Plot Against Hadiza, MD, NPA Uncovered

Why some concessionaires want to discredit NPA leadership

 ANLCA, NAGAFF write Buhari over corruption in Nigerian Ports

Disturbed by the leadership posture of the current management of NPA, led by Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman, especially over the recovery of the huge indebtedness of port concessionaires and payment of royalties in dollar denomination, some port concessionaires have commenced plot to create chaos in the port system and smear Hadiza’s image and ultimately unseat her.

The concessionaires, MMS Plus gathered have enlisted the services of some media agents to always churn out information capable of creating disaffection in the system and create bad-blood in the port sector.

Recall that on assumption of duty, Hadiza stated that their mandate was to block revenue leakages, enforce efficiency, transparency and accountability.

Debt profile assessment in NPA revealed that the authority is being owed over N30billion by terminal operators and some other operators. Some of the concessionaires even denied owing NPA despite evidence to prove otherwise.

Hadiza has equally frowned at the fact that many of the concessionaires breach the concession agreement flagrantly and further insisted that they have to remit their throughput fees and other levies in dollar denomination as stipulated in the concession agreement.

Consequently, she directed the NPA’s account section to recover the debts so as to boost the nation’s revenue profile and urged debtors to pay up or face sanction.

Many of the concessionaires are also contesting the NPA’s right to charge Value Added Tax (VAT) on services provided by the authority.

It is therefore not surprising to some industry stakeholders and observers why there is an orchestrated plan to derail the vision of the NPA leadership by creating distraction and laying landmines.

Our findings revealed that while there is a gang-up among some concessionaires against Hadiza and the leadership NPA, a particular concessionaire has made it a part of its corporate plan to rubbish the leadership integrity of NPA, so as to remain on top of competition.

As one of the strategies, their media agents have crafted some media reports, one of which is insinuating NPA’s protection for the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) because the estranged spouse of Hadiza, Mr. Tanimu Yakubu is a member of LADOL’s Pioneer Technical Advisory Board. Tanimu was the Chief Economic Adviser to the then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

Many maritime industry observers have written this off as a mere mischief aimed at impugning the leadership credibility of the NPA team.

In another development, the freight forwarding associations have given the Federal Government  and the entire public a 21 notice of service withdrawal from the nations port, starting from Monday 20th March,2017  within which the deluge of operational encumbrances inimical to trade facilitation are expected to be addressed.

The two major freight forwarding groups in  separate press statements last week urged the Federal Government to urgently address cases of corruption and arbitrary price increase in terminal and cargo handling services in the port.

Rising from its two-day 2017 National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, the Association of Nigerian Licensed  Customs Agents (ANLCA) listed the problems against cargo clearance in Nigerian ports, saying,    “ That the Nigeria Customs Service, as the prime statutory agency at the ports engages in a practice that is tantamount to approbating and reprobating. The Nigeria Customs Service issues the Pre -Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), undertakes the assessment and subsequently release of cargoes from the ports, with the multiplicity of units in the clearance chain which are unnecessarily encumbered by incessant alerts and arbitrary jack up of customs duties which is not in compliance with the international valuation principles (which is in the general Agreement on Tariff and Trade (Article VII GATT) as domesticated into valuation Acts) and then constitute units that intercept the same duly exited cargoes within 500 meters radius of the ports.

“That where underpayments of customs duty are alleged, the service unilaterally blocks (suspends) the Customs Agents licenses which is not in tandem with section 154 of customs and exercise management act (CEMA), adding, “ the ports concessionaires engage in arbitrary increases of terminal charges without recourse to the proviso in the concessioning agreement which states that, stakeholders must be consulted before such increase are made.”

According to ANLCA,  shipping agencies who are ordinarily the local representative of the shipping lines also engage in arbitrary increase and introduction of multiple charges outside the approval by the Nigerian Shippers Council, while the Nigeria police force has abandoned their statutory role of .providing security  at the ports, to engage in stoppage  of cargo delivery at shipping companies and terminals under the  guise of conducting investigation.

They observed that the “must settle me” syndrome in the activities of such other agencies as DSS, NDLEA, Plant Quarantine, etc has exacerbated the corrupt tendencies in the maritime industry,even as the  Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON),though with a lofty and patriotic agenda of minimising the entry of sub -standard goods into the country, appears to have abandoned its statutory role of a regulator and is now a revenue generating agency through imposition of high charges for her services.

The  National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders(NAGAFF) in its letter addressed to President Mohammed Buhari noted its grievances, saying, “It is with deep sense of patriotism as professionals to inform you that over time we have made several efforts to draw the attention of schedule officers in the various ministries who have their officers deployed to the ports and border stations as to the need to stem corrupt acts in our entry points.