The Federal Government on Thursday inaugurated the governing board of the Nigerian Ports Authority.
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who inaugurated the board in a controlled ceremony in Abuja, charged members of the team not to run a parallel government.
“It is important you work with the management. It is important you realise you are not the management; you are a board,” the minister said.
He further tasked the new board to ensure smooth operations at the ports.
“We are in unusual times but we cannot afford to shut our seaports. Activities must continue,” Amaechi stated.
The newly inaugurated NPA Board Chairman, Akin Ricketts, observed that the eastern corridor seaports were underutilised and must be made to function optimally.
He noted that the intractable congestion at the Lagos ports must be dealt with as a major challenge and pledged the board’s full cooperation to enable the NPA to deal with the challenges.
Ricketts said, “The major issues confronting our ports today are capacity utilisation and evacuation corridors.
“While the ports in the East are grossly underutilised due to many factors, the efficiency of the ports in Lagos is hampered by inadequate evacuation corridors that lead to congestion on the road, which ultimately affects prompt service delivery.
“This is a challenge that we intend to confront head-on in conjunction with other stakeholders, with a view to ameliorating the sufferings of port users and easing business in the port.”
He added, “We will ensure that we give every issue and matter that comes to our attention the consideration it deserves and deal with it fairly and objectively, without favour or ill will.”
Other newly inaugurated members of the board include Mohammed Koko, Onari Brown, Binki Garba, John Udoidighe, Abdullwahab Adeshina, Ghazali Mohammed, Mustapha Aminu-Dutse and Idris Abubakar.
