The Arrowhead of the Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN), Engr. Greg Ogbeifun needs no introduction; CEO of the STARZS Group at home and an appointee of the Commonwealth abroad, the GC took 100 minutes, off his busy schedule, fielding questions; talking on NIMASA, ship building growing the economy, to not only why the newly created Shipping Forum has technically excluded none-ship owners, but also to why the Forum may not fight the Government! 

Excerpt please :-

Why did ship owners agree to come under one roof; is it because you were afraid of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi or the Government he represents? 

May be I should start by asking you: do you think it is a good idea for the fragments of ship owners to come together? The new body is not an association. It is a forum.

After the formation of the ship-owners forum, the qualification only says: Shipowners or ship owning members of the Nigerian Ship-owners Association (NISA) and Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) , and then also, any ship owners who may not belong to any of those associations; but is properly registered with NIMASA.

I think that says if all. It’s not about NISA or about SOAN. It is all about ship owners. And that is just as simple as it is. Anybody who however decides to begin to make issues out of it is simply being mischievous.

The forum is not like “if you don’t belong to NISA or you don’t belong to SOAN, then you cannot be part of it. No.

It is about ship owners, and there are many ship owners in this country, who currently don’t belong to SOAN, nor do they belong to NISA; but who, are still operating their fleet, properly, efficiently; and making the industry proud in their own little endeavour.

You cannot disenfranchise them.

Greg Ogbeifun

Now, to come to your question, the Hon. Minister in his own characteristic way, and in a desire to solve several problems in very short time, advised in this direction.

But why must the instruction come from the Minister? 

We, the ship owners are our own problem.

You must understand that some people had gone to the Ministry, to tell him that there is a problem amongst ship owners. And some of them are associated with the ship owning association. So, having duly poisoned the mind of the minister, through the Permanent Secretary, that there is serious division, it was subsequently, the wise thing for him to do, to say ‘Look, you people should get together, and speak with one voice’.

I think it is a very wise suggestion; otherwise, he would have a meeting with SOAN, and hear one thing; have another meeting with NISA, hear another different thing, have a meeting with another group, and hear totally another thing!

Under such regime, what counsel do you think he would take? So, from my own perspective, I think it was the best counsel; coming from the minister.

In any case, he was not the first person to suggest this. Do you know the elderly Capt. Adewale?

He called me once; and he said “Greg, all these happening is not in the industry’s overall best interest. Why don’t you people come together and speak with one voice?”

It is a very good counsel.

So, it was at the instance of the Minister’s counsel; Aminu Umar, the NISA Acting President was there; I was also there; Temisan Omatseye was there and Mrs. Orakwusi was there; Chief Jolapamo was there. Several of us were there.  And Jolapamo agreed that ship owners should come together.

It was there and then, that Aminu, myself and Temisan Omatseye told the Hon. Minister,  “there is no problem in the house”. It is merely a question of understanding. I wish my friend and brother, Capt. Labinjo was there too. We could have held hands in one accord to convince him there was really no problem.

But at that point, somebody stood up and told the Hon. Minister, “No, there is problem.” It was in bad blood. The remark took us to square one; and so, we agreed that those of us who were there should come together, and to convince the minister that all was well, we booked a hall, met and flagged off the current progress. The only condition however was that; if you are talking of ship owners, then, they have to be ship owners.

I have explained this before. The fundamental issue here or difference between SOAN, and NISA is that SOAN is exclusively, a ship ownership association.

If you don’t own ships, or have a trade record of owning or managing ships, or enjoy the good recognition of your clients, with evidence; then you just cannot come there.

It is not enough to merely buy a ship.

Conversely however, the NISA is an association of ship owners and none-ship owners!

The statutes forming NISA allows for that. But the statute forming SOAN does not allow for none ship owners to be members!

Now, there is no conflict between the two bodies. So, when subsequently that meeting was held; and the ship-owning members of NISA and SOAN members agreed ‘let’s come under one umbrella’. In the name of ship owners’ forum, it was collectively agreed. And it was also agreed that, the decision was without prejudice. So, that each association continues to exist, and operate according to the statutes that established them.

So, no one loses its rights of existence or identity, by belonging to forum. So, what it means is that if we are going to meet Government together, we can meet the Government- so that we can talk, without discordant tunes.

