Green line and tramping all over the world.
So, between then and now, sir, how would you say we have fared?
We have not done very well. We had a dream in 1958 we started a shipping system and we followed Ghana. Nkrumah as a president had presidential suite in every ship on board, what we called owner’s cabin. The president stays there and we followed suit. We had many ships and during the civil war, our ships helped us because there was economic blockade against Biafra. That was what helped us and that was what made the Obasanjo/Gowon regime to order for those ships, 10 new ships that they ordered in addition to what we had before. We had about 8 or 10 before the new ships arrived. In terms of deregulations, I can say we have improved a bit, but in terms of compliance, we are not making money.
If you look back at your time and now, sir, what will you say has changed in terms of standards, in terms of work ethics?
Look, let me be honest with you, you know we met old ships. Most of those ships I showed you their pictures had no air-conditioners. When you go to Sapele, you had to put on wire guz on your windows so that mosquitoes don’t come in. Once you get to Las Palmas, you start to take anti-malaria drugs. Then the modern ships came and it was all five star hotel on board. And because the ships stay long in port, you have time to go out to do a lot of things. Imagine we go to Russia, we come to Sapele or Warri and stay a month in port. But now, there’s quick turn around in port. Two days in the port and you’re gone. Three days, you’re off. And the security is tighter, you can’t bring visitors in and out of the ship. In those days, we used to do parties on board. Then, deregulation is now strengthened as far as shipping is concerned. There are now modern equipment to discharge cargo. There is screening of people coming on board. You now spend short time on board. During our time, you can do two years. So, deregulation is tighter now, but in terms of enjoying the job, the enjoyment is no more there.
For instance, in Nigeria, NIMASA is having problems with owners of ships. When the owners do not get employment, you can’t force them to make life comfortable on board. A ship that is laid up, no job, just there, doing nothing. We used to import fuel a lot and we used to produce oil in Nigeria so you have a lot of coastal tankers in operation. But now that it’s less importation, the jobs are no more there, all these services are no longer there and we don’t have international going ships. And our people, are we sea men? No, but we claim to be. Remember, we are Nigerians and we love home. A typical seaman should be able to just go away, sail away for years. I told you I was in a liner train, U’K west Africa continent, Europe West Africa, then, I was on a tramp where we go all over the world. For that period of eleven months, we didn’t set foot on Nigerian soil. But some people were fed up, the wanted to go home. You couldn’t reach the family, it was very expensive, only the Captain could do that. You had to rely on letters. So, in terms of deregulations, yes, there has been improvement. But in terms of compliance, the ship owners are not making money like before. And now, there is modernisation, technology has come to play. Loading of cargo is no more manual, its now with technology. If you go to a smart port, you won’t see anybody, its just the machines that will be doing the work.
What has been government’s support to the maritime sector in the last few years?
There’s been absolutely no support. I told you before, NIMASA was stake holders idea, Nigerian Shippers Council was stake holders idea, government hijacked them and made them government agencies. The people had dreams, they had plans to support themselves, but the government hijacked it and used it as a cash cow, and as we speak, they have not given the ship owners loan. The whole idea behind this was to develop the industry. It wasn’t part of the law, it was a levy that stake holders suggested and volunteered to do and then government hijacked it. They have been collecting this money for years. And instead of using the money to do the right things, they are using the money for jamboree. But people like us are saying no, because we were there from the beginning and we are still here. Maybe people like Agbakoba, he needs to go to court for us. What an impunity! There is no deliberate action on the part of government as a serious nation and that is the challenge the blue economy wanted to address, to do this thing in a sustainable way, so that we can leave something for our children coming behind. Even the few policies that we are making, are they being monitored? Are they being done the right way? Where are the Research grants for the Maritime professors to work with? It is sad.
What is the state of our sea port roads and the congestion that has become a regular feature at our ports?
It is horrible. The port corridors are in shambles. Go to mile 2, from here (Oduduwa road) to second Rainbow, its all market. This place took us 20 something years to clean up, this very corridor we are in. But now, from Liverpool to second rainbow, its all become a market place. They have done the roads but there are obstructions on the way. Okada going in the opposite direction. In fact, ontop of mile 2 is half road. On one side, they are loading and discharging, on the other side, market has taken one, then the buses dropping and picking people have taken one. Those three lanes are all taken over. And there are area boys robbing vehicles. Many people don’t come to Apapa again. They have done one side, the other side is free, but when you leave Ijora, going to Ijora-Olopa, its bad road. Going to national theatre is also bad road. And they also rob you there at night.
And how about congestion at the ports, I know this has been a recurring problem at the ports for very many years running now
Listen, there is what we call punchy. If the ships coming are not allowed to come and discharge because there’s no where to keep cargo, the ones in the port have not been evacuated, you won’t have issues of congestion. But when you have many ships outside waiting for days to come inside, instead of them to come, discharge and go away, do a quick turn around, which is where ships make money, only ships moving at sea earn money while the ship in port is spending money. So, when many ships queue outside, that’s congestion. So, we have the port concession, now exigency is pressured by individual ports and yet you have cargo in the port that cannot be evacuated, so they are charging the agents. They are moving them to holding bay, creating dry ports and the rest, that was the spirit. There is a lot of risks we are taking that we are not even paying attention to when you have situations like this at your port and one of them is the infiltration of arms, it is something every nation must be wary of because I have witnessed it first hand overrun many countries.
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