MARAN Tasks Tinubu On Excessive Spending, Friendlier Policies To Rejig Economy

BY GBOGBOWA GBOWA

The Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to get his administration to prune down on excessive spending, particularly on frivolous and wasteful pastimes, even as the group also tasked the president to reconsider adopting friendly approach in jumpstarting the economy in view of the prevailing harsh fiscal policies and its increased negative impact on the masses.

MARAN argued that whereas deploying harsh fiscal measures compressed into tight, short term template do not guarantee rapid recovery or fix the anticipated imbalances in the system; and recommended a gradual and holistic approach it believes will do the needful.

The media group said with an improved, conscientious cut down on unnecessary state spending by politicians and their appointees, the government can plug wastages and achieve a huge recovery that will be ploughed back into essential services; adding that it is insensitive to continue to engage in senseless reward of a political class that is already heavily overpaid.

The President of MARAN, Mr. Godfrey Bivbere who dropped above  concern in his welcome address during the group’s breakfast meeting held in Lagos on Wednesday with the theme, “Trade Facilitation and President Tinubu’s Economic Agenda: Matters Arising”, observed that whereas, President Tinubu’s administration had drawn up a purposeful recovery blueprint for the economy, some of the administration’s policy direction appeared to have assumed too combative posturing, with an inevitable backlashes .

The MARAN leader noted that the backlash has resulted major disruptions in the fiscal and macroeconomic system; while also causing distortions in the market.

His words: “That port inefficiency is a factor in trade facilitation. While trade facilitation presupposes the enabling elements in port trade and the cargo clearance value chain, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in 2023 in its report said the Nigerian maritime sector is in crisis, with inference to the country’s ranking at near bottom of the World Bank Ease of Doing Business indicators, in the cumulative prior years of assessment.

“Experts have also said that whereas trade facilitation focuses on effective application of procedures for minimizing cost burdens, by extension, by the same token it is also designed to optimize efficiency while protecting the efficacy of extant regulations and regulatory mandates.

“We in MARAN found a bit disturbing, a recent rating of port efficiency tabulation where Togo topped the subregion in areas of modernization, efficient port trade cost, vessels turnaround time, among other variables. MARAN is concerned that while Nigeria boast of very large port system with huge import inflow, a sizeable chunk of this cargo is diverted to neighbouring ports owing to their efficient services; while the same cargo find their way back to Nigeria, often via smuggling.”

He continued: “MARAN advises that the desire to rejig the national revenue system and jumpstart critical fiscal measures should not be compressed into a too tight short term template because of its disruptive reactions. A balancing must be sought, especially in view of the fact that the nation export base is still very weak, making us largely import dependent.

“A realistic middle of the way will be the best approach, if also, this government makes the genuine effort at reducing its alleged huge spending on frivolities and equally huge administrative overhead costs.

“Having laid down the likely scope of our discourse this morning with the above fundamentals, to thank you again for finding the time to sit with us in the joint effort to identify the critical levers essential to maintaining governance and the national economy; while also seeking to uphold the necessary balance in the market and the guarantees it affords consumers via improved policy focus and pricing stability; in addition to an improved governance culture that seriously frowns at wastages and unproductive political philandering exacerbated by official ostentatious lifestyle”, he said.

Speaking further, the media group leader said the association recognizes the robust improvement in all parameters of measurement in Nigeria Customs Service that is saddled with about 70percent of the tasks involved in trade facilitation.

Accordingly he expressed the appreciation of MARAN for the current state of reengineering of customs trade together with its operational tools and improved governance system, dutifully put in place by the incumbent Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and his hardworking and focused management team.

“In the light of the above symbiosis, we do not expect anything less than a sincere evaluation since trade facilitation and national development are critical to the economic agenda of any administration”, he told participants at the meeting.

Speaking on the Nigeria Customs Service Time Release Study (TRS) Bivbere who was recently inducted as TRS Ambassador maintained that it would be very difficult for stakeholders to agree on how long it takes to clear goods from the nation’s ports owing to the absence of a scientifically proven data which the TRS is working to provide.

“It is therefore imperative that all stakeholders in the port industry support this laudable programme to ensure its success. This study is not just for the clearing processes of the Nigeria Customs alone but that of the NDLEA, the Police, the Terminal Operators, the Shipping Lines and everyone connected to the cargo clearing process.

“The forms for the survey can be gotten from the Nigeria Customs office at Tin-can Island Command. I therefore urge all stakeholders to please take their time to get the form, go through the questionnaires, answer them truthfully and return them back to the management of Tin-can Island Customs Command, so that when the result which is expected to be submitted in September is released; we can say authoritatively that goods take XY number of days to be cleared from our ports.”