NIMASA Boss Blames Wrong Priority For Transportation Woes

The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi, has identified wrong placement of priorities as the reason for collapsed infrastructure in the nation’s transport sector.

He made the remarks when council members of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), led by its President, Professor Michael Filani, paid him a courtesy visit in his office at Maritime House, Apapa, Lagos.

Akpobolokemi, who decried the rot in the transport sector occasioned by bad roads and collapsed rail system, said the sector was too important to be neglected, noting that transportation is the hub of development, whether viewed economically or socially.

He, therefore, urged the CILT to partner with all stakeholders in ensuring that this trend is reversed.

Stressing that transportation moves and shapes the world economy, he said “the world is united because transportation bridges the space and time barriers. If you kill transportation, it is like you are killing life and this is why the transport sector is too important to be relegated to the background. Even with the digital revolution, transportation still remains a key element of development because of its movement of people and goods from one point to another.”

Akpobolokemi, who observed that the institute should be in the forefront of setting agenda on policy thrusts that will assist government in developing the transport sector, said that if the people are enlightened on the inherent opportunities in the sector, more jobs would certainly be created, thereby reducing poverty and crime rate in the country.

While thanking the CILT Members of Council for their visit, the DG stressed that NIMASA will continue to partner the institute in the area of capacity building, which is a key component of the agency’s four-point agenda.

Earlier in an address, Filani had acknowledged NIMASA’s support to the CILT over the years and solicited for enhanced cooperation in the area of standardisation of dockworkers training and Cabotage enforcement.

He also solicited for NIMASA’s assistance in carrying out its programmes, especially the CILT Africa Forum, to be hosted in Nigeria in February 2012, in which 16 African and some European countries are expected to participate.