ABUJA: The Nigerian government is poised to open more inland ports to help decongest the country’s overwhelmed terminals in Lagos.
President Good luck Jonathan announced a meeting with a delegation of ethnically Igbo market leaders at the State House Marina in Lagos.
Jonathan, who faces a re-election contest on March 28, told the crowd that the federal government has already approved an inland port at Aba in the state of Abia.
The move is further evidence of Nigeria’s strong ethnic politics. The Igbo were a driving factor in Jonathan’s 2011 presidential win. Historically, the Igbo people have called Nigeria’s southeastern corner, where Abia is located, home.
Jonathan Saturday acknowledged that he could not compensate the Igbo enough for their support in his re-election campaign four years ago, All Africa reported.
“In my political career, since I became the vice president and later president, my strongest support base has been the South East,” he said.
Lagos is now the largest city in Africa, the second fastest-growing city on the continent and the seventh fastest in the world. The Lagos port has mirrored the city’s growth. According to Dallas Hampton, managing director of APM Terminals Apapa Limited.
In recent years, all Nigerian ports, not just Lagos, have experienced major volume growth and the congestion that has followed is outpacing updates to the country’s infrastructure.
Nigeria’s port authority established a task force last year to examine both long and short term fixes to the problem. But, just as the task force began its investigation, customs agents at the Lagos complex staged a 10-day strike, causing boxes to stack up to critical levels. In December, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria held a second strike that closed down ports for 24 hours. Some estimate that strike cost Nigerian businesses as much as 20 billion naira ($108.4 million), Nigerian newspaper Leadership reported .
Nwigwe said the local government, which is in the hands of the All Progressives Congress party that opposes Jonathan, has denied them a conducive working relationship through incessant market closures and double taxation.
