Fifteen years after the federal government introduced the electronic system of tracking and monitoring cargoes and other vessels along the Nigerian seas, the scheme is yet to fully take off, on account of high-level horse-trading, corruption scandals and rivalry between government ministries and agencies, Daily Trust on Sunday can report.
The system, if implemented, will allow the government to monitor incoming and outgoing ships through real time generation of advance information on ships involved in international voyages.
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Aside the billions of naira that could accrue to the Nigerian government in revenue from cargo tracking on the country’s waters, which are currently missed, experts and senior government official have also raised concerns over the effect of the monitoring failure on national security and curtailing the menace of oil theft.
The initiative was first initiated by the US Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks as a preventive security measure.
The UN Security Council later mandated the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to adopt it as a security framework for enhancing the protection of international shipping and prevention of movement of dangerous cargoes.
The move to put in place the tracking system in Nigeria had been thwarted at different times since the idea was first muted under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2004. Since that time, the scheme only worked for less than two years before it was halted at two different times.
Industry insiders attribute the dilly-dallies in the implementation to official corruption, fight over control and quest for cornering what is described as a lucrative job among contractors and top government officials.
Read more: https://dailytrust.com/14-years-after-fg-loses-n80bn-annually-over-stuck-cargo-tracking-system
