December 2017 – Page 3 – Shipping World News Magazine

Dec102017 by Our EditorNo Comments

What Buhari must do to help himself

Opinion

By Dele Sobowale He, who speaks without modesty, will find it difficult to make his words good.” Confucius, 551-479BC, Chinese philosopher. …. He also runs the risk of making a mockery of himself. He was, and self-advertised, as a man who would come into office to fight corruption and deal with anyone found to be corrupt without fear or favour. On that promise, millions of Nigerians campaigned and voted for him. I did in 2011, when Lai Mohammed, his current Minister of Information was still a spokesman for a defunct political party called ACN. In the months leading to the 2011 elections, Lai was the arrowhead of Buhari’s adversaries who told us that the man was “too old” (among other deficiencies they alleged) to lead Nigerians. Four years after, the same Lai, the spokesman of th...

Dec92017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Amaechi, Ship Owners Fight Dirty over N100b Vessel Financing Fund

Breaking News, Business, Maritime

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi on Thursday announced that he will not disburse the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF), dashing the hopes and expectation of indigenous ship owners, who have been waiting for the disbursement of the fund for more than a decade. This is even as the ship owners demanded the sack of Dakuku Peterside as Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for his incompetence in running the affairs of the agency. Amaechi told a gathering of ship owners and key stakeholders who converged at a workshop and dinner organized by the Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) that as long as he remains the minister, the fund will not be disbursed. The CVFF which currently stands at over $100billion was created solely...

Dec72017 by Our EditorNo Comments

NIMASA NSDP: UK University Graduates 59 Nigerian Cadets

Breaking News, Education, Maritime

…As four Bag First Class Honours, Dakuku Hails Capacity Growth The Capacity Building initiative of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) through the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) has again received another boost as 59 of the beneficiaries have graduated from the Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom. This brings it to a total number of 1,343 graduates of the scheme since its inception from the various institutions in United Kingdom, Egypt, Romania and Philippines. At the graduation ceremony which held in the United Kingdom recently, 4 of the students graduated with a 1st Class, while 36 of them had 2nd Class (Division 1) degrees and others graduated with various grades. Speaking on this development, the Director General of the Ni...

Dec72017 by Asu BeksNo Comments

NIMASA did not spend anything close to N300m at IMO Election…Bashir Jamoh

Maritime, Politics

Mallam Bashir Jamoh , Executive Director Finance and Administration at NIMASA, has said the maritime press goofed over claims that the agency spent a whooping N300m at the just concluded IMO Council meeting. ' I think the media got it all wrong. What NIMASA spent for the entire trip and the campaign was far less than N300m being peddled by the media', he said. It would be recalled that Nigerian for the third consecutive year failed to secure a seat in Category 'C' of the recent IMO Council Election in which five African countries got elected. African countries which came out at the election include Liberia, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa and Egypt. The loss was a huge dent on Nigeria's status as the current Chairman of African Maritime Administrators. Jamoh explained given Nigeria'...

Dec72017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Kano welcomes President Buhari in Grand Style

Politics

President Muhammadu Buhari arrived Kano on Wednesday for a two-day official visit to the state. Mr. Buhari was received at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, members of the State Executive Council, Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, traditional rulers as well as politicians, among others. A mammoth crowd was also at the airport and along the major streets in the metropolis, giving the president a rousing welcome. The president is expected to inaugurate a number of projects executed by the Ganduje administration during the visit. Among the projects are the ultra-modern Specialist Hospital, Giginyu, named after him; a Paediatric Hospital located on Zoo Road, Kano; and the underpass bridge at Madobi/Panshekara Junction. On the second day, the P...

Dec72017 by Our EditorNo Comments

It’s time to focus on governance and stop blaming Jonathan — Amaechi

Breaking News, Business

The Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, has admonished his colleagues in the Muhammadu Buhari administration to stop blaming former President Goodluck Jonathan. Mr. Amaechi said it is time for administration officials to concentrate on delivering good policies to the citizens rather than dragging the former president for Nigeria’s woes. “I agree with those who said we should stop criticising the last government and that we should do our own,” The Nation newspaper quoted Mr. Amaechi as saying during a meeting at his office Tuesday. The minister decried Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit, drawing a comparison with other relatively new countries like Singapore. “We need to leverage on what we know. People are shouting intermodal transport; I went to the new airport in Singapo...

Dec62017 by Asu BeksNo Comments

Retraction

Maritime

On Saturday Dec 2, the online edition of Shipping World Magazine published a story captioned ' IMO COUNCIL ELECTIONS:NIMASA returns without the 'Trophy' in which we inadvertently quoted Mr Ferdinand Agu as having remarked that 'politicians don't have an idea what the maritime sector is all about' He had asked rhetorically, 'how can you contract maritime safety and security to a private company when the Navy is there?. The said remark was made by a former Director General of NIMASA who craved for anonymity and not Mr Agu as implied in the report. We have since realised that the comment was wrongfully attributed to Ferd Agu, who was a Director General of the National Maritime Authority, NMA and not NIMASA. Our error is regretted

Dec62017 by Asu BeksNo Comments

Customs Burst Another Car Smuggling Syndicate, Seize 64 Bulletproof SUVs

Breaking News

Anti-smuggling operations of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NSC), Ikeja, Lagos, rose to a crescendo in the month of November when the unit intercepted contraband goods worth N2.5billion. The smuggled items include 64 assorted vehicles of two bullet-proof Lexus Jeep, one bullet proof Toyota Land Cruiser, nine Toyota Hilux, eight Toyota Hilux buses, 26 Toyota Corolla, nine Land Cruiser Jeep. Others include five Toyota Camry, one Land Rover, one Nissan Sentra, one Pajero Jeep, one Sienna 2015 model and one Lexus RX 350. The seizures, all 2017 models, were intercepted through intelligence and have a combined Duty Paid Value of N1.4 billion. According to the Customs Area Controller, Mohammed U. G, who stated this at a Press Briefing, 57 of the vehic...

Dec42017 by Asu BeksNo Comments

Onne Port Without INTELS : Is this an omelette without eggs?

Breaking News, Opinion

About twenty years, a handful of colleagues and I went on a visit to a mass of virgin swamp at Onne. We were taken on that visit by Engineer Wali Ahmed who remains in history as the best MD the Nigerian Ports Authority ever had . The visit was a follow up to an MoU the NPA had entered into with NICOTES Nig Ltd on a Build , Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. It was a mass of very difficult terrain isolated by ponds. We had to park our buses several meters away to enable us access the land by foot. My colleagues and I wondered why any right-thinking businessman would take such a risk in ploughing his hard earned resources in a venture which to many of us did not look realistic. But these officials looked optimistic as they took time to explain the great potential this virgin forest had in...

Dec32017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Ogoni Clean-Up and Rivers Politics

Opinion

-By Senator Magnus Abe A lot of Nigerians have called me to request that I condemn Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike’s charge that the Ogoni clean-up is a political project, and I said no I would not condemn the governor for saying what he said. I will rather thank him. He is doing what the opposition should do in a democracy. The governor is a member of the opposition People’s Democratic Part (PDP). Like I said to the governor when we exchanged pleasantries after his remarks, “if it is a political project then you have fired the first shot”. The ruling All Progressives Congress to which I, and President Muhammadu Buhari, the true facilitator and greatest advocate for the clean up of Ogoniland both belong should fire our own shot and it needs not be in throwing tantrums over the gove...