SILHOUTTE: How Criminal Governance System Crippled N50b NIMASA Floating Dock (1)

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

That the NIMASA Floating Dock is steadily assuming a fairy tale like its sister CVFF (Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund) is not farfetched!

This article sets out to examine the facts of the above claim which society is free to juxtapose with the arguments of government spin doctors and their payers.

Rattled by industry stakeholders’ exasperation about the fate of the floating dock, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy and the new Director General NIMASA, Adegboyega Oyetola CON and Dr. Dayo Mobereola, respectively, about a week ago assured that this government will deliver on the Fund’s disbursement.

However, the industry has received such promises and assurances in the past ten years, making it commonplace in view of its emptiness and consistent failures.

Since our politicians have proven overtime to being essentially the same except in their names, not few operators and observers have resolved to adopt the ‘wait and see…sit down look’ attitude.

Operators have said without mincing words that the mismanagement of the NIMASA Floating Dock represents the worst possible leadership scenario that can befall any nation; and have not shined away from describing the failure as unspeakable and unpardonable.

To say that its bruises on our national psyche are only comparable to the manifold tales of the controversies, poor and underhand deals that dogged the administration of the facility is to say the least.

Perhaps, it is one national asset that clearly expressed, or better said, provided a telling highlight of our notoriety in the running of a governance system; under an indifferent, permissive national outlook.

Our editor Eguono Odjegba will in this series take a closer look into this money guzzling contrivance and to identify the scenarios and fault lines; plus the enabling atmosphere and the characters involved.

HISTORY

The floating dock project initiated by NIMASA in 2014 was aimed at ensuring that ships calling the Nigerian ports are able to undertake their repairs maintenance here, including those operating domestic and offering local services.

Whereas the country stands the chance of increasing its foreign earnings there from, we are also able to avoid the consequential capital flights arising from dry docking local vessels outside the country; and or losing huge foreign exchange from foreign ships which on arrival to Nigeria ports are forced to sail to neigbhouring states to undertake repairs.

On paper, those who initiated the CVFF project were upbeat about its long term positive economic impact and sensing that it would be a fantastic project and a game changer, gingerly announced its arrival to Lagos on July 2018.  The then Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, an APC (All Progressive Congress) party stalwart  bragged about the economic and diplomatic turning point the floating dock will afford Nigeria.

Although insiders account revealed that the idea was actually conceived by the administration of Mr. Patrick Ziakade Akpobolokemi under President Goodluck Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led government, except that Akpobolokemi was swept away aftermath of the 2015 presidential election won by APC; and was inadvertently replaced by Peterside.

Commenting on the arrival of the asset, frontline shipping magnate and then President of Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN), Engr. Greg Ogbeifun, noted  that a functional dry dockyard would bolster Nigeria’s port trade by providing dry docking services to hundreds of foreign vessels calling the our ports on yearly basis.

Ogbeifun further noted that the development will halt the loss of an estimated N180 billion annually to neighbouring countries providing dry docking operation to vessels unable to dry dock in Nigeria.

ARRIVAL

Fortunately and unfortunately, the NIMASA Floating Dock sailed to Nigeria dead-on-arrival as it became apparent that it had no prepared berthing jetty. Its precarious fate was such that its owner like irresponsible parents sooner tired of its arrival and the care it desired and became indifferent to its wellbeing or purpose.

Like an unwanted child, to avoid prying public interest, the leadership of NIMASA sought a roundabout way to get rid of her by engaging in a number of unserious and ‘anyhow’ adoption plans; thus tossing her from one incompetent and unwilling foster home to another.

In a record five years, NIMASA Floating Dock passed from  Nigerian Ports Authority partially owned Continental Ship Yard (Dolphine Jetty) to Standard Flour Mills Jetty, to J. Marine Logistics, and later to Melsmore Marine Nigeria Limited. The latter however spilled the bean saying it was being inconvenienced by NIMASA.

It turned out that the immediate past DG NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, obviously adept at the dribbling game in this particular case, was fingered of seeking avenue to hide the facility from the public glare to avoid questioning and the inevitable embarrassment it had exposed the Agency’s inability to deploy the asset that has suffered visible wearing, neglect and state of disrepair.

