24th July, 2012
Former Managing Director of the defunct Nigerian National Shipping Lines (NNSL), Mr. Gerald Chidi, has said that the demise of NNSL was caused by “negative government interference”.
According to Chidi, with the 100 per cent acquisition of the company in 1961 by the Nigerian government, which was hitherto operated on a 51 per cent share owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria and 49 per cent share owned by two British companies as technical partners, Elder Dempster Line Limited and Palm Line Limited, there was no longer a deliberate government policy to protect and support the line.
He equally noted that that the bureaucratic process in government was also responsible for the death of NNSL.
“The company and government could not react without delay to situations dictated by market and technological changes or development in the trade. Chidi, who is also a former Group Managing Director of Aeromaritime Group, while describing the liquidation of NNSL by the government of General Sanni Abacha as ill-advised said that frequent changes of supervisory ministers and Managing Directors of NNSL are equally responsible to the death of the shipping line which he said was a pride of the nation.
“Regular changes in the headship of the Federal Ministry of Transport and the company brought inconsistency in the focus and vision of the company. For instance, during my tenure as the Managing Director of the Company from 1990 to 1993, I worked under four Ministers of Transport and my successor (1993-1995) also served under four Ministers of Transport and every Minister had his own ideas.
It must be acknowledged, however, that genuine effort made by government in 1994 through direct cash injection into the company for settling creditors and upgrading the ships ironically pushed the last nail on the company’s coffin because of avarice of some officials of the company in collaboration with others outside the company.
—Sola Falobi