Tanya Davidson
Abuja — Former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, has challenged President Bola Tinubu’s strategy for reducing dependence on Lagos ports, arguing that new seaports will not significantly lower the cost of trade without rail, road and inland logistics links connecting maritime gateways to major northern markets.
Dalung spoke after the Ogun State Government and DP World signed agreements for the development of the Gateway Deep Sea Port at Ogun Waterside and a 10,000-hectare Blue Marine Special Economic Zone.
The projects are backed by an investment framework of more than $7 billion and are projected by the Federal Government to create more than 50,000 direct jobs when fully developed. The proposed port will have a four-kilometre berth and an 18-metre draft.
While saying he had no objection to Ogun developing a port, Dalung questioned whether adding another major maritime gateway in the South-West would, by itself, solve Nigeria’s port-concentration and logistics problems.
His concern, he said, was that existing maritime assets in the South-South and South-East remain underutilised while businesses across the country continue to bear the cost of moving cargo over long distances.
“If the problem is excessive dependence on Lagos, then the obvious answer should be to develop alternative gateways and connect them properly to the markets they serve,” he said.
North needs access to maritime economy
Dalung said the North’s concern was not necessarily the construction of a seaport but the creation of efficient freight corridors linking the region to Nigeria’s maritime economy.
“The North is not asking for a seaport. We are asking to be connected to Nigeria’s maritime economy,” he said.
He identified Kano as a major commercial market and Kaduna as an industrial centre, while pointing to the agricultural output of Plateau and other northern states.
According to him, businesses across the region depend on imported machinery, fertiliser, raw materials and other goods arriving through Nigeria’s ports, making inland freight costs an important component of the final price paid by consumers and businesses.
“Every container travelling hundreds of kilometres from the coast to the North carries the additional burden of transport, bad roads, inefficient logistics and delays,” he said.
“Who eventually pays for that? The Nigerian consumer. The farmer. The manufacturer. The trader. Everybody.”
Dalung therefore called for greater investment in rail freight, inland dry ports, highways and logistics corridors to connect existing maritime gateways with the North.
“If we can mobilise more than $7 billion around a new coastal project, why can’t the same country build the rail freight, inland dry ports, highways and logistics corridors needed to connect the existing maritime gateways to the North?” he asked.
‘Nigeria needs ports that work’
Dalung also questioned whether Nigeria was genuinely decentralising maritime trade or simply creating another major port corridor in the South-West.
He said the effectiveness of the country’s maritime strategy should be measured by how cargo moves beyond the coastline and reaches businesses and consumers efficiently.
“Are we actually decentralising Nigeria’s maritime economy, or are we simply creating another powerful port corridor in the same part of the country?” he asked.
“Because building a new port does not automatically solve the problem of concentration.”
The Ogun Gateway project is being developed as part of an integrated maritime and industrial corridor, with the proposed port linked to the Blue Marine Special Economic Zone and the Ogun section of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. The Federal Government says the development is intended to ease logistics bottlenecks and strengthen manufacturing and export capacity.
Dalung, however, said attention must also be paid to existing ports and the infrastructure required to connect them to inland markets.
“If the existing ports remain underutilised, if cargo still depends overwhelmingly on the same economic corridor, and if moving goods to the North remains painfully expensive, then what exactly have we fixed?” he asked.
“Nigeria needs ports that work, not just ports that are announced.”
He said the benefits of Nigeria’s maritime economy should therefore be assessed beyond the coastal locations where ports are built.
“The real economy begins where the container leaves the port and reaches the Nigerian who has to pay for what is inside it,” Dalung said.