NIMASA had in its ploy to continue to deceive the general public about the actual state of the facility in terms of its functional status, lied that it had entered a deal with Melsmore Marine Nigeria Limited to operate the dockyard on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

As event would have it, Melsmore Marine Nigeria Limited, supposedly playing the role of the technical partner spoke out to put the lie back in NIMASA mouth, and disclosed that the asset has become moribund and hence a liability if accepted.

That was the state of the asset as at the time Jamoh served out his four year tenure and disengaged from NIMASA in March 2024. The facility has deteriorated so much under the weather and administrative neglect that those who allegedly showed interest in taking her on were unable to tow her to their platform.

CONCEPTUAL DEFAULT

It would appear that the NIMASA Floating Dock trouble stated at the conception level resulting serious project design conflict.  While the Akpobolokemi administration under the PDP led government specifically designed the dockyard for use in the Niger Delta, he had been removed from office before he had time to make payment. His successor, Peterside of the APC, for own reason continued with the purchase and was believed to have made the payment upon which delivery was made in 2018, two years after the project idea was hatched.

But no sooner the facility arrived Nigeria than narrow politicking which appeared to have been smouldering underground, hissed out in loud protest; and emphatically repudiated and opposed Delta Port in the original design as operational base.

Whereas Lagos Port which the powers that be settled for didn’t seem to have the required operational paraphernalia, the default was the beginning of whole lots of challenges, administrative, technical, business and otherwise.

It was obvious that the change in operational location created an unexpected gap and with it some element of emotional disorientation and sudden lack of vitality and focus; the seeming disillusionment brought on its wake an atmosphere of nonchalance, as the asset suffered lack of attention and maintenance stretching more than a year.

This was even as the facility had spent almost two years in Nigeria without been deployed. In the midst of the confusion, experts informed that its neglect had manifested a number of critical disconnect one of which was the issue of her state of sea worthiness. Those whose business it is to know revealed that to ensure that a ship is sea worthy, it must be dry docked twice in at least five years.

WRONG DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP MOU

Then came a major worry that the controversial dockyard was off specification. It started like a rumour but gradually gained force and with a loud thud, the charge became official; not from just any quarter but from those whose business it is to know.

In March 2021, the Association of Marine Engineers and Surveyors (AMES) raised the alarm that the N50bn Floating Dock was becoming derelict, even as the group informed that she been removed from the Lloyd’s Registers Class because it has not been surveyed in the past three years.

AMES President, Engineer Yinka Okunade claimed that the ship manufactured by Damen Shipyards Gorinchem of Netherlands in 2016, which arrived Nigeria in 2018 was out of class due to non evaluation.

When the outcry became strident, Jamoh talked Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman, then Managing Director of NPA into a hurried partnership deal in which it was agreed that Continental Shipyard, belonging to NPA should serve as temporary operational base for the troubled floating dockyard.

However experts raised the alarm that the deal was incompetent and fraudulent, informing that NPA lacked the competence to successfully manage the facility.

Speaking his concerns in news reports, Governing Council Member of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), and Chairman of NCCF Shipping & Logistics Group, Mr. Mina Oforiokuma queried the competence of the deal and advised NIMASA to hand-over the floating dock to an experienced and reputable private sector shipyard operator.

“The floating dock is a positive initiative and we commend NIMASA for the project. However, only an experienced private sector operator can make this project commercially viable and sustainable.”

He argued that the dockyard will perform satisfactorily if contracted on Operate-Maintain-Transfer (OMT) basis.

“I disagree with the partnership between NPA and NIMASA on the floating dock because it is like two blind men leading each other. Who is going to see first? NPA and NIMASA are government regulatory agencies that both lack the technical capacity to operate such a business.

“These agencies should not get distracted by attempting to become maritime operators overnight. Marine operations are a highly specialized sector that professionals should carry out with proven expertise and skills, and we cannot reinvent the wheel,” he said.

…READ THE CONTINUATION ON FRIDAY