Nigeria’s neglected waterways

The place of transportation in any economy cannot be overstressed. Transportation is the pivot around which the wheel of every modern economy revolves. Indeed, the speed and efficiency with which people, goods and services can move from one point to the other largely determines the quality of life of the society.

In Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy with an estimated population of 180 million, the need for robust and well-developed transport infrastructure becomes even more compelling. And a well-developed transport infrastructure cannot be achieved by over-reliance on one mode of transportation, but rather through a mix of various modes of transportation, what is technically called intermodal transportation or mixed-mode commuting. In the case of Nigeria, one quick place to turn to is water transportation.

With abundant water bodies in virtually every part of the country, Nigeria has all the resources and opportunity to develop an efficient and functional waterway system. To buttress this point, we recall that when in 1894 Ralph Moor, the then acting British Consul-General of the Niger Coast Protectorate, attacked Nana Olomu and the Itsekiri trading empire and destroyed his town of Brohimi in the heart of the Niger Delta, Nana escaped to Lagos and surrendered to the British. History has it that Nana’s escape route was through the creeks and the lagoon. Today, over 120 years later, most shockingly, the Warri-Lagos waterway has not been developed and movement of persons, goods and services to and from these two locations remains largely by road.

Given the poor state of its road infrastructure and the never-ending congestion on most of its roads, especially in the cities, Nigeria needs to urgently turn on its waterways. It beats the imagination that while in many countries of the world petroleum products and industrial goods are known to be moved on barges and catamarans through the waterways, in Nigeria, imported refined petroleum products or other heavy cargoes going from the Lagos ports to far-flung regions of the country are moved by road, causing heavy traffic and putting more pressure on Nigeria’s poor, overstrained roads.

The advantages of developing Nigeria’s waterways are legion. Primarily, it will reduce the pressure on the roads by diverting the road passenger traffic and the container transport to cheap and swift waterway transportation, cut the cost of production for manufacturers as it opens them up to cheaper means of transporting raw materials and finished products, stimulate economic growth, create employment, and generally improve the living standards of the people.

But this cannot happen without the Federal Government, through National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), setting the right policy tone. Along this line, there is need to look at the laws establishing NIWA as well as other relevant laws with a view to ridding them of all obsolete sections that hinder growth and making them conducive to large investment at the state level. Indeed, all grey areas that lead to squabbles between NIWA and states’ waterways authority, the type that some years back hampered the investment drive of the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) in the water transport sector, need to be sorted out such that there is a clear line, as we have with roads. For instance, NIWA could manage large rivers cutting across states while the states manage navigable waterways within their domain. This will enable many states of the federation to benefit substantially and solve their internal transportation issues.

At a time like this when the country is facing huge infrastructure deficit amid dwindling revenues, Nigeria cannot afford to continue to neglect its waterways. This is why we agree with Omoua Oni-Okpaku, a former executive director and company secretary of the Lagos State Waterways Authority, that “If Nigeria is to grapple with its infrastructure challenges in the coming decade, we must realise that the low-hanging fruit is the enormous opportunity that utilising water transportation for passengers and goods represents. To do this, we need NIWA to lead the way with a few key national projects, a broad policy and the devolution of the details to the state government agencies.” The onus now rests squarely on Rotimi Amaechi, the minister of transport.