OLAYIWOLA SHITTU: Why Scanners in the ports may never work!

A Nigerian Maritime Industry expert, and the immediate past president of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu at the weekend observed, that until those currently benefiting from the non-usage of the scanners in the ports are taken care of, not only will the scanners remain idly unserviceable, even also, some other vital infrastructure too.

“Those who are benefitting would not allow anything to work, because the maritime industry is a fat cow and everybody goes there to milk! And that is why people who are privileged, government officials, and government agencies may do anything or pay any amount, to be posted to the ports”, Shittu voiced to the Maritime First, noting also the selfish ambition of many to take advantage of the port industryby cutting corners.

“They aren’t going there to go and work because it is our father’s land. Most people are not going there to work because it is our father’s land. Rather, everybody is looking for an opportunity.

“Nobody works for government as far as the Maritime is concerned everybody is looking for an opportunity. And, it is Maritime Industry that, apart from government employments, as a private sector, Maritime Industry has turned out to be the largest employer of labour; even much more than the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), because MAN members may be actually difficult to produce. But, because the port is where somebody can just carry a briefcase and walk in, pose as an operator; there are no checks and balances, and walks away with money; and people don’t want to know how he works, or how manage! The place is an open field!

“I have said it times without number. I should stop saying it, because there are other players in the field now; when you talk for long, you have to let other people talk too. When you go the port, what are you going there to do? If you go the port, as a journalist, you have a job to do and if your job is to gather information in order to inform the public, you go to get the information and go back. You won’t go to APM terminal, for example, and loiter around the terminal, everyday!

“Or, if you don’t go there for one day, it is like the whole world is going to end.

“Go to Cotonou here, that is a port very close to us; when I was the president, we’ve been to South Africa, we’ve been to India. If you go to their ports, when you get there, you can’t see the number of crowd you see around the Nigerian Ports!

“And should you asked them: ‘what are you?’ the latest nomenclature is: ‘I’m a freight forward worker’ What are you forwarding and freighting?