Minister of Transport, Idris Umar

John Iwori

The Federal Government has concluded plans to procure four new tugboats this year.
The decision on the vessels was triggered by fears in some quarters that the paucity of river crafts has hindered smooth pilotage services in the nation’s seaports, particularly the busiest, Lagos.

THISDAY checks revealed that the inadequacy of the tugboats in the Lagos Pilotage District has impacted negatively on port operations as they were not enough to service the number of ocean going vessels calling at the Lagos Ports Complex (LPC), Apapa.

Already, the shipping community has raised the alarm on the inadequacy of the river craft in Lagos ports as frequent delay in its services have become the norm rather than the exception in recent times.
Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), General Manager, Public Affairs, Captain Iheanacho Ebubeogu, who confirmed the readiness of the federal government to include additional four tugboats, pointed out that the authority has begun a renewed to enhance what he called “efficient service delivery”.

He maintained that while the ports presently do not have enough tugboats, the subsisting contract with the LTT letters of which was in agreement that five boats could be made operational, while the sixth be kept on standby, could still go a long way in ensuring enviable service delivery, if followed to the letter.

Impeccable sources told THISDAY that a subsisting contract between NPA as the owners of the tug boats and the equipment managers, the Landfall Transport and Towage (LTT) stipulated that the equipment managers must only make at least, four of the six tugboats functional and available, on daily basis.

It was gathered the river crafts were not made available all year round, because aside from the fact that any of them could sometimes break down, as they have to go for regular preventive services, in line with manufacturers’ instructions.

They were also expected to equally undergo annual survey, during which time class experts inspects each boat, and demand that each boat must be re-equipped or re-fixed with certain new parts.

It was learnt that the idea behind meticulous maintenance of the equipment was to ensure that service delivery to foreign trading ships remained effective to ensure the ongoing soaring increase in cargo volume, since that was the most vibrant way of ensuring a continuous rise in the federal government’s revenue profile.

According to a source close to the authority, “it is gladdening to note that the NPA management has intensified efforts to procure more tugboats, but until that is done, we cannot utilise them”, noting that only those equipment being maintained by the LTT were presently in Lloyds class in the country.

To remain in Lloyds class also means that every two and a half years, each boat must also go for intermediate maintenance service, which simply means a dry-docking exercise which takes a period of three months to complete; while every five years, each boat must go for a more comprehensive Special Survey and another three months dry-docking exercise.

Continuing, the source who is familiar with the workings of the tug boats, said: “Each tugboat, in every five years, goes for six-month dry docking treatment, aside for the regular preventive and annual maintenance exercise. These were largely the reasons why the equipment managers could not be able to make the services of the six tugs available all year round”.