Worried by the recent 90-day ultimatum by the United States Government to Nigeria to comply with the International Ships and Ports Facility Security Code or face serious international isolation, President Goodluck Jonathan has given marching orders to the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency to do everything possible to ensure that the nation complies.
The US Embassy in Nigeria had sent a diplomatic note to the Federal GovernWomment through the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Nigeria to improve its ports security system in the country within 90 days or risk an international blockade whereby all vessels would be stopped from calling at the nation's seaports.
Under the blockade, the US will stop shipping services to Nigeria and also mobilise all her trading partners to do same as part of measures to compel Nigeria to comply with the enforcement of the ISPS Code.
The President, who spoke on Monday, through his Senior Special Adviser on Maritime Services, Mr. Leke Oyewole, in Lagos at the ongoing two-day stakeholders' conference on reviving the International Ships and Ports Facilities Security Code organised by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, warned that Nigeria cannot afford any international sanction at this time of her political and economic history.
According to him, following the dissolution of the Presidential Committee on Maritime Safety, PICOMMS set up in 2004 to enable Nigeria comply with the ISPS Code, which is a security framework put in place in reaction of the World Trade Centre, New York bombing in September 2001, NIMASA has been designated to enforce the provisions of the code.
He disclosed that the decision of the government to dissolve the committee and re-designate NIMASA to takeover the job was because the President needed an agency that has good knowledge about ships and ports operations.
He said: "The 90-day ultimatum is to say that henceforth, if a ship that is not ISPS complaint comes to Nigeria, such ship will not be allowed again to sail into the United States or her allies again, which portends great danger for the Nigerian economy".
This, according to him means that fewer or no ships will be allowed to sail into Nigerian waters, which in turn means that the few ships that might come to Nigeria will hike their freight rates because Nigeria is a security risk to international shipping community, which cannot be tolerated by any responsible government.
He disclosed that six weeks have passed since the ultimatum was issued, an indication that Nigeria has just 45 days for the ultimatum to expire and therefore instructed that the issue must be approached with the greatest urgency, as the ultimatum must be complied with.
The President, who also frowned at the influx of all manner of people, most of who do not have any business at the ports, insisted that the Nigerian Ports Authority must enforce strict access control at the major seaports in the country.
"I have not seen any reason why NPA should put security personnel at the major entry points to the seaports, who look at faces before they determine who goes in or not. Time has come for NPA to install electronic card system at the ports to control access to un-authorised persons", he said further. He warned that the government would no longer tolerate a system whereby people would move into the seaports even when they have no serious business to do there, insisting that the ports are security areas.
National Mirror