Face off Looms as FG Orders Lagos to Hands off Inland Waterways

*Says it’s NIWA’s responsibility

The federal government on Tuesday in Abuja, ordered the Lagos
state government to as a matter of urgency hands off the waterways
in the state, noting that it is the responsibilities of the
Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) to oversee the
sector.

Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who
gave this order while featuring on a television programme monitored
by THISDAY, revealed that Lagos state government did not have any
right on the Inland waterways.

Amaechi said the Constitution was clear on the issue and that
the law was clear on the ownership structure but, “when there is a
vacuum it has to be filled so Lagos state decided to fill
that.”

The minister stated that court had ruled that the federal
government must go back to claim that responsibility since it’s
theirs, adding that to do that, money can be provided from the
budget to buy more vessels and provide inland water services in
Lagos from Victoria Island for instance to Apapa which he said
would help reduce gridlock in the area.

“The law is very clear about the responsibility of management of
waterways, so why does Lagos state government want to take it from
NIWA? For me, I don’t think that port construction at the inland
waterways is the solution for now, we have done quite a lot,
Onitsha, Baru, Lokoja River port are ready and still under
utilised.

“What we should focus on is production, what we are doing at
ministry of transport is to provide the logistics to move and
transport your goods, so there is need to harp more on production,
because as you produce your goods you create wealth. That is what
China has been doing to move forward.”

He noted that there was also a need to do dredging on the
waterways and see how many people would be encouraged to move their
goods by water adding that this will create more employment.

He also stated that government needed to focus more on cargo
tracking, stressing that he was embarrassed at the last maritime
stakeholders meeting when almost all the stakeholders were
hammering on tracking, “I will try to present this at the cabinet
so that we can take cargo tracking off the ground,” Amaechi
said.

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