By TheHonourable
Prior to the concession of the sea ports in Nigeria, Nigerian ports were nothing to write home about.
There were apparent lack of cargo handling equipment and in some terminals where they existed at all, they were inadequate. In most cases, they were dilapidated. Besides these, unnecessary delays in cargo clearance resulted in loss of huge sums of money in form of damaged goods.
In early 1980s, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar with his friend, Gabriel Volpi, an Italian Director of a shipping company, Med Africa, established an oil servicing company, and registered it as Nigeria container services (NICOTES).
In 1982, the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) invited private investors to operate the federal lighter terminal partially completed (FLT) of the Onne Port Complex in Rivers State. Of the eight companies, NICOTES was one of the two companies that continued after two years.
In 1988, NICOTES obtained a five-year lease from NPA to operate its facilities at the Onne port complex, Warri old port and Calabar new port. The ports which had suffered underutilization before the lease agreement, became a strategic location for the creation of an integrated transit and supply bases and optimal oil service centres.
In 1992, to meet the need for large and long term investments required to boost the sector, NICOTES applied for, and was granted a twenty-one year extension for its leases at Onne Port Complex, Warri Port Complex and Calabar New Port.
Also in 1992, the government invited the maritime industry to participate in the needed investments to complete the development of the federal ocean terminal (FOT), and NICOTES partnered to complete the FOT. The project further expanded with another rounds of invetments by NICOTES. One of which was the development of about 100,000 square metres stacking area and the refurbishment of warehouses. These allowed the first vessels to be berthed at the FOT in 1995.
In 1996, the Federal Government in acknowledging the impressive developments at Onne, and to encourage further investments, declared Onne Port, a free Oil and Gas zone.
For Atiku Abubakar supporting Late Shehu Yar’Adua in asking Abacha to announce a date for handling power to a civilian, General Sani Abacha seized NICOTES and renamed it- Integrated and Logistic Services (INTELS), and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and others were removed from the board of the company. With Abacha dead and General Abdusalami Abubakar as head of State in 1998, INTELS was returned to the owners.
With over $50 billion in investment projects, Onne port complex had grown from a small unused and underdeveloped port it usecomplearly e the largest Oil and Gas free zone in the world.
The NPA pilotage monitoring and supervision agreement with INTELS, recently terminated by the federal government, was an agreement, which could help INTELS and other investors recover their investment.
President Buhari, like General Abacha is proving to Nigerians that he does not in any way tolerate opposition. And while President Buhari is putting the over 30,000 jobs created by INTELS in jeopardy, he should equally understand that even as president, he hasn’t created the number of Jobs, Atiku has.
