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By Moses Akaigwe
The plan by the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) to improve water transportation, especially movement of containers by barges from Lagos to Onitsha, has been commended by the Federal Road Safety Corps {FRSC}, road safety experts and businessmen in the eastern part of the country.
The Managing Director, Dr. George Moghalu, had at a press conference on Tuesday in Abuja disclosed that NIWA was accelerating action on the construction of new river ports, completion of work on world class jetties and the commencement of barging of containers from Lagos ports to Onitsha River Port and other places.
One of the envisaged results, the NIWA Managing Director disclosed, would be that if about 50,000 containers that would have been trucked from the Lagos ports to their destinations by road are moved by barges, it means “we have removed 100,000 trailers from the roads.”
Moghalu had recalled that NIWA recently licensed eight firms to commence transshipment of about 1,000 Twenty Equivalent Units (TEUs) from Lagos ports by waterways to Onitsha monthly, even as he assured that the cost of moving cargo this way would be far more cost-efficient, compared to moving them by road.
Reacting to the good news, the Public Education Officer of the FRSC, Bisis Kazeem, described NIWA’s efforts to improve water transportation, and reduce the presence of heavy duty vehicles on the roads as “a welcome development.”
Kazeem, who is an Assistant Corps Marshal, said NIWA’s targets are in tandem with the corps’ advocacy for inter-modal means of safely moving passengers and goods.
He said, “It is a welcome development. FRSC has been canvassing for inter-modal transportation in Nigeria as a sure way to remove unusual traffic from the road that leads to gridlock and crashes.
“NIWA is on course as tankers’ and trailers’ menace on the highways will be a thing of the past. This is also to be complimented by the sporadic railway developments in the country. The motoring public would heave a sigh of relieve too.”
Moreover, having fewer heavy duty trucks, like the articulated ones {trailers}, on the road will enable the FRSC to concentrate on other classes of vehicles that are hazardous to road users, the Assistant Corps Marshal stated.
Like Kazeem, a road safety advocate and motivational speaker, Patrick Adenusi, lauded the idea of providing alternative means of conveying containers, other than by road. He said it would in addition to being cheaper; enhance road safety with fewer heavy duty trucks plying the highways.
Welcoming the NIWA initiative as “very good and laudable,” he noted that moving cargo from Lagos to Onitsha and other destinations through the water ways would mark a departure from the present over-dependence on poorly maintained roads and poorly trained drivers.
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Adenusi remarked that unlike many countries of the world that have access to water, Nigeria has so far failed to develop inter-modal system of transportation that also includes rail, adding, however, that if fully harnessed, the NIWA initiative would change all that.
In its reaction, a road safety advocacy organisation, Prompt Assistance To Victims Of Road Accidents (PATVORA), said NIWA’s move is a measure that would not only address the burden of increased road motorisation and transportation needs, but reduce accidents.
Speaking on behalf of PATVORA, one of its coordinators, Chude Ojugbana, said the innovation “will obviously reduce the huge number of road deaths caused by haulage trucks and heavy duty vehicles that account for about 15 percent preventable road traffic injuries on Nigerian roads. The road safety NGO community is very supportive of such bold steps that will address needless fatalities.’
At the press conference in Abuja, Moghalu had recalled that though Onitsha port was designed and built 42 years ago, it was under his administration that the first commercial barge went there in 2020.
The NIWA Managing Director further stated, “And we are doing everything we can to make sure that our river ports, those that are under construction are completed and that they are functional because I believe very strongly that the only way you can address the issue of ports congestion, infrastructural decay is to make our waterways functional because all over the world bulk cargo are either moved by water or rail.
Apart from the roads not being designed to carry the pressure on them by heavy duty haulage vehicles, Moghalu explained that his functional container barge transportation initiative became necessary, because over 60 to 70 percent of the containers that arrive Lagos and Onne ports today have their final destinations either in Onitsha or Aba.
“I can confidently tell you that we have built new world class jetties, in some places, bought some crafts, and placed orders for dredgers. We have improved on our sensitisation process, addressed the issue of navigational challenges and issue of accidents on our waterways,” he stated in response to a question on some of his achievements so far as NIWA MD.
Meanwhile, Iyiola Oni, a professor of Transport Geography in the University of Lagos, who has been a keen observer of the recent activities of NIWA, is optimistic that barge transportation initiative will bring positive impact on the road and road safety, as well as reduce freight traffic by trailers and tankers (dry and wet cargoes).
Prof. Oni went further: “In order to take this to fruition, a very high level of cooperative networking, political will, and commitment as well as stakeholders’ inclusiveness and determination should be paramount. Furthermore, the inland water ways should be made navigable and safe throughout the year. Provision of ultra-modern transfer facilities, standard security and safety of both men and cargo are desirable for efficient and smooth transfer of goods.
“…Nigeria is blessed with inland water ways and it is time for it to contribute its share in order to reduce carnages on the road and improve road safety. We hope the envisaged success story of the Onitsha port will extend to other ports along the coastline.
“In the overall process, this development marks the beginning of a sustained integrated and intermodal transportation, improved cargo handling of plants and equipment, shorter turn-around time, reduced cargo pilferage and charges, improved operational efficiency at Onitsha port and increased private sector participation.”
