Secretary to the government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, has stressed the need to get back the mode of transportation on the inland waterways so as to reengineer or recreate the trading activities that used to exist along the river Niger and Benue. He said that will save the lifespan of Nigerian roads.
He stated this at the unveiling of the Navigational Charts of the Lower River Niger on Thursday in Abuja.
Mustapha commended the Nigerian Navy for providing the resource, persons and the platforms for the conduct of the charting of the River Niger as well as the Ministry of Transportation through Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and other stakeholders for the professionalism they had exhibited.
He said the successful execution of the project locally had saved the country huge foreign exchange, adding that all the charts in the past were done by foreign firms.
“But today, we can beat our chest and say that our Nigerian Navy has provided the platform that is necessary for the chart and for that.
“What this charting has done is that it has created an infrastructure or a process that eventual exercises of capital dredging or maintenance dredging will be guided.
“It is important that we realise that whichever government takes over from President Mohammed Buhari, it must continue the trajectory of creating an intermodal transport system for this country.
“Whether we like it or not, it would inhibit our development if we could.
“About a month or two ago, the Federal Executive Council approved a contract worth N1.9 trillion through the tax credit scheme for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of our roads.
“That is important but as long as you do not provide an alternative means of transportation that will carry heavy duty goods, you would not be able to save the lifespan of your roads.
“So, it is important that we continue along this trajectory and ensure that it is not only the charting but also to think about getting the corporate world to participate.
“So it is important that we get the corporate world to be genuinely involved in the development of the river Niger so that we can save the lifespan and also remove the level of carnage, casualties, fatalities that are recorded on our roads on a daily basis,” he said
The minister of transportation, Mr Mu’azu Sambo, said the navigational chart was a project that could potentially change the very dynamics of prosperity for the country.
Sambo said the project was in tandem with the statutory responsibilities and objectives of the Ministry of Transportation to boost the efforts of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government towards the development and operation of an efficient and safe transportation network.
He said that a well-developed and efficient inland water transportation was necessary for an integrated and functional multimodal transportation system which its major pillar was dependent upon accurate and timely hydrographic studies and charts.
He said the objective of this project is to provide direct maritime linkages within Nigeria and between African countries thereby utilising Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) growth attracting foreign direct investments (FDI) creating highly needed jobs and boosting internal as well as intra African trading.
“The United States economy today is supported by revenues in excess of 70 billion dollars from 600 million tonnes of cargo transported through its inland waterways. It created hundreds of thousands of jobs, building and industrial communities along the waterway channels and thus spreading economic prosperity throughout the length and breadth of these waterways,” he said.
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