By Steve Agbota
Stakeholders, heads of maritime agencies and political leaders have honoured the immediate past minister of transportation, Muazu Jaji Sambo, and his Minister of State counterpart, Prince Ademola Adegoroye, for the successes recorded within the short period of 10 months as transport ministers.
At an appreciation dinner organised by the League of Maritime Editors to honour both Transport ministers in Lagos, various stakeholders and head of maritime agencies commended the sterling leadership qualities of Sambo and Adegoroye, which they said led to tremendous achievements in the industry.
Sambo attributed his successful tenure to the support from stakeholders and an efficient workforce within the ministry.
“The successes recorded during my tenure as Minister of Transportation wouldn’t have been possible without the support of an efficient team of civil servants led by the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Magdalene Ajani.
“A civil servant will respect you as his boss but will still not do what you want him to do if he is not interested in it. So, all that we have achieved within the very short time that we spent in the ministry was to the glory of God but believe me the accolades should go the permanent secretary in the Ministry because the permanent secretaries by convention are the heads of bureaucracy and it is the bureaucracy that does the job,” he said.
Earlier, the immediate past Secretary to the Federal Government and Chairman of the occasion, Mr. Boss Mustapha described Sambo as an epitome of humility stating that he remains one of the country’s finest statesmen.
Mustapha, who was represented by the Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Tolu Odebiyi noted that Sambo was able to commission a number of projects within his short stay in the ministry due to the harmonious working relationship he had with the presidency, legislature, heads of agencies and the transport industry stakeholders.
Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, who said the agency remains the greatest beneficiary of the Ministers’ transformational leadership qualities, noted that under their guidance, the agency was able to secure a permanent office accommodation at its Abuja liaison office and its regional office in Port Harcourt.
He added that securing the presidential approval for the disbursement of the CVFF and training of over 300 Nigerian youths under the NSDP programme, and acquisition of additional patrol platforms and staff ferries were among the achievements recorded by the agency under Sambo’s leadership.
For his part, the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Emmanuel Jime, who recalled fond memories he had with the Minister said the NSC was the biggest beneficiary of Sambo’s leadership.
He stated that the approval for the reintroduction of the Cargo Tracking Notes (CTN) which was suspended about eight years ago was made possible by the Minister, a development he said the Council will never forget.
He said: “When Mu’azu Sambo came, the first thing he did as soon as he had interacted with me is that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council will be given the implementation of the Cargo Tracking Note,” he said.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mr. Mohammed Bello-Koko said the realization of the Lekki Deep Seaport was NPA’s biggest win under Sambo, stating that he learnt perseverance from the minister.
“I learnt perseverance from Sambo and I learnt that when issues come up, we speak our mind and let it go. In the heat of the moment, the Minister of State is someone who always gives advice just as freely as he asks questions. At times, I go to him before going to see Sambo and he always inspires me,” Bello-Koko recalled.
In his welcome address, the President, League of Maritime Editors, Chief Timothy Okorocha said the honour given to the ministers was in recognition of their ‘peerless accomplishments through hard work and commitment to raise the bar, both in improved governance system, industry capacity building and growth.”
He also acknowledged the uncommon camaraderie that existed between Sambo and Prince Adegoroye as a measure of the collective gains recorded by their very eventful but short stint.
According to him, Sambo and Adegoroye came, saw and raised the standards, leaving the transport sector and the maritime domain especially, better than they met it.
“On behalf of The League, l wish to place it on record that Sambo and Adegoroye are the epitome of grace in leadership, which also inspires and promotes respect, chivalry and focus at work place, leading unswervingly to efficiency and productivity. We thank you sirs, you have set a pace and standard that will take many decades to beat.
“And that brings us to the effervescence with which the former Ministers attended to the task of driving transformational change in the industry; moving from mere talks of successive administrations to implementation and execution,” he said.