The Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria (MARAN) has urged President Bola Tinubu to appoint a maritime professional as the next minister of transportation.
The President of MARAN, Godfrey Bivbere, said this in a statement on Wednesday in Lagos.
Bivbere said the appointment of a maritime professional would enable Nigeria to harnesses the opportunities in the maritime sector worth over nine trillion dollars.
“The nation’s maritime sector holds immense potential to transform the economic fortunes of the nation via higher revenue generation, massive employment and other gains,” he said.
He noted that this would be gainfully harnessed with a transport minister who understands the sector.
”This is when we talk about the effective utilisation of the Nigerian waterways for barging and river ports or transporting passengers to achieve a balanced transport system in Nigeria.
”Another issue is speedy evacuation of cargoes from ports using multimodal approach; all these issues have far-reaching effects positively and negatively that can be addressed by a transport minister who is a maritime professional,” he said.
He, however, attributed some of the major challenges to the suboptimal performance of the Nigerian ports and other aspects of shipping to leadership failure, which result from the appointment of non-professionals.
Bivbere assured the president of the association’s partnership and promised to prioritise solution-based journalism to tackle critical challenges plaguing the nation’s maritime sector.