The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has called for the decongestion of Lagos ports via a deliberate policy of incentivizing end-destination priorities.
According to him, the ports in Lagos are being clustered thereby creating avoidable bottlenecks.
Obi said this while speaking at the 26th Lagos Business School Alumni Day, themed: ‘Leadership Imperative,’ in Lagos on Tuesday.
He said, “The Nigeria Maritime sector is robust and ought to grow stronger. We are blessed with several deep seaports. However, for some inexplicable reason, we tend to cluster our import and export activities around the Lagos Ports, thus creating avoidable bottlenecks.
“We should decongest Lagos Ports via a deliberate policy of incentivizing end-destination priorities. This will also curtail on-land heavy haulage transshipments that take a tool on our road infrastructure.
“I hope I have done justice to the subject under discussion provided answers and insights into our plan for Nigeria. I thank you all for your kind attention.”
Obi hails deregulation of aviation industry
The former governor of Anambra State hailed the Nigeria Aviation industry, saying it had “been correctly and properly deregulated”.
“It should remain so. I fully understand the psychic satisfaction of a country owning a national carrier. But such an arrangement is not imperative. The national carrier might provide pride and employment; but we must weigh the cost-benefit aspects. We should allow the privately-owned operators and private sector to retain the lead. They already have an airline consortium and that is positive.
“We will diversify the funding for our national surface transportation system (Roads, rail, bridges and mass transit) and programmes with the creation of the Highway Trust Fund Accounts. This account will be funded jointly [by federal government, states and private sector] on a 60:20:20 ratios. The federal government share will be funded by excise taxes levied on importation of foreign luxury vehicles and diesel fuel used by heavy haulage articulated vehicles.
“We will promulgate legislation mandating the Federal Government to build construct new federal highways and bridges, but States will have the responsibility of maintaining federal highways traversing their respective territories with allocated federal subventions calculated on a mileage/kilometre basis.”