It would however be a matter for regret if any persons under the present, absolutely open situation, begin to read wrong meanings into it.

While the industry watchers may not be seeing any problems within the Ship owners Forum, the same cannot be said of NISA. So, how can you speak with one single, strong voice,  which was your original mission? 

Some of us have given counsel, to those of us we can talk with, including my friend, Labinjo. He is an elderly person. If an issue comes up, fortunately I do not know the details; what they should do, was lock themselves up in a room; talk about it, and solve it.

Honestly, this idea of coming out to wash the dirty linens outside before the public, doesn’t help the cause of the shipping industry or anybody. It doesn’t.

I know it doesn’t affect us directly; but we must recognize we are all friends and brothers!

So, if you perceived any dichotomy, it may be between a faction of NISA; and another faction of NISA. But then I may agree with you, that in view of our original mission, it is not good.

You are all professionals. Why should such a problem exist, especially in a sector so critical to the nation’s economy?

It is bound to exist. You cannot have a Nigeria Bar Association [NBA] which should be an association of lawyers, whose executives constitutes lawyers and none-lawyers! You can’t see it, anywhere in the world. And that is the problem with NISA.

In NISA, ship owners and none ship owners would sit together; and none Shipowners would be dictating and quoting statutes of what should happen in a ship owners’ association.

There is bound to be problem under such arrangements. it is a fundamental problems. And how it may be solved, I don’t know.

So, with that in mind, you can now have a better understand the genesis of the Ship owner’s Forum! And it is a good initiative for the purpose of ship-owners fruitfully engaging government in productive talks.

 Now, if the Minister of Transportation says  he wants everybody in one boat; and somebody outside the boat is attempting to pull out, another already sitting comfortably, what would the Forum do?  Would it simply pretend to be blind, deaf and dumb or protect the boat from going under?

If there is a wrong person in the boat, he should simply get out. But, if there is the right person in the boat, then there is no problem.

But then, why should anybody want to pull out? If you are not a ship owner, then you are not a ship owner!

Who is a ship owner? Or better put, how do I know a ship owner in Nigeria? 

You are a journalist. It is easy to check; go to NIMASA and ask for their records.

I am a ship owner and I’m a ship repairer. If you visit our platform, I can freely show you our structures and ships.

In fact, I will let you see what we are doing, including how much tax we pay over time. Our compilation shows that in the last five years, we have paid over N753million as tax alone, by our company, alone.

We have contributed almost $1m into the CVFF alone; we have a very robust cadetship training program; but then, that is the least we are supposed to do!

You cannot just be a ship owner on mouth. You must be employing people; you must be training; you must be contributing to industry progress!

That is why everyone agrees that the maritime and shipping industry add a huge economic advantage to every nation.

Britain said last year, that it’s maritime sector contributed £11bn to the British economy. How? It’s via your tax; and several other things like that.

So the only way we can be making our mouth that the shipping sector can do this, is if we individually come together as ship owners, collate what each shipping company have paid as tax over a period of time, say five years; identify the amount and confront the government with such realistic and verifiable figures to convince the government of our sector’s importance, through our financial contributions towards the economy!

I often laugh today when I read the papers and see the people shouting about the CVFF. They are often people who have not contributed one dime, into the CVFF Coffer!

So what we have done in SOAN, is to ask every member in SOAN to come up with statistics of our CVFF contributions, since that act was established, the amount of tax your company has paid in the past five years, the numbers of people you are employing; because as ship owners, you should be able to tell Government; look we ship owners are employing a hundred people; and thus, helping to reduce the unemployment situation in this country.

We should also be able to say; of the CVFF, this is what we have contributed. And of training; this is what we have contributed, look at the number of cadets we have trained; we should speak with statistics backedby verifiable data.

That is what in my opinion, we should be doing, so that the Government can take the body seriously.

I will advise the NISA group to do the same thing. Facts are sacred. We need to confront the government with such facts. And that may become our true strength! President Buhari will take us more seriously, if we are able to give a good figure, in terms of our paid tax, than mere talks! Right now, Government sees us as a people frequently blowing hot air!

—CONTINUES TOMORROW… Please