The House of Representatives has urged the ministry of transport to re-award the contract for the dredging of the Calabar Port to a reputable firm and with a strong mandate that the project be completed within record time.
This follows a motion sponsored by Dr Alex Egbona, the member representing Abi/Yakurr Federal Constituency in the lower arm of the National Assembly.
Also in line with Egbona’s prayers, the House also urged the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, to supervise the project to ensure that a standard depth is established to enable larger vessels to berth at the Calabar Port.
The House Committee on Ports and Harbour was equally mandated to investigate and ascertain why the dredging had not been done, after the contracts had been awarded in 2006 and in 2014.
In sponsoring the motion, Egbona had lamented that even though the Calabar Seaport was the oldest seaport in Nigeria, shipping goods such as palm oil to Europe and other parts of the world as far back as the 16th century, it has remained useless because of the delay in the dredging, compelling vessels owners to patronize the Lagos Port instead.
The Calabar Port was privately administered and operated by various shipping companies, including John Holt, until December 1969, when the Federal Government took over the port facilities from the erstwhile operators and vested them in the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)
The modernization and expansion of the Port complex were embarked upon under the 3rd National Development Plan of 1975–1980 and commissioned by General Olusegun Obasanjo on 9 June 1979. The refurbishment generated a considerable level of attention and activity, but for obvious reasons not unconnected to sabotage, the usage of the port did not last and has failed to live up to its full potential over time.
Since then, there have been diverse government proclamations on the dredging of the port dating back to the regimes of General Ibrahim Babangida and General Sani Abacha, but no tangible work has been done to rehabilitate the port.
In 2006, the then president, Obasanjo awarded $56 million dredging contracts to Dutch companies Jan De Nul and Van Oord, but both companies absconded without completing the task, leaving the port in a severe state.
In 2014, the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, with a renewed sense of optimism, initiated Calabar Channel Management (CCM), a joint venture company between the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and a consortium of companies led by Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited with a mandate to dredge the port.
The firm was said to have commenced work on the dredging and later abandoned, leaving the port in the manner it has been ab initio.
Egbona believes that once the port is dredged, would be decongested while activities at the Calabar Port would receive a boost, with the attendant boom in the Calabar economy.
