This season appears to be the best of times for the natio's transport industry, particularly the ports sector. With four Transport Bills okayed by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for onward transmission to the National Assembly for passage, the sector is sure to experience trade facilitation. Among the bills are the National Transport Commission Bill, Nigerian Ports and Harbour Authority Bill, Nigeria Railway Bill and the National Inland Waterways Authority Bill. The importance of these bills to trade facilitation cannot be over-emphasised.

The passage of the bills will no doubt remove every impediment to the synergy that will be needed to boost road, rail and sea transportation. What excites stakeholders more is the National Transport Commission Bill (NTC) which is expected to change things in the ports industry. Importers and their freight forwarders have over the years suffered trade abuse as a result of excessive charges from some service providers with nobody to question the operators. It was therefore a prayer answered when the Federal Government took a decision few weeks ago to appoint the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) to assume the powers of a regulator pending the passage into law the NTC bill.

However, what is of serious concern to stakeholders is the time left for the legislators in the National Assembly to work on these bills and pass them into law before the 2015 handover to another administration. This is considering the general election which is so close that many legislators are either working for their return to the National Assembly or working on other party assignments. Already, many hold the view that if the bills, including that of the NTC which has been on for about seven years have not been passed till date, it might be difficult to get the bills passed into law within the next one year with the general election on ground.

Disagreement Between N'Assembly and Transport Ministry

The Ports and Harbour Bill and NTC bills which industry operators have been championing all these years will no doubt raise dust when they are sent to the National Assembly. This is considering the fact that the House Committee on Marine Transport headed by Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi had conducted a Second Hearing on two of the bills before March last year.
The Permanent Secretary, Nebolisa Emodi, of the Transport Ministry had then told the House Committee of plans to send such bills to the House. This was one information that was a big surprise to the Committee members, forcing the Chairman to ask where the Ministry officials were when the Ports and Harbour bill passed the Second Reading. Ugwuanyi was quoted asking : "Why is the executive producing another Ports and Harbours Bill when we already have one here at the National Assembly?

"Are you people not aware that there's a Ports and Harbours Bill here sponsored by the Deputy Speaker and co-sponsored by me, and, which has passed second reading in the House?So, is it your own that the Senate will approve or the one sent from the House to the Senate?"These questions which were posed to the Ministry of Transport early last year were not known to have been answered up till the time that the FEC communicated its decision on the four Transport bills. It is not also clear that both the Ministry of Transport and the House Committee on Marine Transport have both sat down to reconcile the two bills, now coming from the executive and the one that has passed the Second Reading. Stakeholders however believe that the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar and Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, being strong members of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), will have a way of settling the issue for the interest of Nigerians for which the bills are being introduced.

Importance of the Bills
The National Transport Commission, Nigerian Ports and Harbour Authority and Nigeria Railway Bills are very important to the national economy. These three bills will combine to give the country an efficient transport system. They will go a long way in facilitating trade. This explains why the ports industry stakeholders have been asking for the bill. It will fill the gap left by the port reform exercise. With the concessioning of the ports in 2006, the country ought to have also put in place a powerful agency that will regulate the sector. The absence of this had led to the multinational shipping agencies and terminal operators who took over from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) abusing trade regulations against importers by introducing illegal charges. Under the agreement reached with the terminal operators after the concessioning programme, any increase in terminal charges ought to be announced for discussion at a stakeholders forum before implementation. But this was not done even as the concessionaires, one after another came up with so many charges in the ports. They had their way since there had not been an effective regulator, like what exists in the communications industry, to stop them. With the NTC passed into law, the NSC will further be empowered for its roles as an interim regulator. Although NSC as a regulator can do without this as there are other provisions backing it up as the Executive Secretary, Mr Hassan Bello, would argue. It will all the same be better for it, acting with more confidence and effectiveness. These will be added tools to rely on when announcing sanctions against erring shipping or terminal operator, including freight forwarders. Similarly, the Railway bill is no doubt going to promote the rail links with the ports and inland container depots as necessary to achieve efficient services in the ports.